The Perils of Pauline (1947)

The Perils of Pauline is a 1947 American Technicolor film directed by George Marshall and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a fictionalized Hollywood account of silent film star Pearl White's rise to fame, starring Betty Hutton as White.

The film, a broad satire of silent-film production, is a musical-comedy vehicle for Hutton, filmed in Technicolor, with original songs by Frank Loesser (including the standards "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" and "Rumble, Rumble, Rumble"). The film is in the public domain today. However, Universal Studios (through NBC Universal Television, successor-in-interest to EMKA, Ltd.) owns the original film elements. All public domain video releases are sourced from 16 mm television prints that have faded over the years.

Paul Panzer, who played the villain in the 1914 film The Perils of Pauline, has a very small part in this film, as do silent-comedy veterans Chester Conklin, Hank Mann, Snub Pollard, and James Finlayson. The 1933 film version The Perils of Pauline starred Evalyn Knapp and Craig Reynolds. In the 1967 film version The Perils of Pauline starred Pat Boone and Pamela Austin.

Synopsis

Pearl White (Betty Hutton) is a frustrated factory worker who aspires to become a dramatic actress. She joins a touring theatrical troupe managed by handsome but pompous Mike (John Lund), but fame and fortune elude her because she's unable to suppress her natural rambunctiousness. In desperation, White takes a job at a movie studio, where she promptly finds herself in the middle of a slapstick pie fight. With the help of bombastic director Mac (William Demarest), top-hatted villain portrayer Timmy (Billy De Wolfe), and imperious dramatics coach Julia (Constance Collier), Pearl soon becomes world-famous as the star of such cliffhanging, tied-to-the-railroad-tracks serials as The Perils of Pauline.

Actors