Pearl White Movies
Actress Pearl White is best remembered as the silent screen heroine in the enormously popular Perils of Pauline serials that began in 1914. She was born a farmer's daughter in Green Ridge, Missouri. At age six, she played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin. This lead to many other child leads, the earnings from which allowed her to buy a horse. At 13, she became a circus equestrienne until she fell off a horse and suffered a serious spinal injury. She left the circus and joined travelling troupes and performed in stock theater, but never did make it to Broadway. Instead she took a secretary job with a small film company where she was noticed by director Joseph A. Golden who was frantically searching to replace the female lead of his newest western The Life of Buffalo Bill. White was a hit, and went on to star in over 100 one-two reel comedies, adventures, and westerns for several studios, frequently co-starring with Paul Panzer and Henry B. Walthall. She then went on to do Pauline where she often performed her own stunts. When they were too dangerous (her spinal injury kept her from being overly daring), slightly built men doubled for her. At her peak, White was more popular than Mary Pickford for several years. Following Pauline, she continued in other serials until 1920, when she moved to Fox so she could try her hand at becoming a dramatic leading lady. Unfortunately, she was not popular and returned to serials in 1923. In 1924 she made her final film in France and retired. She lived there for the rest of her life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
The art of the movie chase sequence hardly began with Bullitt or The French Connection -- no thriller of the silent era was complete without a hair-raising chase scene, and this compilation pulls together highlights from some of the great films of the early 20th century. Starting with The Great Train Robbery (1903), this documentary follows the history of the silent movie chase sequence, and it includes excerpts from The Mark of Zorro (1920), Way Down East (1920), The Perils of Pauline (1914), and Buster Keaton's masterpiece, The General (1927). The Great Chase also features an original score written and performed by the great harmonica player Larry Adler. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1923
Returning after a four year hiatus to the genre that had made her a world-wide household name back in the 1910s, Pearl White starred as Pearl Travers, a girl who stumbles over buried treasure in this 15 chapter serial. Unfortunately for both Pearl and the villain, Jud Deering (Harry Semels), the treasure is buried under a newly erected skyscraper. Pearl and Deering vie with each other to acquire an owner's share in the building, with the latter having the upper hand by not shying away from both theft and murder. Thrown into this mix of adventure of melodrama is a mad doctor and his Frankenstein-like creation and a helpful young leading man. The latter was played by one Warren Krech, a handsome, mustachioed leading man who sensibly changed his name to Warren William. The serial was a success at the box office if not exactly a happy experience for its leading lady. Having abandoned the serial field in 1919 in favor of feature films, White had only achieved modest success. By 1923, she was visibly tired, suffered from bad eyesight, which threw her timing, and was in constant pain from an old back injury. On top of all that, White's double, John Stevenson, was killed performing one of the serial's many elaborate stunts. Plunder was produced and directed by George B. Seitz, who more than anyone had been the brains behind White's rise to serial fame in the '10s. But not even Seitz could turn Plunder into the thrilling comeback that White had hoped for, and she finished her career on a rather downbeat note. Returning to her home in Paris, France, Pearl White filmed the little seen French serial Terreur (aka Perils of Paris) in 1924 and left the screen for good. She died prematurely in 1938, reportedly from injuries sustained during the filming of her old serials. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1922
At the beginning of 1922, former serial star Pearl White was working very hard to earn a reputation as a dramatic actress -- this picture was released the same month as another feature of hers, Any Wife. Myrtle May (White) is the hostess of a cabaret and is known for her stylish clothes (the Paris fashions White wore were considered a drawing point). She falls in love with Harold Van Tassle (Joseph Stryker), a young man from a wealthy, aristocratic family. They become engaged, even though Myrtle is a number of years older than Van Tassle. But then she discovers that he is spending more and more time with Rose, one of her protégés (Doris Raton). When Myrtle catches the two of them together, she banishes them from her home and makes Rose look bad in the eye's of Van Tassle's mother (Elizabeth Garrison). But Myrtle's conscience catches up with her and she starts feeling guilty. She goes back to her ex-lover's mother and undoes the damage she did. Van Tass le weds Rose, while Myrtle goes back to the cabaret and her old life. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pearl White, Doris Eaton, (more)
- 1922
Serial star Pearl White was near the end of her misguided attempt to become a serious actress when she made this commonplace drama. John Miles (Robert Elliot) is a self-made millionaire who doesn't fit in with society because he lacks a pedigree. This matters not one bit to Ruth Hamilton (White), who lives in the mansion next door. Her father, Warren Hamilton (Charles MacKay), however, does care very much, and he thoroughly disapproves of the young people's friendship. When he won't allow Ruth to invite Miles to her masquerade ball, she sneaks over to his home to show off her costume. Her secret visit has been observed by a jealous suitor, Bill Barton (Macey Harlam), who blabs to her father. It turns out that old money or no, Hamilton is about to go into bankruptcy, and Miles is the one who bails him out. When snobby old pa realizes that Miles is a good egg after all, he allows him to marry Ruth. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Mackay, Robert Agnew, (more)
