The Perils of Pauline (1914)
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Collection: Motion Picture News, April 1914
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Collection: Motion Picture News, April 1914
Tie-In Advertisement:
Collection: Photoplay Magazine, October 1916
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Pearl White | Louis J. Gasnier (Director) | Donald MacKenzie (Director)
Rest of cast:
Crane Wilbur | Paul Panzer | Edward José | Francis Carlyle | Clifford Bruce | Donald MacKenzie | Jack Standing | Eleanor Woodruff | Leroy Baker | Louise Du Pre | Oscar Nye | Sam J. Ryan | Louis J. Gasnier | Joe Cuny | Charles ‘Patch’ Revada | Frank Redman (1877–1940) | Floyd Buckley | Spencer Gordon Bennet | Milton Berle | Thomas Waln-Morgan Draper | George Daly | Dick Dillon | Chief Thunderbird | Meridel Le Sueur (Stand-In: Pearl White in Fencing Scenes) | A. Leo Stevens (Aerial Stunts) | Lady Duff Gordon (Gowns) | Frank Redman (Property Master) | Charles W. Goddard (Screenplay) | Basil Dickey (Screenplay) | Charles W. Goddard (Novel) | George B. Seitz (Writer) | Bertram Millhauser (Writer) | Joseph A. Dubray (Camera Operator) | Harry Wood (Assistant Camera) | Arthur C. Miller (Cinematographer) | Spencer Gordon Bennet (Assistant Director)
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see also Pearl White — Filmography
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“The Perils of Pauline”
The new Eclectic serial carries prizes worth $25,000; but is good enough to stand alone.
Reviewed by Hanford C. Judson.
The motion picture serial has come to stay. Serial novels have long held a commanding position in the magazines; but one of the most popular of these has concluded that they are no longer popular and is offering a complete novel with short stories. No one will deny that this, from the reader’s standpoint, is a wise move; for the serial in the magazine, especially the monthly, was, except in cases of “three decker” novels, only a business expedient to induce an even, dependable distribution. But, quite on the other hand, the requirements of an evening’s entertainment in a motion picture theater that accents the mechanical difficulties of presenting long stories would have made the serial picture imperative. The modern spectator wants variety and won’t stand being wearied. The serial picture is so vivid and the impression it leaves on one is so clear-cut that the period of waiting between installments is rather a pleasant experience than otherwise. This is going to work out distinctly for the good of the business; for the serial that isn’t vivid and doesn’t leave an impression deep enough to last over the gap, is going to be the sharpest kind of frost. The serial that doesn’t “get over” had better not have been made. By the same token, the serial picture that does get over with a real punch is going to be a great money-maker. The Perils of Pauline seems, on this account, to this reviewer, an ideal offering for the exhibitor.
There are several things that contribute to its excellence as a show. There are big prizes offered to spectators clever enough to solve certain mysteries that come up in the progress of its story and we may add at once that these mysterious things are not, so far, in connection with the plot and we feel sure that they will not hamper the interest in the story at all. But even better than the $25,000 in prizes that are offered is the good quality of the entertainment. Only the first installment, the first three reels, has as yet been shown to us. We know nothing of the rest of the picture; but are sure that this part is good and when it closes we are, in our hearts, certain that Pauline, charmingly portrayed by Pearl White, is in real danger from the much trusted but very villainous secretary (Paul Panzer), of her foster father now dead. By the old man’s will, the precious secretary will inherit, “if anything happens” to the heiress.
Miss White hasn’t had so good a chance in a long while to show her art and she plays this picture’s ingenuous heroine with the truly wonderful naturalness that she has so surely at her command. Perhaps she doesn’t always hit square in the center of the effect she desires; but she does it so often that she continually commands the heart-interest of the audience. Mr. Panzer, in the villain’s part, finds it his duty to intensify this. His work on the audience is, of course, through the heroine and in the playing that he is doing and will do, he stirs an anti-sympathy that is every bit as worthy of praise; for the audience takes it with the left hand, so to speak, and affectionately hands it back to the heroine with its right. Crane Wilbur, as the hero, has little chance in this beginning portion. The character is still colorless and we can hardly as yet criticise the player. The picture’s weakest point is in its relief. The “comedy” gauchery of the outdoors man, a sort of gardner, but too much of a fool to tend a garden, is weak and not less so is the “fall” of the butler who is running out to the gate to help the gardner bring in the mummy box that comes to the house shortly before the heroine’s foster father dies. The old man is drawn very well. He has now passed away and will not appear again — at least we presume so. The mummy, who comes to life while the old man dreams, is graceful and pleasing. There is also a very fair “tough” character in the story. All the characters, except, Miss White, are guilty, now and then, of over-registering their points.
The mechanical work is meritorious and we wish we could say that the photography, the prints, are perfectly clear and serviceable. That the thickness of the photographs in some of the scenes fails to hinder our comprehension of the story, speaks well for the simplicity and clearness of the script. At the opening of the double exposure scene in which the mummy comes to life, an awkward jump is noticeable; but the unsubstantial figure flits about the room in the best possible way and goes back to her mummy case again in so perfect a closing of the double exposure that the eye can detect no manipulation at all; it is done as naturally as dream.
The story has a story within a story; for Pauline is a budding writer and has got one of her novelettes accepted and printed by the Cosmopolitan Magazine and the old man, her foster father, reads it to us (in pictures) without wearying us at all. She doesn’t want to get married to the hero for a year; she wants to see life first so that she can write things worth while. In the old man’s will, her part of the fortune is left in charge of the secretary until she gets married. As the picture’s first installment ends, it is clearly to her interest to elope with almost anyone; but what she really does do is left undecided as yet till the next of the series.
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Scenes From the First Installment of the new Eclectic Serial Feature, The Perils of Pauline
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Collection: Moving Picture World, April 1914