#664) The Perils of Pauline (1914)

#664) The Perils of Pauline (1914)

OR “Pearl, Interrupted”

Directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie

Written by Charles W. Goddard and Basil Dickey. Based on the novel by Goddard.

Class of 2008

The Plot: Pauline Marvin (Pearl White) is a young woman who dreams of living a life of adventure before she settles down with her beau Harry (Crane Wilbur). Around the time she makes this vow, her adoptive father Sanford (Edward José) dies, leaving his fortune to Pauline, which she will inherit as soon as she marries Harry. Sanford’s secretary Koerner (Paul Panzer) knows he will get the money if Pauline dies before getting married, so he attempts a series of plots (perils, if you will) to murder Pauline. In this nine-part serial, a typical episode is Pauline setting off on an adventure, Koerner hiring a shady character to kill her during said adventure, and Pauline getting out of harm’s way just in time. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Why It Matters: While the NFR admits that “Pauline” is “now regarded as a satirical cliché of the movie industry”, they give the series its due as “among the first American movie serials” and gives a pre-feminist shoutout to Pearl White.

But Does It Really?: I suppose. We don’t have a lot of serials on this list, and it makes sense to include the first successful one. I tried to space out my viewing of these episodes to one every few days, but even then these were a slog to get through. Once you get the hang of what each episode is like, there isn’t a lot of variety to spice things up. Still, you can trace a lot of influence back to “Pauline”: from melodramas and their tropes all the way to modern binge-watching. “The Perils of Pauline” earns its spot on the list as the film serial that started it all, but this is another viewing reserved for people like me forcing themselves to go through this list.

Everybody Gets One: Pearl White lived a life as exciting as her cinematic counterpart, performing on stage at age six and eventually working as a bareback rider in the circus. As a young adult she traveled South America as a singer until she developed voice problems, which naturally led her to a career in silent films. White was already a regular at Pathé Frères when “Pauline” came her way, and the serial made her a star.

Other notes

“The Perils of Pauline” was produced by none other than William Randolph Hearst! This was just a few years before he founded his own production company – Cosmopolitan Productions – and became involved with film star Marion Davies. This serial was a co-production with Pathé, a French film company that is still around today.
Originally released as a 20 part series, the surviving version of “Pauline” is an edited, re-shuffled nine part version released in theaters around 1916. The most notable difference is that the main villain, known as Raymond Owen in the original release, has been renamed Koerner because of the strong anti-German sentiment during the Great War. This post covers the edited cut, with notes on where these episodes appeared in the original 20 part series.
Among the episodes lost to time: Pauline being held hostage in a Chinese temple, acting in a movie (meta!), landing a plane by herself, and fighting a giant ape.

Episode 1: Trial by Fire (Original Cut: Episodes 1, 6, & 7)

We start off with the standard “pilot” stuff as mentioned in the plot synopsis, and Koerner’s first attempts to kill Pauline involve setting her out in a hot air balloon, abandoning her by the edge of a cliff (the famous New Jersey Palisades), and trapping her inside a burning house. All this, and she’s got eight more episodes to go? She’s resilient, I give her that.
Oh man, this serial needs a restoration, stat. The version I watched is clearly a VHS rip of a duplicate film print. We are nowhere near the original film elements and it shows.
Sure it’s impressive that Pearl White did her own stunts, but that’s a lot of actual peril putting your actors in a burning building. I’m surprised film actors didn’t unionize right then and there.
This re-edit does a lousy job with the cliffhangers. Episode 1 ends with Pauline being rescued from the burning house. Shouldn’t it end with her still trapped in the house, to be resolved next week? And before that she was literally hanging off a cliff. It was right there! Instead we get Pauline safe and sound at home, with a tacked on question mark in the final moments. This question mark appears at the end of every episode, becoming more and more useless with each ending.

Episode 2: The Goddess of the Far West (Original Cut: Episodes 7 & 8)

Pauline heads west and is kidnapped by some bandits hired by Koerner, then rescued by an Indigenous tribe who think she’s their god.
Another on-going issue with this print is the intertitles. The surviving version of “Pauline” is a French print, so these titles are translated back into English with mixed results. That being said, I’m enjoying the random words they choose to hyphenate, like “cow-boys” and “high-way”.

Episode 3: The Pirate Treasure (Original Cut: Episodes 3 & 4)

Blinky Bill the Pirate is hired to take Pauline out on a boat, abandon ship, and set off a bomb hidden in the boat. I’m beginning to sense that these are all like Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner shorts, except way less entertaining (same amount of spoken dialogue though). We don’t even see the bomb explode! Definitely not hitting the “peril” aspect this week.
And because we can never have nice things, Harry disguises himself as the ship’s cook in FULL BLACKFACE. I mean, I really should have expected that from a 1914 serial, but geez Louise.

