Since the past month seems to be a month of remakes; The Wolfman, The Crazies; I thought I would highlight a serial remake. Like the new versions of classic films I just mentioned, The Perils of Pauline (1933) has not fared well with the critics when compared to the original.
Professor Hargave (James Durkin) and his daughter Pauline (Evelyn Knapp), along with Hargrave’s overly nervous assistant Willie Dodge (Sonny Ray) are in China looking for an ancient ivory disc that contains a formula for making a disintigrating gas. Also on the trail of the disc is Dr. Bashan (John Davidson) who is planning to use it for world conquest. Both parties are hampered by the fighting that has broken out with rebels attacking the city.
Bashan’s right hand man, Fang (Frank Lackteen), has spotted Dodge and follows him to the Hargrave’s hotel. Dodge tells the Professor that he has located the temple of Tsai Tsin, where the disc is hidden. The Professor decides to leave Pauline at the hotel while they go to the temple. Pauline spots Fang trailing them. Grabbing a gun, she heads out after her father.
Once on the street she is grabbed by some of Bashan’s men. Hearing her cries is Robert Ward (Robert Allen), a railroad engineer thrown out of work by the the conflict and heading to the nearest Army recruitment office when he passed by the alley Pauline was dragged into. Jumping into the fray, he beats off the henchmen, grabs Pauline and heads for safety. They are chased but quickly elude their pursuers. Pauline thanks Ward for his help and tries to head for the temple without him but Ward insists on going along.
Hargrave and Dodge reach the temple. Bashan is already there, but lets them go inside so that they can find the disc for him, then he plans on taking it away after they come back out. Pauline and Ward arrive and head into the temple.
Everyone is attacked by the temple guards, but Ward and Harrave manage to defeat them while Pauline searches the temple altar and Dodge stands petrified and screaming. Pauline finds a hidden drawer in the temple but it only contains half a disc. Meanwhile the Army has started bombing the area and a bomb hits the temple, dropping the roof down on them…..
I don’t know if you can really call this a remake, considering the only simularities between this version and the original silent is the title. The original was a story common to the day, an heiress mark for death by the supposedly kindly executor of her estate who wants her fortune for himself. This version is updated to a pulp style exotic adventure popular in the early thirties. Many critics have labeled this a weak serial, mainly due to it’s not being the Pearl White classic. But I think it’s an unfair assessment. Taken on it’s own The Perils of Pauline is an enjoyable action film.
The plot is a globe trotting extravaganza that takes the cast from China to the jungles of Borneo, then the deserts of India, before finally finishing in the good old USA as they have to locate the second disc and then get the formula translated. Along the way they have to contend with angry natives, jungle cats, maurading gorillas, captive sharks, death trap laden temples as well as the ever present Dr. Bashan and Fang.
There is also a nice bit of romance between Pauline and Ward, with lots of flirting which is enhanced by the great chemistry between Knapp and Allen. This is highlighted by a funny joke in Chapter Ten with Allen saying he has never been one to move very fast, prompting Knapp to quip that he hasn’t been doing too bad so far.
Allen plays a good solid man of action and is well complimented by Knapp’s brave and determined heroine. Durkin is his usual stern and dependable self, giving off both a fatherly concern for Knapp and a scholarly excitement about the exotic areas they are passing through.
John Davidon and Frank Lackteen make a great villainous team. Davidson, never looked more satanic then he does here with his huge widow’s peak and reptilian eyes, is equal parts clever and pompous, never missing an opportunity to gloat at the heroes when he has the upper hand. Lackteen effectively portrays the contradiction of being totally ruthless while being a coward, constantly cowering before Davidson when he has to report another failure. It should come as no surprise that the heroes don’t defeat these two, they do themselves in.
If there is anything disappointing about the serial (outside of the outrageous rascism portrayed by a kindly safarai leader in the jungle section, explaining “You got to be tough with these babies,” when refering to how to treat his native bearers) it is the extremely unfunny antics of Sonny Ray. His comedy antics makes Lee Ford look like Harold Lloyd. He bounces between emitting a high pitched screech and running around frantically during action scenes to constantly offering his resignation at the first sign of danger. Oh the hilarity!
He is also at the center of one of the most irritating scenes in the serial, Chapter Nine, The Mummy Walks, which doesn’t feature a mummy. While the good guys and bad guys are skulking around a museum to swipe an important item needed for the translation, Sonny trips and falls into a tub of white wash, rolls around it, then climbs out and stumbles around with his arms waving frantically. The bad guys see him, scream “A ghost!” and knock each other down trying to get away (while also inspiring James Horne’s entire serial output six years later).
Sch criticsm aside, this is an enjoyable adventure from Universal’s early sound period, and well worth a look.
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