The Gold Rush, courtesy of Janus Films, © Roy Export SAS
A century-old silent comedy gets new life Friday when the Norton Simon Museum screens Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush,” part of a film series tying cinematic gold-seeking stories to an exhibition of precious metal across cultures and centuries.
The 1925 film, written, produced, and directed by Chaplin, stars the Little Tramp character and features Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, and Malcolm Waite. Set amid the Alaskan gold rush of the late 1890s, the film “charts a prospector’s search for fortune in the Klondike and his discovery of romance.”
“Shot partly on location in the Sierra Nevadas,” the film “features such timeless gags as the dance of the dinner rolls and the meal of boiled shoe leather.” The screening presents “a new restoration of the original silent film.”
The screening is part of “All that Glitters,” organized by Brian Jacobson, professor of visual culture at Caltech. The series “explores gold’s enduring power to attract, enchant, bewitch and beguile” through films from Chaplin’s California gold rush to medieval Japan and El Dorado. Each film includes an introduction by Jacobson.
The film series complements the Norton Simon Museum exhibition “Gold: Enduring Power, Sacred Craft,” which runs through February 16. The exhibition features approximately 60 works of art spanning from around 1000 B.C.E. to the 20th century and encompassing South and Southeast Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America.
Doors open 30 minutes before screening, and no reservations are needed.
“The Gold Rush” will run on Friday, January 9, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.–6:15 p.m. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, California. For more information, call (626) 449-6840 or visit https://www.nortonsimon.org/calendar/2026/winter-2026/The-Gold-Rush-1925-NR-1-9-2026-430PM#2026-01-09. Ticket prices: Free with Museum admission.
