The Perils of Pauline

Released in cinemas in Australia on a school holiday double bill with the Don Knotts comedy THE RELUCTANT ASTRONAUT this is a small comedy I guess made for 'the family market' from Universal. At the time THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE was a smash success for the studio and this might be considered her little sister film. There was big talk in 1967 of a sequel to MILLIE to be called JAZZ BABY with the same cast: Channing, Andrews and John Gavin. Instead somehow THE PERILS OF PAULINE was made instead or as an interim while the JAZZ BABY ideas were ironed out. PAULINE uses some of the MILLIE sets, props and clothes and even similar 'silent movie' comedy routines. It is a lot of fun and anything with Terry Thomas and Edward Everett Horton must be seen. Had Olivia Newton John been older it is exactly the sort of film she would have made. Instead we have Pamela Austin. Pat Boone was really on the way out by 1967 and stayed on TV instead. Anyway, unfortunately JAZZ BABY was shelved and Ross Hunter went on to make the embarrassing icecap musical LOST HORIZON for Columbia on the old CAMELOT set and was snowballed for doing so.

This is a movie that is fun to watch as well as being funny. It's also safe to watch with your kids. They will love the comic action, meanwhile you don't have to sit with your finger on the mute button to cut out the dirty words that most producer add in just so not to get the dreaded G rating.

It has been along time since I have seen it, however I'd buy it in a second if someone would release it on DVD !

I LOVED this movie as a child and it's wonderful! AS mentioned before, You NEVER see it on TV, not even TCM! I do wish Someone would either release this or TCM show it sometime. I'm 44 and ONCE in 44 years! Come on! This is a great movie for the whole family, it's got everything, romance, comedy, mystery, drama, etc. Terry Thomas is great as he usually was in practically anything he starred in during his career. And Pat Boone when he sang his song about Pauline, I felt it was SO heartwarming and touching! It's a shame that when a good family movie can not get released to the public OR did somebody buy the rights to this movie and for some reason do not want to distribute it?

Pauline, first seen as a baby girl abandoned at the steps of the Baskerville Foundling Home, is taken in by a young George Steadman, who declares he'll always take care of her. As they grow up, he sabotages Baskerville's efforts to find a home for her. He loves her, and when they are young adults, he leaves Baskerville to make his fortune, promising to return and wed Pauline when the time is right.

Before George can fulfill his promise, the foundling home is shut down and teenaged Pauline goes to work in Africa(?) as a tutor for sex-crazed 12-year-old Prince Benji (whose voice is dubbed by June Foray to sound like Rocket J. Squirrel). She rebuffs his advances ("It's very bad manners to threaten your teacher with a simitar"), and during her escape from Benji's palace is sold to Bombo, "white pygmy chief of the Congo." Her rescuer, a white hunter and "member of the Royal blues," Willy Sten-Martin (Terry-Thomas), falls in love with her and chases her through the rest of the movie. Likewise, George follows her, too, looking for true love, accompanied by his male secretary.

THE PERILS OF PAULINE ka-chunks along on a preponderance of incident as George, Sten-Martin and Pauline criss-cross the globe. Pauline is cryogenically frozen (so is George)... George is brainwashed... Pauline appears in a film by "far-out" Italian filmmaker Frederico Frandisi... has to seduce a gorilla... becomes a Russian cosmonaut... climbs over the Berlin Wall... etc.

So goes THE PERILS OF PAULINE, originally a pilot episode for an unsold TV series, expanded for theatrical release. Influenced by mid-60s comedy series like GET SMART and THE MONKEES -- and co-directed by GET SMART alumnus Joshua Shelley -- THE PERILS OF PAULINE is far too long at 93 minutes and aimed at ten-year-old mentalities.

The basis for this movie, a 1914 serial with "cliffhanger endings" between chapters, was remade in 1934. The best-known version of the story was released in 1947 as a vehicle for actress Betty Hutton. This 1967 version is inspired by the silent version -- the visual humor is a series of ancient slapstick routines, filmed in fast-motion and featuring runaway cars and people falling off ladders. A few of these moments are funny, but the strained verbal humor is below the level of even THE MONKEES.

Of the acting, the less said the better about Pat Boone (George) and Pamela Austin (Pauline), especially when compared to an old pro like Terry-Thomas, who bravely battles the inanities to turn in a good comic performance.

There are four movies/serials with this exact title. The present movie (according to Wikipedia also available as a 4-part serial) is the result of an aborted attempt to create an updated Pauline-type series. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that it is the incarnation with the lowest rating on IMDB. But that doesn't mean it's worse than the others. It's just more divisive, with the most common user rating actually being 10 stars (and the second most common 5 stars).

So what's going on? It seems that the 10 star ratings are primarily from those who still fondly remember this movie as one of the most impressive of their childhood. (This also explains the comments about this movie being 'clean' or 'wholesome'.) Whereas the 5 star (and lower) reviews are primarily from those who are a little too adult for their own good. One would expect the same effect for Batman (1966), which strongly inspired the style of this film, and in fact it has the same kind of split. Only in that case there are more people affected by the nostalgia because Batman never stopped being shown.

Personally, I grew up neither with this movie nor with the old Batman series (not shown on German TV in my youth), but despite being middle-aged I love both now that I have found them, and I think that each has certain advantages over the other. Too bad the Pauline series was aborted.

Plotwise, it's all about our heroes Pauline and George, two lovers who were clearly made for each other, but keep being separated by a never-ending series of bizarre accidents. As a result, Pauline and George, but mainly Pauline, are thrown into the most outlandish and extreme adventures. Which they stoically endure, driven onwards by their love. Since this movie was cut together from pilot episodes for a planned series, the pacing isn't optimal. I found it best in the beginning and at the end. In the middle, at some point I almost stopped caring about the protagonists.

Everything starts when George, still a little boy under the care of Mrs. Carruther, finds an abandoned but happy baby girl near the door of his home, the Baskerville Foundling Home. The baby comes with a message saying "Protect me. My name is Pauline". To which George replies: "Yes, Pauline, always. Nobody will get you away from me!" George works hard to prevent Pauline from being adopted, but at some point this goes horribly wrong.

Just like the 1960s Batman series, this movie doesn't take itself seriously. At all. In many ways this feels like the attempt to re-create a silent movie, only better, by making full use of color and sound. This becomes really obvious each time a nostalgic intertitle is shown or a slapstick scene is comically overdone or even sped up. The intentional retro-flair also explains the old-fashioned exoticism, which was dated already in 1967, and is nowadays considered racist by some: It is not just billionaires and male white English soldiers, but also marginal groups such as Arabic heir apparents and white pygmies who are stereotyped in negative ways required for the plot.

If you like the silliness of Monty Python or Airplane! (1980) even in films you haven't seen before and aren't nostalgic for, then this film is well worth trying out.