In the movie (The Gold Rush) Charlie Chaplin, a principal character, eats a boot. The boot is made from what product?

In the 1925 movie The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin eats a boot. In the scene, the Lone Prospector and Big Jim are having a boot for supper. Chaplin has joined them. It took three days and 63 takes to get the scene right to suit film director, Charles Chaplin. The boot was made of licorice, and Chaplin was later rushed to hospital suffering insulin shock.

Chaplin sought out and had the boot made by the firm of Hillaby's in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. Pontefract was then very famous for growing licorice and making it into "Pomfret [Pontefract] Cakes".

In 1942 this movie was re-released in American theaters with a new musical score. Charles Chaplin wrote much of the new music by himself. In collaboration with musical director Max Terr, Chaplin put the new sound score in the remake. Chaplin also added sound effects in the film, and replaced the silent movie title cards with descriptive voice-over narration. The new release received two Oscar nominations in 1943: (1) Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and (2) Best Sound.

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8 Comments

james parrillo

Barbara Bobbie DiNiscia, <<Mentalfloss.com>> said it acted like a laxative for the actors.

james parrillo

Barbara Bobbie DiNiscia, Sugar affects insulin levels. I cannot check this reference to see if the information is accurate. <<Verywellhealth. com>> indicates insulin shock is from low blood sugar. I am going to look for an article that describes what happened to Charlie Chaplin. Thank you, Christine, James's wife

Joan Schmidt

Someone really needs to learn how to use commas.

Ken Putnam

VERY poorly worded Question

littledick

Of course, it has to be something edible! Licorice, being the hardiest edible possibility, I chose that. However, yummy!, my own predilection would be for that designer chocolate.

Frank Sherwood

A classic badly worded question. In the movie, you are to believe the boot is made of leather. If the answer is what was the boot actually made of then you should say, “What was the boot actually made of?”