The Perils of Pauline | |
---|---|
Directed by | George Marshall |
Screenplay by | P.J. Wolfson Frank Butler |
Produced by | Sol C. Siegel |
Starring | Betty Hutton John Lund William Demarest |
Cinematography | Ray Rennahan |
Edited by | Arthur P. Schmidt |
Music by | Robert Emmett Dolan |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $3.8 million (US rentals) [1] |
The Perils of Pauline is a 1947 American Technicolor comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Betty Hutton, John Lund and William Demarest. It was produced and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a fictionalized Hollywood account of silent film star Pearl White's rise to fame, starring Hutton as White.
A broad satire of silent-film production, the film is a musical-comedy vehicle for Hutton. The original songs by Frank Loesser include the standard "I Wish I Didn't Love You So", which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Paul Panzer, who played the villain in the 1914 film The Perils of Pauline , has a very small part in this film, as do silent-comedy veterans Chester Conklin, Hank Mann, Snub Pollard, and James Finlayson.
The film is in the public domain today; all public-domain video releases are sourced from 16 mm television prints that have faded over the years. Universal Studios (through NBC Universal Television, successor-in-interest to EMKA, Ltd.) owns the original film elements.
Pearl White (Betty Hutton) is a frustrated garment worker who aspires to become a dramatic actress, although she really shines at singing and bantering with audiences. (Shoved on stage to do or die, she throws the tomatoes back at the hecklers.) She joins a touring theatrical troupe owned and managed by handsome but pompous Mike Farrington (John Lund). Veteran actress Miss Julia Gibbs (Constance Collier) takes Pearl under her wing, as does Timmy Timmons (Billy De Wolfe), another member of the troupe. Farrington starts her off by putting her in charge of costumes and giving her walk-ons. Unable to suppress her natural rambunctiousness on stage, Pearl resorts to tying her hands together under an apron. Mike and Pearl fall in love, but neither confesses it. In a South Sea melodrama, Pearl is drenched with cold water, and shivers and sneezes so badly that she can't speak. Farrington berates and insults her; Pearl reads him the riot act and walks out. Julia follows her.
Pearl auditions for Julia's agents, singing “I Wish I Didn't Love You So.” They like her, but there is no business in summer. The agent offers Julia a “grande dame” role in a “flicker.” Julia scorns film actors, but her agent points out, “They always eat!”
At the studio, several pictures are being filmed at once. With no advance warning, Julia is barraged with pies. Furious, Pearl storms onto the set and retaliates, then helps her friend walk through several works in progress, shooing a lion out of the way. (She thought it was a dog.) The director, George “Mac” McGuire (William Demarest), offers her a $100 a week contract. “She's gonna be the biggest thing in pictures!” he declares. Pearl soon becomes world-famous as the star of the cliffhanging, tied-to-the-railroad-tracks serials known as The Perils of Pauline. [2] Meanwhile, Farrington can't get work; the theaters are showing pictures.
Pearl is filming a pursuit alongside a train. She jumps onto a boxcar and meets a hobo: It's Timmy, who promptly joins Pearl's team as a villain. Later, Timmy finds Mike working as a barker in a sideshow. He tells Mike his new boss has a job for him. It is, of course, Pearl, who persuades him to become her leading man. His first lesson is that the kind of melodramatic gestures that he abhorred in Pearl are exactly what is needed in silent film. They are a success.
McGuire arranges a publicity stunt that sends Pearl and Mike off in a runaway balloon—without the balloonist who was supposed to sneak into the basket. The balloon is caught in a thunderstorm and they cling to each other. He tells her he loves her and promises to marry her.
The press announcement sidelines Mike, who feels he has lost his identity. His pride can't take it and he calls off the wedding. Then War is declared. Mike and Timmy join the Army; Pearl does benefits and makes war films. After the war ends, Mike comes home to find great success in the theater. Serials are on their way out, and Pearl and Timmy go to Paris to perform in a nightclub there. Farrington can't follow her until his play is over.
After 251 performance at the Casino de Paris, Pearl learns that Mike is coming. Elated, she falls during a stunt. The doctors tell her that she must have surgery immediately; even so, it might be one or two years before she can walk again. Instead, she goes to meet Mike. He begs her to marry him and come back to America. When she says she won't leave Paris, he replies that he will come to her. She tells him she doesn't love him anymore. Julia has followed them, and when Mike gets out of the car she beckons to him. A sorrowful Pearl gets Timmy to take her into a theater showing one of their films. Eyes on the screen, she hears Mike's voice saying, “You always were a rotten actress.” They embrace, and he carries her out of the theater.