Episode 4: The Deadly Turning (Original Cut: Episode 15)

Pauline enters an international cross country race (a bit redundant, no?). Koerner sets up a series of traps on the course for Pauline, but once again she avoids all of them and nothing exciting actually happens. You can get a more dramatic old-timey car race by watching the opening credits of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Still, it was fun to see people wearing the driving coats, caps, and goggles synonymous with early automobiles.

Episode 5: A Watery Doom (Original Cut: Episode 14)

Koerner hires a band of “gypsies” (who look more like pirates) to kidnap Pauline and Harry, trap them in the cellar of an abandoned mill, and drown them. Didn’t we already have a drowning scheme? Back in the cave in the Western one? I guess if you saw these bi-weekly you had time to forget.
My main problem with this whole serial is the overall lack of suspense. There’s a way to do this kind of cliffhanger serial and give it the element of “How are they gonna get out of this one?” (The James Bond and Indiana Jones films are both great examples of this). I know Pauline is going to escape, but it never feels interesting or earned. I guess it was easier to entertain back in 1914. Whatever. Next!

Episode 6: The Shattered Plane (Original Cut: Episode 2)

Koerner tries to get Pauline to fly in one of those newfangled aeroplanes, which one of his cohorts secretly tampers with. It helps that the plane is a Wright Flyer, so Koerner doesn’t need to do anything; that thing’s already a deathtrap.
I like the moment when Koerner worries that Pauline will be late for the flight. It’s like the old punchline “Gee, I hope nothing happened to her.”
Another problem I have with this serial: Too much lead-up to a thing, not enough time on the actual thing. After the promise of a dangerous flight, most of this episode is Pauline trying to get to the airfield. And then when she gets there, SHE DOESN’T EVEN GET ON THE PLANE! You can’t really deliver on peril if you don’t put your hero in the perilous situation.

Episode 7: The Tragic Plunge (Original Cut: Episode 18)

Koerner outsources this week’s scheme to Mlle. Yagow, who gets Pauline onboard a submarine with a bomb! That’s right, another “bomb on a boat” episode. I guess there are only so many ways to kill someone. At least this one has a few underwater shots (well, underwater via an obvious set) as Pauline escapes the sub via the torpedo tube.

Episode 8: The Serpent in the Flowers (Original Cut: Episodes 12 & 13)

Koerner once again hires “gypsies” to kidnap Pauline. Only this time, after Pauline escapes, one of them vows revenge by placing a snake inside a basket of flowers. I assumed this title would be metaphorical but nope, there’s a motherf***ing snake in these motherf***ing flowers.
The serpent in the flowers plotline finishes halfway through this episode, with the second half being devoted to a steeplechase in which Koerner drugs Pauline’s horse, causing it to wildly convulse during the race and throw Pauline off. I feel like you could have made this episode a standalone and bumped the series up to an even 10.

Episode 9: The Floating Coffin (Original Cut: Episode 20)

In the final episode, Pauline and Harry go on yet another boat, with Koerner half-assing it by cutting a hole in a rowboat Pauline takes on a mini-excursion with her dog Rusty. They escape the sinking boat, only to find themselves on an abandoned ship being used by the Navy for target practice. All ends well as Pauline is rescued by the U.S. Navy and decides that she is through with adventures and will settle down with Harry. Oh, and Koerner falls overboard and drowns, but no one seems to notice or care.

Legacy

“The Perils of Pauline” was a hit upon release. Pathé immediately followed up with “The Exploits of Elaine“, while Kalem Studios responded in kind with “The Hazards of Helen”. All of these serials have fused together in the public consciousness to become the standard damsel-in-distress melodrama clichés (think Nell from “Dudley Do-Right” or Penelope Pitstop from “Wacky Racers”).

Pearl White would go on to star in the aforementioned “Exploits of Elaine”, which was even more successful than “Pauline”. She spent most of the 1910s as “Queen of the Serials” before retiring from film in the early 1920s.
“The Perils of Pauline” was remade as a serial in 1933, and as a film in 1947 and 1967. It should be noted, however, that the only connection any of these have to the original serial is the title. Heck, the ’47 movie is a fictionalized biopic of Pearl White with Betty Hutton.

If you’re willing to spend a few extra bucks, the good people at Serial Squadron have released a restored version of “Pauline” on DVD.

Further Viewing: One item that pops up in a lot of write-ups about “Perils of Pauline” is the melodrama trope of the woman tied to the railroad tracks. While this never happens in “Pauline”, it does occur in other films of the time such as “The Hazards of Helen” and “Teddy at the Throttle”, with these films being conflated with “Pauline” over time. I know it’s a stretch, but shouldn’t one of these be on the NFR?