The Perils of Pauline | |
---|---|
Directed by | Herbert B. Leonard Joshua Shelley |
Written by | Albert Beich Charles W. Goddard (play) |
Produced by | Herbert B. Leonard |
Starring | Pat Boone Pamela Austin |
Cinematography | Jack A. Marta |
Edited by | Sam E. Waxman |
Music by | Vic Mizzy |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 107 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Perils of Pauline is a 1967 American comedy film based on the movie serial of the same name.
Inspired by the Batman TV series, with the same kind of florid villainy and dauntless heroics, this TV pilot starred Pamela Austin, best known for her appearances in Dodge commercials at the time (urging viewers to "Join the Dodge Rebellion!"), as Pauline, with Pat Boone as her staunch protector.
The pilot did not find a sponsor or a network, and the three sample shows were compiled into a theatrical feature film and released by Universal Pictures. Extra footage for this was shot in December 1966. [1]
Universal's home-movie company, Castle Films, turned it back into a serial, excerpting four episodes from the feature. [2] The movie enjoyed neither the commercial nor critical success of the earlier versions of The Perils of Pauline.
An orphaned boy named George finds baby Pauline in a basket on the ground. George takes her back to the orphanage and promises to protect her no matter what. When George's over-protectiveness puts Pauline in danger, Mrs. Carruthers, the owner of the orphanage, kicks him out. George tells Pauline that when he makes his fortune, he will come back for her. Pauline promises to wait.
The bulk of the film consists of Pauline getting into and escaping from increasingly ridiculous slapstick situations, with George always arriving slightly too late.
Pauline finds work as a teacher for a young African prince, Benji, who thinks Pauline is his fiance. Pauline escapes him and hides, but is sold to a tribe of pygmies in the Congo, who attempt to make her drink a potion to shrink her down to pygmy size. Benji sends his servant Sten to bring back Pauline. Sten falls in love with Pauline and the two have adventures on the river in Africa.
Pauline is in the New York Mercy hospital with Sten, intending to marry him. Pauline finds out George contracted a disease while in Africa, attempting to save her. She decides to nurse George back to health, and goes to the store to buy hospital clothes. As she is walking down the street, she falls into a manhole.
Pauline ends up on the estate of Casper Coleman, who decides to have her married to his grandson. As his grandson is only a baby, he plans to freeze Pauline, until he gets older. Sten and George both make bumbling attempts to rescue her.
Sten colludes with the Russians to have himself launched into orbit with Pauline. Two FBI agents give Pauline a micro-camera to take pictures while on the spacecraft. At an arms parade following the success of the space launch, Pauline meets a U.S. double agent and gives him the photographs. Thinking he has lost Pauline forever, George has himself brainwashed in an attempt to forget her. Pauline suggests that George go to a sanitarium in Switzerland to jog his memory, while she goes to Venice to be in Frandisi's movie and makes George's fortune back.
At the sanitarium, George's memory comes back and he goes to Venice to see Pauline. On set, he rescues her from an escaped gorilla. The film ends as George and Pauline finally get married, and share a kiss on their gondola as it sinks.
At the time of filming, Pamela Austin was best known for her work on TV commercials. [3] Filming began late November 1966. [4] The original director was Ken Annakin who was fired during filming. [5]
Diabolique magazine later wrote that "there's a surprisingly strong emotional undercurrent to the story. Austin and Boone are soulmates, and just want to get married, but others stop them... It's a repetitive storyline, though. Boone and Austin are about to get together, but something stops them. And it has the cheerful racism of films of this era (horny Arabs, midgets in Africa). It is full of energy and never lets up. The movies it most reminded me of were the ’60s AIP beach party comedies... Little kids will like it especially girls who might identify with Pauline." [6]
Les Diaboliques is a 1955 French psychological horror thriller film co-written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse and Charles Vanel. It is based on the 1952 novel She Who Was No More by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone is an American singer, actor and composer. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood films.
Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 1959 American science fiction adventure film in color by De Luxe, distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film, produced by Charles Brackett and directed by Henry Levin, stars James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl. Bernard Herrmann wrote the film score, and the film's storyline was adapted by Charles Brackett from the 1864 novel of the same name by Jules Verne.
Kenneth Cooper Annakin, OBE was an English film director.
Diabolique is a 1996 American psychological thriller film directed by Jeremiah Chechik, written by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Don Roos, and starring Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri, and Kathy Bates. The plot follows the wife and mistress of an abusive schoolmaster who find themselves stalked by an unknown assailant after murdering him and disposing of his body.
Tarzan and the Lost City is a 1998 American adventure film directed by Carl Schenkel, and starring Casper Van Dien and Jane March with Steven Waddington. The screenplay by Bayard Johnson and J. Anderson Black is loosely based on the Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film received largely negative reviews and was a box office bomb.
Bernardine is a 1957 American musical film directed by Henry Levin and starring Pat Boone, Terry Moore, Dean Jagger, Dick Sargent, and Janet Gaynor. The 1952 play upon which the movie is based was written by Mary Coyle Chase, the Denver playwright who also wrote the popular 1944 Broadway play Harvey. The title song, with words and music by Johnny Mercer, became a hit record for Boone.
Goodbye Charlie is a 1964 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds and Pat Boone. The film is about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward after a jealous husband kills him. It was adapted from George Axelrod's 1959 play Goodbye, Charlie. The play also provided the basis for the 1991 film Switch, with Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits.
The Perils of Pauline is a 1933 American Pre-Code film serial, and sound film remake, of the Pathé original. The 12-chapter "cliffhanger" was produced by Universal Studios. Evalyn Knapp, herself a graduate of Pathé silent short subjects, starred as the heroine, Pauline Hargraves. Historic newsreel footage of the 1930 flight of the Dornier Do X seaplane is featured in chapter eight.
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.
State Fair is a 1962 American musical film directed by José Ferrer and starring Pat Boone, Bobby Darin, Ann-Margret, Tom Ewell, Pamela Tiffin and Alice Faye. A remake of the 1933 film State Fair and the 1945 film State Fair, it was considered to be a financially and critically unsuccessful film. Richard Rodgers, whose collaborator Oscar Hammerstein had died in 1960, wrote additional songs, both music and lyrics, for this film adaptation of the 1932 novel by Phil Stong.
Crooks Anonymous is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin, and starring Leslie Phillips and Stanley Baxter and Julie Christie, in her film debut.
The Main Attraction is a 1962 British-American drama film directed by Daniel Petrie, written by John Patrick, and starring Pat Boone, Nancy Kwan and Mai Zetterling. The music soundtrack was written by Pat Boone and Jeff Corey and performed by Boone. A young drifter causes problems for a small European circus.
Nor the Moon by Night is a 1958 British drama film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Belinda Lee. It was based on the novel by Joy Packer and partly filmed in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. The title is a quote from the Old Testament passage ; "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night."
April Love is an American musical film directed by Henry Levin and produced by David Weisbart, based on the novel Phantom Filly by George Agnew Chamberlain. Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color by Wilfred M. Cline, it was the fourth most popular movie of 1957 and stars Pat Boone, Shirley Jones, Arthur O'Connell, Dolores Michaels, Matt Crowley, Jeanette Nolan and Bradford Jackson.
The Horror of It All is a 1964 British horror comedy film directed by Terence Fisher and with a screenplay by Ray Russell. It stars Pat Boone and Erica Rogers.
The Yellow Canary is a 1963 American thriller film directed by Buzz Kulik and starring Pat Boone and Barbara Eden. It was adapted by Rod Serling from a novel by Whit Masterson, who also wrote the novel that was the basis for Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. The film was photographed by veteran Floyd Crosby and scored by jazz composer Kenyon Hopkins.
Mardi Gras is a 1958 American musical comedy film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Pat Boone and Christine Carère.
Pamela Austin is an American retired actress.
Sick is a 2022 American slasher film directed by John Hyams and written by Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb. The film stars Gideon Adlon, Beth Million, and Dylan Sprayberry.