Chaplin's Masterpiece -- "The Gold Rush" Quiz

Answer: A wanted poster featuring his (Black Larson's) photo

Apparently hiding out from the police, Black Larson occupies the cabin in the Alaskan wilderness before The Tramp and Big Jim McKay arrive. Because Larson burns the wanted poster, The Tramp and Big Jim do not know he is a criminal. They are just looking for a warm place to stay and maybe a bite to eat.

Answer: A candle

All three men in the cabin are starving, so The Tramp resorts to eating the candle from the lantern. He even shakes a bit of salt on it to make it more palatable.

Answer: They draw cards; the lowest card goes.

Big Jim draws first and gets a king. Then The Tramp draws and he gets a 3. Believing he has lost, The Tramp grabs his hat and coat, preparing to leave, but then Black Larson draws a 2.

Answer: His shoe

This is one of the most famous scenes from "The Gold Rush." The shoe in the scene was actually made of black licorice, and both Chaplin and Mack Swain, who played Big Jim, became rather ill from eating so much licorice. Still, Chaplin plays the scene so effectively that he nearly makes the shoe look edible.

Answer: Black Larson conks him on the head with a shovel.

When The Tramp and Big Jim leave the cabin and part ways (after having shot and eaten a bear), Big Jim returns to the location where he had discovered gold and there encounters Black Larson. True to his criminal nature, Black Larson smacks poor Big Jim on the head and runs away.

As fate would have it, though, he soon dies in an avalanche. Meanwhile, Big Jim wanders into town, unable to remember where his "mountain of gold" is located.

Answer: His pants fall down.

Dressed in his standard costume, Chaplin's pants are so baggy that he cannot keep them up. First, he hooks his cane through a belt buckle and tries to hold them up that way. When that fails, he finds a piece of rope and ties it around the pants; however, the rope is also tied to a dog, so the dog begins to follow him around. Eventually, the dog takes off after a cat, and The Tramp has to cut the rope to free himself.

It's a charming scene.

Answer: He pretends to be unconscious and frozen.

Hank Curtis lives just outside of town and is a kind man. He not only takes in The Tramp, but he hires him to cabin sit while he goes off to check his traps. As a result, The Tramp is no longer homeless or starving. He is also a stone's throw away from Georgia, the girl he encountered at the dance hall.

Answer: A torn photo of her

When The Tramp first visits the dance hall, he picks up Georgia's photo off of the floor, and he is clearly smitten by her, though she does not notice him. When she actually visits his temporary home, he is overwhelmed by her attention. Sadly, he does not realize that when Georgia and her friends agree to return to his home for dinner on New Year's Eve, they are only teasing him and have no intention of showing up.

Answer: He shovels snow in town.

In yet another hilarious scene from the film, The Tramp shovels the snow from the sidewalk in front of one business by tossing it onto the sidewalk in front of the business next door. Then the owner of the business next door hires him to shovel the snow now blocking his doorway. This continues a few more times until The Tramp has enough money for dinner.

Answer: He performs a dance with two forks and two dinner rolls.

The dance of the rolls is quite famous and, in fact, was duplicated in "Benny & Joon". Chaplin really tugs at our heart strings in this scene when he wakes up from the dream to discover that it is nearly midnight and Georgia has not come to dinner as she promised.