The Immigrant and The Gold Rush (Double Feature)

Only Charlie Chaplin could add the criminal depths to which people will sink in search of gold to the cannibalistic lengths they will go in search of food and come up with a comedy like The Gold Rush.As he said in "My Autobiography", "...we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane."

In his autobiography, Chaplin reported that his first moment of inspiration for the film occurred while he was looking at a stereoscopic view of a long line of prospectors climbing up the Chilkoot Pass in Alaska's Klondike.From this single image, his imagination took flight."Immediately, ideas and comedy business began to develop," he said.Subsequent reading about the Donner party's experience with cannibalism led him to one of the funniest episodes in The Gold Rush, involving The Little Fellow's own cooked boot and a hallucinatory chicken.