Pops series glitters with 'Gold Rush'

Charleston Symphony Orchestra's Pops series presented Charlie Chaplin's comic masterpiece "The Gold Rush" to a delighted audience Friday at Memminger Auditorium.

Guest Conductor Scott Terrell was a model musical interpreter for the classic silent comedy, making sure that the musical score emphasized the emotional mood of each sequence and directed the audience's attention to the elaborate visual gags.

The score, composed by Chaplin in 1940 for an abridgement of his film, was augmented by Timothy Brock with music to fit the movie as it was originally presented in 1925.

As attested to the numerous clips on YouTube and the thousands of viewers who go back again and again, Chaplain's comic persona -- the "little fellow," aka the "little tramp," "the stranger" and the "lone prospector" -- is still vividly alive in the imaginations of filmgoers. The clips are marvelous, but to really understand Chaplin's genius, you need to see how those funny moments fit into the design of one of his classic comedies.

"The Gold Rush" is filled with his most famous comic sequences: "The Dance of the Bread Rolls," "Dancing with Georgia, the dog and the cat" and "munching on licorice shoes and spun sugar nails with Macswain."

"The Gold Rush" is presented again at 8 tonight.