The Cold Rush is a 1925 Felix the Cat cartoon, directed by Otto Messmer and produced by Pat Sullivan.
Felix is pacing around in his home as his owner is thinking, and asks his owner "How about my milk?" The owner, annoyed, responds that Felix won't eat until he solves the Crossword Puzzle right in front of him, with the missing word being a vertical one, something found chiefly in Russia. Because his owner is having a hard time with it, Felix offers to solve the crossword for him instead. Felix walks outside and sits down on a rock right next to a donkey, pondering about how he could get to Russia to solve the puzzle. The donkey, noticing Felix behind him, gets annoyed and decides to kick him, sending Felix flying into the sky and landing right in Russia, inside a man's residence. Assuming Felix is a cannonball, he prays, but Felix unfurls, dusts himself off, and assesses his surroundings. He walks outside and, noticing the snowy weather, realizes he's in Russia, and decides to look around to find the answer to the crossword puzzle.
Felix comes across a door with that says "Keep Outski", and Felix peeks inside, seeing two Soviets talking over a piece of paper. Felix thinks that the paper inside (that he sees by peeping through a keyhole) has the answer he's looking for. Felix squeezes through the keyhole, but once inside, one of the men sees him and accuses him of being a spy. Felix grabs the paper as the man chases him across the room. Felix is cornered and the man tries to shoot him with a pistol—only to completely miss and blow a hole in the wall instead. Felix makes a quick escape and squeezes through the hole, and the Soviet drops his gun and gives chase outside. Felix evades him and pulls out the paper to look at it, failing to notice a man in a shed right behind him. Felix reads the paper, which he finds out is actually the plot for a revolution. Two soviet men pop out of the shed behind him, and Felix runs off as they both throw bombs at him. The first few miss, to Felix's amusement, but he steps on the last one, which blows him away from Russia and sends him all the way back home. Felix lands safely, but his tail falls off, and gets stuck on a pole nearby. Felix whistles for it to come to him. His owner pops up at the doorstep and asks Felix if he got the 7-letter word he needed from Russia. Felix shakes his head and says "All I found in Russia was trouble!" Taking Felix at face value, the owner immediately deduces that the 7-letter word is Trouble, and he dances around happily as Felix has a good laugh.
Tropes:
- Cartoon Bomb: The soviets use this to attack Felix when they see he unwittingly stole the plans for a revolution.
- Shout-Out: The title is an obvious reference to Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush.
