Today's Cinema Sunday takes a look at The Perils of Pauline, a 1947 fictionalized account of silent film star Pearl White's rise to fame, starring Betty Hutton.
The original The Perils of Pauline were serial shorts in the silent movie era starring Pearl White as the titular distressed damsel caught on the precipice of doom in various death traps revolving around saw mills, railroad tracks and the like.
Although titled The Perils of Pauline, the 1947 film has very little do with The Perils of Pauline.
The film tracks the life of Pearl White from frustrated garment worker to a member of a touring theatrical troupe owned and managed by Mike Farrington.
There's supposed to be a developing romantic relationship between Pearl and Mike but I'll be damned if I can see it as Mike is a pompous jackass whose view of himself is superior to his reality as an itinerant performer. He's forever ragging on Peal about some damn thing or another until Pearl has had enough and she quits. Miss Julia Gibbs, an actress in Mike's touring company, leaves with Pearl in solidarity.
It's Julia who will lead to Pearl's role in silent film. Julia takes a part in a silent movie, unaware her dramatic role is just a set up for slapstick comedy when she is unexpectedly bombarded with pies. Furious at Julia's humiliation, Pearl storms onto the set and tells everyone off. As she storms away from the set, Pearl barges through a number of other films in progress. On one of the sets, she shoos a lion away.
Impressed by Pearl's fire and fearlessness, director George McGuire wants to make her a star. “She's gonna be the biggest thing in pictures!” he declares.
Pearl does indeed become world-famous as the star of The Perils of Pauline with their death defying cliffhangers.
At least that's what we're told. A brief montage of Pearl as Pauline in a variety of scrapes is pretty much all we get on this part of Pearl White's career.
The story of how George McGuire went from seeing Pearl shoo away a lion to tying "Pauline" to logs in saw mills is never addressed. Any feelings of trepidation Pearl may have over being placed in death defying situations in a wild and woolly film industry with little to no oversight is never mentioned.
Instead of the inside scoop on the making of The Perils of Pauline, we have to check in on that son of a bitch Mike Farrington, now working as a carnival side show barker. No one wants to see his overwrought dramatic slices of acting ham. People want to spend their money on movies. You know, stuff like The Perils of Pauline.
Pearl gets Mike cast as her leading man in The Perils of Pauline. Pearl and Mike make a great team.
While trapped in a runaway balloon from a stunt that goes awry, Mike declares his love for Pearl and promises to marry her.
Don't do it, girl! He's gonna break your heart.
The press announces that world famous film star Pearl White is getting married which hurts Mike's widdle feelings and he calls off the wedding.
Once a pompous jackass, always a pompous jackass.
Mike joins the army and goes off to fight the War! With any luck, the pompous jackass will get shot.
No, damn the luck he doesn't.
Pearl's doing benefits and films to support the war effort. After the war with serials on their way out, Pearl sets up shop in Paris to headline a nightclub act there. During a stunt that is part of her act, Pearl is severely injured. She will need surgery but it will be years before she ever walks again.
Then Mike turns up. Pearl and Mike embrace and I really don't think I can go on and thank God, the movie is over.
The "romantic" story at the core of this movie is a complete debacle. What the hell does Pearl see in Mike? When is he not being some whiny piss ant egotist who can stand the competition for attention? When is Mike Farrington not a pompous jackass?
Betty Hutton is a bright and energetic presence on screen in the first half. But as the movie descends into melodramatic tripe in the last act, I wonder if Betty was thinking, "OK, this stuff is going to get me an Oscar!"
Instead of spending so much time on this cliched nonsense, would it have hurt if the The Perils of Pauline could've spent more time on The Perils of Pauline.
Other than the balloon sequence, there is one bit in the movie that captures the on the fly nature of early movie making. The scene involves Pearl as Pauline fleeing from gun men on horseback to catch a speeding train. They've only got one chance to get this right because another train won't be along for another five hours.
The film crew is making use of a train that just happens to be coming by at that moment. Pearl's leap from a galloping horse to a speeding train is a moment of reckless daring.
The stories behind this kind of gonzo movie making is what I was most interested in.
Instead we get the uninteresting story of Pearl's misbegotten relationship with a man who is all wrong for her. Pearl deserves better.
OK, that is that for today's Cinema Sunday. Next week,this feature goes to the dogs.
Until then, remember to be good to one another and don't hog all the popcorn, will ya?
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