Bosley Crowther of New York Times wrote, "Paramount's The Perils of Pauline, which came sprawling and spluttering and crashing into the Paramount Theatre yesterday, is neither a reasonable facsimile of the silent ancient silent serial for which it is named, nor is it a rightful biography of the famous serial queen, Pearl White. Neither, for that matter, is it a valid reflection of the days of early movie-making which it loosely pretends to be". [4]
A Variety review praised the comedy, cast, and silent film era nostalgia, calling the film "top entertainment for any situation" that "will register astoundingly at the [box office]". [5]
Frank Loesser was nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Music, Original Song" for "I Wish I Didn't Love You So". [6]
The Exploits of Elaine is a 1914 American film serial in the damsel in distress genre of The Perils of Pauline (1914).
Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won a Tony Award for Guys and Dolls and shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for How to Succeed. He also wrote songs for over 60 Hollywood films and Tin Pan Alley, many of which have become standards, and was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning once for "Baby, It's Cold Outside".
Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. She rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appearing primarily in musicals, and became one of the studio's most valuable stars of that decade. She was noted for her energetic and sometimes manic performance style.
The Perils of Pauline may refer to:
Pearl Fay White was an American stage and film actress. She began her career on the stage at age 6, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials.
Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
John Lund was an American film, stage, and radio actor who is probably best remembered for his role in the film A Foreign Affair (1948) and a dual role in To Each His Own (1946).
George E. Marshall was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, film and television director, active through the first six decades of film history.
Variety Girl is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, Frank Ferguson, Glenn Tryon, Nella Walker, Torben Meyer, Jack Norton, and William Demarest. It was produced by Paramount Pictures. Numerous Paramount contract players and directors make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Among many others, the studio contract players include Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd, Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Barbara Stanwyck and Paula Raymond.
William Andrew Jones, better known as Billy De Wolfe, was an American character actor. He was active in films from the mid-1940s until his death in 1974.
Louis Joseph Gasnier was a French-American film director, producer, screenwriter and stage actor. A cinema pioneer, Gasnier shepherded the early career of comedian Max Linder, co-directed the enormously successful film serial The Perils of Pauline (1914) and capped his output with the notorious low-budget exploitation film Reefer Madness (1936) which was both a critical and box office failure.
Crane Wilbur was an American writer, actor and director for stage, radio and screen. He was born in Athens, New York. Wilbur is best remembered for playing Harry Marvin in The Perils of Pauline. He died in Toluca Lake, California.
Paul Wolfgang Panzerbeiter, known professionally as Paul Panzer, was a German-American silent film actor. He appeared in more than 330 films between 1905 and 1952.
The Perils of Pauline is a 1914 American melodrama film serial produced by William Randolph Hearst and released by the Eclectic film company, shown in bi-weekly installments, featuring Pearl White as the title character, an ambitious young heiress with an independent nature and a desire for adventure. The premise of the story was that Pauline's wealthy guardian Sanford Marvin, upon his death, has left her inheritance in the care of his secretary, Raymond Owen, until the time of her marriage. Pauline wants to wait a while before marrying, as her dream is to go out and have adventures then write about them afterward. Owen, hoping to ultimately keep the money for himself, tries to turn Pauline's various adventures against her and have her "disappear" to his own advantage.
Let's Dance is a 1950 American Technicolor musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Z. McLeod starring Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire and Roland Young. It was produced and released by Paramount Pictures.
Red, Hot and Blue is a 1949 American musical comedy film directed by John Farrow and starring Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, William Demarest and June Havoc. It was released by Paramount Pictures. Hutton plays an actress who gets mixed up with gangsters and murder. Frank Loesser wrote the songs and plays a key role. The film has no connection to Cole Porter's play of the same name.
The Sainted Sisters is a 1948 American comedy film starring Veronica Lake and co-starring Joan Caulfield, Barry Fitzgerald, George Reeves, William Demarest and Beulah Bondi. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and is notable for being the last film Veronica Lake made under her contract with the studio.
Happy Go Lucky is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and written by Walter DeLeon, Melvin Frank, John Jacoby and Norman Panama. The film stars Mary Martin, Dick Powell, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Rudy Vallée, Mabel Paige and Eric Blore. The film was released on January 4, 1943, by Paramount Pictures. It might be best remembered now for Betty Hutton's energetic performance of the song "Murder, He Says," written by Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh.
Duffy's Tavern is a 1945 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. The film stars Ed Gardner, Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken and Brian Donlevy. The film was released on September 28, 1945, by Paramount Pictures.
Terror is a 1924 French silent drama film directed by Edward José and Gérard Bourgeois and starring Pearl White, Henri Baudin, and Arlette Marchal. It was the final film of the American actress White, known for her roles in serials such as The Perils of Pauline. It is sometimes known by the alternative title The Perils of Paris.