The Hazards of Helen

Movie serials were all the rage in the mid-1910's, especially with the popularity of "The Perils of Pauline." Kalem Studios embarked on a serial beginning in November 1914, called "The Hazards of Helen." The series was so attractive to the viewing public that it couldn't soak up enough of the twelve-minute short movies. When the series ran out steam in February 1917, "Harzards" became--and still is--the longest running non-feature length movie series--and serial-- ever in cinematic history. No other movie series comes close to the number of films "Hazards" produced.

The serial is not considered in the "cliffhanger" format such as "Pauline. " Each episode was self-contained and concluded with a happy ending to each adventure. The series premise is a telegraph operator for a railroad confronting situations on the railroad tracks requiring her to perform daring exploits. Kalem selected Helen Holmes, a former Keystone Studio actress recently signed by its Los Angeles office. Her athleticism was an enormous asset since she was required to jump onto moving trains to combat villains or stop runaway railcars.

Holmes implied she shaped the character of Helen by inputting her background into the storylines. Her father was a railroad engineer, so she was very familiar with the transit environment.

In all, Kalem produced 119 episodes over a two-year period, issuing each one on a Saturday morning in theaters so viewers had a chance to see a new adventure over the weekend. Holmes, whose stardom shot up exponentially, and her new husband, the director of the series, J. P. McGowan, decided to depart Kalem to be on their own. But stardom faded soon after leaving the series.

Kalem cast other substitute actresses for the next 25 episodes before selecting a permanent Helen, a former rodeo rider, Helen Gibson. As did Holmes, Gibson performed all her stunts in the 70 episodes, making the duo the first women to be stunt movie daredevils. Her movie career lasted well into the early 1960's, mostly in bit parts, with her last film as a townswoman in John Ford's 1962 "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

A great majority of "The Hazards of Helen" films are lost. The earliest existing one is "The Leap From The Water Tower" starring Holmes. The last surviving film is "The Governor's Special" with Gibson.

The series has been cited as the first movie to be shot in Las Vegas when the producers selected the town for a 1915 episode with Holmes dodging danger in the desert near and in the fledging town of Vegas.

WARNING: the picture illustrating this title is not, repeat not, from The Hazards of Helen series. Yes, it does feature several of the actors who were to appear in Hazards episodes, but this is from 'The Conductor's Courtship' which preceded the series. Misleading by IMDb to keep featuring this image! Producing one episode a week, yes one per week, over 119 eps, what an achievement the Hazards was, no wonder that Helen Holmes and J.P. McGowan went on to found their own studio (Signal Corp, devoted to railroad melodramas) after ep 49!

As of this writing, The Hazards of Helen, is leading in amount of votes on the IMDb over its chief rival, The Perils of Pauline. It perhaps attracts more fans because of its "high camp" appeal today. Although both are of the same age, "Hazzard" in addition seems a bit more crisper and technically superior with Helen Holmes coming across somewhat tougher than Pearl. Even in comparison with other non serials of the time, the Holmes serial looks to be in the forefront with the amount of close-ups and brevity of inter-titles which translates into superior enjoyment. A typical example among the 119 chapters is, In Danger's Path(1914). No doubt to cut down on inter-titles(there are only 2), characters names are not given, so Helen's male friend will have to forego one for this review. The story starts out at Hobart Junction with it's telegraph operator Helen(in close-up). Her pal arrives, and a photograph of the thieves they are to look out for is shown. We transfer to a close-up of the thieves in hiding, then a medium close shot of them throwing the loot off the train. The inspector on top espies them. Switch to Helen at control switch. Then back to the villainous twosome jumping from the train at Hobart Junction. A pursuit follows, Helen and friend run out in different directions with Helen, of course, running right into them! After a brief struggle, they throw her in the refrigerator car. Helen's first hazard was not long in arriving! Not to be overcome, Helen inside at once begins to rub two pieces of wood together to start a fire. The train is on the move again. The wood begins to emit flames. Then the fire gets out of control. The billowing smoke coming out of the train is spotted. The train comes to a halt at the water stop. The refrigerator car and Helen are doused with water, with Helen emerging totally drenched! She at this point is not too dismayed at the events so far, just another day on the job! She is taken away and given a hot drink. Soon after the thieves are on the loose again, and in no time Helen and friend bump into them again! A short-lived struggle ensues and the villains get away. Her friend pursues and catches up to them. Will Helen come to the rescue? This serial remains a definite crowd pleaser! Print quality is fair to good, running time 16 minutes.

The Wild Engine is a marvelous example of Early cinematography. The plot is a little hard to follow but basically It is about an excursion train of vacationers on a train pulling out of the station .Unbeknown to them back at the rail yard an engineer was knocked out of his locomotive by a wire that fell off of a yard light and his train is going down the track merrily by itself BEHIND the excursion train so the potential for a rear end accident is very real. Helen the new telegrapher who was just hired by the railroad receives word of this runaway train and gets orders to sidetrack the excursion train so the runaway does not plow into it then sidetrack the runaway before it gets to the drawbridge. how it ends ? Watch it at internet archives and find out

This review is for Episode 26, "The Wild Engine." This was my first look at "Helen," who was played - ironically - by two actresses named Helen although the second one changed her first name to suit the long-running weekly series. She was "Helen" Gibosn, who married the then-famous "Hoot" Gibson. These quarter-hour movies were serials, like "The Perils Of Pauline," and there were 119 of them. This one that I saw was part of the "More Treasures From the American Film Archives, which was released in 2004, and starred Helen Holmes.

Here, Helen goes out to prove that not all women lose their heads in emergencies, as a man states early on in this film. (At the end, she demands an apology.)

Soon, we see a runaway train with a lot of passengers aboard and Helen reads a telegram that has just been sent notify railroad officials of the potential disaster, that someone needs to sidetrack the train before it reaches a bridge.

The serial shows how all are saved. I found it a bit complicated since there are very few title cards and explanation of what is going on. You'd have to be an old-time railroad expert to figure this out! Two trains are involved, which were fun to watch, but this was a confusing story.