You may not
remember Pearl White or her most famous film: The Perils of Pauline. She and
French director Louis Gasnier popularized a then-new formula that proved vastly successful:
the serial. And, in effect, Pearl became known as the Queen of
serial. Audiences would flock to the theaters every week to find out how she had escaped from each deadly peril.
The term “Cliffhanger” was apparently coined specifically for that film since hanging from a cliff was one of the dangers she had to face.
The term “Cliffhanger” was apparently coined specifically for that film since hanging from a cliff was one of the dangers she had to face.
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| Behind-the-scene shot of Pearl "up in the air". |
Louis
Gasnier even appears as himself in the film, auditioning Pauline when she wants
to be in the movies.
Originally
scheduled for 14 episodes (one or two reelers), the film was extended to 20 due
to its immense popularity.
Consequently,
Pearl White became more famous that Mary Pickford or Lilian Gish at the time.
She even got to meet Sarah Bernhardt during the shoot of Pearl of the Army because the French actress was such a fan of her films. She had started in the movies with a blonde wig because she felt it
photographed better, and only had to remove the wig to go unnoticed among the fans.
She even
wrote one of (if not) the first film star autobiography in 1919, “Just Me” in
which she admits she had to learn to swim, play tennis or fly a plane for
Pauline.
After 1919, she decided to try her luck at features and signed with Fox films. Despite good reviews, the films did not meet with the same success and she went back to serials with Plunder in 1923.
Producers
hired stunt doubles to perform the stunts that Pearl White used to do herself.
One of that stunt double, John Stevenson, died on the set during a particular
dangerous stunt.
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| Pearl in her last role |
That and
the suicide of her former husband who had never recovered from the divorce made her disappear from the public eye. She retired in France where she made only one more film in 1925, Terreur.
Unfortunately, most films she appeared in
are, for the most part, either completely or partially lost, or at least unavailable. The Perils of
Pauline only remains as a 28mm reduction and in the European condensed version
of 9 episodes. It is available on DVD though.
Another big hit of hers that survives is The Exploits of
Elaine, which was selected for the National Film Registry in 1994.
Pearl White
died in France, addicted to alcohol and medicine,
forgotten by all in 1938.
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Her
connection to that country was due to the fact that she started her
career with Pathé, a French company. As a matter of fact, since their studios
were on the east cost at Fort Lee, she never set foot in Hollywood.
Ironically, in 1947 her life was fictionalized in
the film The Perils of Pauline played by Betty Hutton, another star who later
fell from grace, as I already wrote in that article.Don't forget to click like on the Facebook page if you like this blog!
That's all for today folks!
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