Line #14 Film/ThePerilsOfPauline


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0810_4.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:BoundAndGagged as usual.]]
3	''The Perils of Pauline'' was an immensely popular 1914 film serial starring Pearl White, who in this serial became the veritable TropeCodifier for the DamselInDistress in modern media.
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5	The formula was simple. Pauline is an orphan, heir to a huge fortune. Her guardian, Mr. Marvin, hopes that a now grown-up Pauline will marry his son Harry. Pauline loves Harry, but she doesn't want to get married yet, wanting to roam the world and have adventures before she settles down to be a society wife.
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7	In the first episode Mr. Marvin dies, and Pauline and her fortune come into the custody of Marvin's secretary Koerner. Unfortunately Koerner is a crook. With Pauline having no other living relatives, he and his partner Hicks decide to arrange for Pauline's adventures to have a fatal outcome, so they can seize her fortune. Each episode would then involve Pauline going off on some adventure, getting into mortal peril thanks to Koerner, and being rescued by Harry.
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9	[[OlderThanTheyThink Not the first film serial]], but a hugely popular one that became a TropeCodifier for film serials. Did not feature some of the tropes that are associated with it in the popular imagination. It didn't really rely on {{cliffhanger}}s, as Pauline's adventures were resolved at the end of each episode. Nor is there a DastardlyWhiplash; Koerner the bad guy is young and clean-shaven and [[EvilIsHammy not particularly hammy]] in his mannerism. Nor was Pauline ChainedToARailway... in surviving footage, anyway (see below). Even in 1914, that trope was considered hokey and a staple of cheap theater.
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11	The original run was 20 episodes, one per week, which added up to 410 minutes. That version is now lost (and there ''are'' sources who insist up, down, and sideways that Pauline, some rope, and a railway did cross paths at some point in this cut). The surviving ''Pauline'' is a ReCut version made for the French market, which was cut down almost by half (214 minutes) and lasts only nine episodes. The series proved so popular that it was followed by a SpiritualSuccessor, ''Film/TheExploitsOfElaine'', in which Pearl White played a similar character getting into similar predicaments.
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13	Not to be confused with other films of the same name including the 1933 serials; the 1947 film, which is a humorous take on Pearl White's rise to fame, or the 1967 comedy based on the serial.
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15	!!Tropes:
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17	* AdaptationNameChange: In the original American version, Koerner the bad guy was named "Raymond Owen." The French version gave him [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI a German name]].
18	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Couldn't call it "The Dangers of Pauline", now could we?
19	* {{Blackmail}}: Hicks pulls this on Koerner, but Koerner soon interests him in a more lucrative scheme to get Pauline's money.
20	* BondVillainStupidity:
21	** In episode 2, Hicks and his goons kidnap Pauline. Do they kill her? No, they abandon her in a cave "to her unfortunate fate." Pauline frees herself, of course.
22	** In episode 5 Koerner's minions have both Pauline and Harry BoundAndGagged. Do they kill them? No. They abandon them in an underground chamber next to a river, with a brick wall that is rigged to explode and flood the chamber. Pauline and Harry escape again.
23	** Episode 8 has Koerner enlisting a band of gypsies to kidnap Pauline. Do they kill her? No, they just keep her around until Harry arrives to rescue her.
24	* BoundAndGagged:
25	** In the first episode, Pauline winds up bound and gagged after the bad guys snatch her away from Harry.
26	** In the second episode Pauline is bound and gagged by the desperadoes who kidnap her on Hicks's orders.
27	** In episode 5 Pauline ''and'' Harry are overpowered and bound and gagged by the bad guys.
28	* DamselInDistress: Pauline wasn't a completely helpless damsel. It was her own desire for adventure that was the hook for the series. In the first episode she shimmies down to safety on a rope after Koerner sets her adrift in a hot air balloon. But she usually found herself needing rescue at some point in every episode.
29	* FilmSerial: As noted above, not the first, but the most famous film serial, a genre that started with the early days of movie-making and lasted until it was largely displaced by television.
30	* HighClassGlass: Amusingly, the High Class Glass which Koerner is affecting pops out when he is unpleasantly surprised to see his old partner Hicks.
31	* HoneyTrap: Mlle. Yagow in episode 7, who is romancing gullible Lt. Summers while stealing the lieutenant's plans for a new submarine.
32	* IdiotBall: Koerner's goon, who scatters spikes on the road in episode 4 in order to wreck Pauline's race car--in full view of race spectators, who see him do it.
33	* IncrediblyObviousBomb: Amusingly, the only reason Harry and Pauline survive in episode 3 is that the bomb on the yacht ticks so loudly that Harry hears it.
34	* IndyEscape: Likely the UrExample. A Sioux tribe, wanting to confirm that the heroine is a goddess, subjects her to the test of the "Death Stone": she must run down a path pursued by a giant boulder.
35	* KissingCousins: Pauline bears her guardian's last name; she's Pauline Marvin. So the best case scenario is that Mr. Marvin is guardian to his brother's son and Pauline is engaged to her first cousin, and the worst case scenario is that Pauline and Harry are adopted siblings.
36	* MilkingTheGiantCow: The old pirate in episode 3 does this both in the present day and in the "flashback" when recounting his bogus story of killing the other pirates and hiding the treasure.
37	* MightyWhitey: The tribe of Sioux that Pauline meets in episode 2 are pretty happy to have a blond girl in their midst.
38	-->"You are the white girl who was to spring forth from the ground to lead the warriors of our tribe to victory."
39	* OutOfTheFryingPan: In episode 9 Koerner fiddles with the engine to Pauline's motorboat, leaving her adrift at sea. Pauline spots a large vessel, manages to row her boat over to it, and clambers aboard. The large vessel is a derelict, which is out to sea to serve as a target for naval bombardment.
40	* PlotTriggeringDeath: The death of Mr. Marvin in the first episode gets the ball rolling, as Pauline becomes endangered by the nefarious Koerner.
41	* ReCut: The French version, which is barely half as long as the original, and is the only version to survive.
42	* SpyFiction: Episode 7 is a martini-flavored version of this. Mademoiselle Yagow is a German spy seeking to learn the secrets of French submarines. [[ContrivedCoincidence Entirely by chance]], Pauline, Harry, and Koerner stumble into this plot. Koerner recognizes a fellow villain and enlists Mlle. Yagow in a plot to get Pauline aboard the submarine, which Yagow's man will then sabotage.
43	* ThrillSeeker: Pauline. Koerner's murder job would be harder if Pauline was content to stay home and knit. Instead, she's taking balloon rides, competing in auto races, searching after buried treasure, and the like.

Context Film / ThePerilsOfPauline