The little man turns toward us, casts a shatteringly sad look at the frozen night and then wanders off. Hearing noises of revelry from the town, the little man, his aloneness complete, walks the short distance from his cabin, halts outside the brightly lit windows of the saloon and gazes within just as the crowd of townspeople – mountain men, miners and bar girls – all join hands at the stroke of midnight, maudlinly singing “Auld Lang Syne.” When the song is done, shots are fired into the air, and the celebration is renewed. It is nearing midnight and his guests have forgotten his party. The girls cheer the little man when he is done and he pretends to swoon… only to awake at the same table, unoccupied, alone in his cabin. As a finale, he takes two forks, jabs them into dinner rolls, and performs an impromptu dance – the lighting and framing creating the wondrous illusion of the rolls becoming his tiny feet on the table, doing ballet moves, soft-shoe and sideshow dances. They are all there, Georgia and her friends, and he is delighting them with little gifts and jokes. He dreams that his party is in full swing. It is still very early, so the little man sits down at the table and irresistibly falls asleep. He has carefully decorated the cabin and set a small table for the party. He has raised a little money shoveling snow from local storefronts, just enough for a roast chicken and trifles for the girls. The little man – the poorest of the poor, but adventurous, always hopeful – has come to the Klondike, along with thousands of others, to try his luck. It is Klondike, Alaska, at the time of the gold rush. He is ‘cabin-sitting’ for the cabin’s owner, who has left town to do business elsewhere. HallĬast: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite, Georgia Hale, Tom Murray, Betty Morrissey, Joan LowellĪ little man, known simply as The Lone Prospector, has invited a girl named Georgia and a few of her friends who work in the local saloon to a New Year’s Eve party in his cabin. Source: ACMI/NLA Prod Co: Charles Chaplin Productions Prod, Dir, Scr, Ed: Charles Chaplin Phot: Roland H.
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