The Perils of Pauline

"The King of Serials...VCI Entertainment ~ Perils of Pauline (1934)"
VCI Entertainment and Universal Pictures present..."Perils of Pauline" (1934) (Dolby digitally remastered), a 12 Chapter cliffhanger from an enjoyable early sound Universal serial era featuring an outstanding cast with Ray Taylor and Henry MacRae at the helm....will our famous scientist (James Durkin) and his beautiful daughter Pauline (Evalyn Knapp) find an ivory disc in a temple in Indochina...does this hidden artifact have the formula for a deadly gas engraved on it...will the evil doctor (John Davidson) and his gang of henchman succeed in lifting this from our heroine Pauline and her new found friend Robert Allen...could this Universal Serial be the start of something big that will keep growing decades hereafter...and is it very nice to keep us guessing during and after every episode...don't leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "Confu's Sacred Secret"....just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with...

VCI's DVD edition: Good Picture, Disappointing Sound
Universal's twelve-chapter serial "The Perils of Pauline" from 1933 has little in common with the 1914 Pearl White classic, other than story writer Charles W. Goddard, who wrote the screenplay for the earlier serial. Still, the "remake" is good for its time. It was directed by Ray Taylor, with screenplay by Basil Dickey, Jack Foley, Ella O'Neill and George Plympton.

The story has Professor Hargrave (James Durkin) in China, seeking an ivory disk inscribed with an ancient formula for a deadly disintegrating gas, which years earlier he had promised his dying friend, the priest Confu, he would use to benefit humanity. With the Professor are his daughter, Pauline (Evalyn Knapp) and his secretary, Willie Dodge (Sonny Ray), neither of whom are enthusiastic about staying in China, given that a revolution is in progress and the city is being bombed. But the Professor explains that others have learned of the formula's existence, and it might fall into the hands of the evil Dr...

THIS ONE SET THE STANDARD FOR MANY THAT FOLLOWED
Well to begin with, it would be difficult for me to add a great deal concerning this film after reading the wonderful review on this page by J. Lovins. "Mr Jim" has pretty well hit the nail on the head with this one.

The Saturday afternoon serial was, in many ways, a semi-important part of life for many of my generation. As far as outside entertainment was concerned, the movies were it...no T.V., no video, no computers, no nothing of that nature. We had the movies and we had books. Looking back, this was quite satisfactory and quite adequate. A big part of the movie experience for little boys and girls in this era was the cliff hanger serial. We followed these things week after week and again, looking back, it is surprising just how much of our conversation during the week, between episodes, addressed past episodes and speculated on future ones.

Our theater was located in a very isolated section of the country at that time, in a very small town. We did not...

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