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.

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?

This film is a must for families seeking good old-fashioned entertainment. Orphaned Pauline and mean-spirited George (Pat Boone!) are star-crossed lovers; will they ever get together? And what about Terry Thomas? Will he get Pauline before George? If you like "What A Way To Go", you'll enjoy this movie.

I absolutely love this movie, I remember seeing it in 1967, I think they only showed it on TV I don't think it was in theaters, but I was 4 or 5 at the time and I remember they showed it on TV alot. This movie is very funny and at times very heartwarming. I love the scene in the begining when George plays a trick on the son of the people who finally take Pauline (Pamela Austin) in after all the efforts to get her adopted fail. George releases the break on the car just as the son is getting Pauline's suitcase and Pauline goes back to the car for her toothbrush. They both end up riding the car in silent movie, comedy like romp (because neither of them can drive), with evryone chasing after them. They finally crash the car into a train, and pieces of the car go flying all over the place and Pauline ends up on a railroad signal pole. The people change their minds about adopting Pauline and when George admits to pulling the prank to the orphange trustee, he's told to pack his bag and leave. The scene when he's leaving is very heartwarming and touching bacause they must part and you get to hear Pat Boone sing the beautiful theme song. All through the movie, they must go through many perils and adventures in their efforts to find each other. I'm not going to tell you the ending though but I will say you will enjoy this movie thoroughly.

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 फ्लायिंग हाय (1980) even in films you haven't seen before and aren't nostalgic for, then this film is well worth trying out.