The Gold Rush (1925)

This technically simple, endlessly inventive film balanced laughter and pathos; its cabin fever sequence is unsurpassed. [28 Feb 2010, p.24]

Extraordinarily sweet and graceful comedy.

This comedy gem features some of [Chaplin's] funniest scenes, including him eating his boot.

It's easy to see why this has consistently entertained generations of audiences.

The Gold Rush is a typical Chaplin film; but it is better than any of those that have been produced before. From the very first moment of the picture Chaplin strikes that curious note of sublime aloofness that sets the key of all his best work. [19 Jan 1926, p.6]

You will get enough laughs out of "The Gold Rush" to make the picture worth while. [14 Sep 1925, p.17]

Mercifully, it lacks the pretentious moralising of his later work, and is far more professionally put together. But for all its relative dramatic coherence, it's still hard to see how it was ever taken as a masterpiece.