The Perils of Pauline
About The Perils of Pauline
Pauline Marvin, a young heiress who wants adventure, stands to inherit if she lives through a year of traps. Her guardian's secretary sets the traps, episode by episode: balloons, races, cliffs, and kidnappings. She gets out of them herself more often than she waits to be cut loose. She is not tied to a railroad track in this serial. That image comes from stage melodrama and from Helen Holmes's railroad pictures, later mixed up with Pearl White.
Cast & crew
More about The Perils of Pauline
Louis J. Gasnier directed. George B. Seitz wrote it. Arthur C. Miller photographed it. William Randolph Hearst produced it. Eclectic, an American branch of Pathé, released it. General Film Company is also listed as a distributor. There were 20 episodes, the first in three reels and the rest in two, shown on a biweekly schedule. Pearl White plays Pauline. Crane Wilbur, Paul Panzer, and Edward José are in the cast. The first episode is dated 1914.
Themes
Making
Gasnier shot the stunts around Fort Lee and elsewhere in New Jersey, one or two reels at a time.
Look
Arthur C. Miller photographed the outdoor stunts in New Jersey.
Preservation
The original 20 episodes are not known complete. The 1916 nine-chapter European version, about 214 minutes, survives and was named to the National Film Registry in 2008.
Notes
- What survives is a 1916 European reissue in nine chapters, about 214 minutes, not the full 20-episode run.
- The railroad-track gag is not in this serial. It belongs to Helen Holmes pictures such as The Hazards of Helen, later folded into White's reputation.
- The Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry in 2008.
- A copy of the condensed version is on the Internet Archive as silent-the-perils-of-pauline.
Scenes
- Pauline climbs out of one trap and walks into the next episode's.
- The 1916 cut is the version that can still be watched.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-perils-of-pauline)