- 1922
Tired of making serials and suffering from a back injury sustained in her latest, Pearl White (of The Perils of Pauline fame) signed a deal with producer William Fox to star in a series of society melodramas. Any Wife told the tragic story of Myrtle Hill, a discontented wife who refuses to join her husband (Gilbert Emery) on a business trip, dallying instead with a business assistant (Holmes Herbert). Returning unexpectedly, Hill finds his wife embracing the "other man" and demands a divorce. Declared an unfit mother and losing custody of her only child, Myrtle marries her lover. She misses her former life, however, and the marriage is doomed from the start. Her life continuing in a downward spiral, Myrtle takes the only way out: Jumping to her death from a bridge. But in a typical Hollywood denouement, it was all a bad dream. Myrtle resolves to devote her life to her marriage and agrees to accompany her husband on his business trip. Audiences never accepted Pearl White in melodramas such as this and in 1923 she returned to the serial field a final time before retiring. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1921
What was actress Pearl White thinking when she decided to portray a female Tarzan? The resulting picture was one of the more curious features of 1921. After the death of her missionary parents, Gratia Latham (White) grows up in the jungle with lions, monkeys and some random cannibals as her pals. But when her millionaire uncle dies, Gratia becomes an heiress, so a boat comes to fetch her. On board is the uncle's secretary, Bernard Holt (Alan Edwards), who wants to marry her so he can have her money. But one of the other members of the search party, Bob Alan (Robert Elliott), falls in love with the wild woman after she knocks him off a cliff for taking a pot shot at her lions. Gratia is eventually removed from her jungle home and taken to her uncle's home to be "civilized." This is not easy -- when given her first-ever gown, she puts it on upside down. Holt continues to woo Gratia, but for his efforts he gets beaten up -- by her. Finally Gratia becomes a relatively refined young lady and weds Alan. There was some question as to whether this feature was an adventure, a comedy, or both. Whichever, Miss White certainly has fun with her role. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pearl White, Robert Elliott, (more)
- 1921
Although the star's heyday as a serial queen had passed, this Pearl White feature certainly had its share of thrills. Alexander McGivens (White) was raised like a boy by her lumberman father (George Barnum). After his death she and her father's friend, Will Brent (John W. Dillon), take over the job of floating the logs down the river. Although all she ever wears is pants, Alexander is surrounded by a number of highly inappropriate suitors, among them robber Jase Mallows (J. Thornton Baston) and crooked Easterner Jack Holloway (Richard C. Travers). The only one worth anything is Jerry O'Keefe (Corliss Giles). Before she and O'Keefe end the picture together, Alexander is bound and gagged in a mine shaft, escapes, and saves her lover who is trapped in a burning granary. This picture was shot on location by director Sam Wood in the Cumberland mountains. It was based on a novel, The Pagan of the Hills, by Charles Neville Buck. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
In one of her several attempts to escape the physically demanding serial genre, Pearl White (of Perils of Pauline fame) starred in this society melodrama about a young girl, who is deserted by all and sundry after the death of her greedy father. When all hope for a decent life seems over for Ellen Schuyler (White), John Barrett (Harry C. Browne) proposes marriage. Unhappily, John's nasty mother (Estar Banks) makes life miserable for Ellen and after three years of agony she is ready to leave home and hearth for society scion Roy Phelps (Wilfred Lytell). But Phelps proves as bad as her late father and Ellen is persuaded to return to her forgiving husband and young son. White, who had suffered a serious injury in one of her earlier serials, was never accepted in drawing room dramas. After one last American chapterplay, Plunder (1923), and one produced in France, she retired. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1921
Attempting to break away from serials in the early 1920s, Pearl "Perils of Pauline" White made several starring features at Fox Studios. In Beyond Price, White plays the wife of philandering Vernon Steele. She launches a campaign to win her husband back, using every feminine wile at her disposal. Like most of White's vehicles, Beyond Price was filmed in New York. When her venture into "legitimate" pictures fizzled, the plucky White returned to serials with a vengeance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pearl White
- 1920
Tiger (Frank Evans) is one of those shifty gamblers often found in movies set in the Alaskan wilds. His daughter, known only as "the Cub" (Pearl White), is a spirited young lass who is devoted to her invalid mother. Tiger and his partner, Bill Slark (J. Thornton Baston), cheat Colonel Summers (John Woodford) out of his mine and so he won't complain, they murder him and call it suicide. They go into hiding until things cool off, and during that time the Cub meets Summers' son, David (Thomas J. Carrigan). They fall in love, but Tiger surfaces and forces her to marry Slark by threatening to toss her mother out into the cold if she refuses. So they wed, but before Slark can consummate the forced marriage, David comes to the rescue. Slark, it turns out, already was married, and his deserted wife reappears and shoots him dead. Tiger is arrested for Summers' murder, and it is discovered that he is not really the Cub's father after all. Although Pearl White was mostly known for her serials The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine, she did make her share of features. This one was filmed years after her famed serial days were through. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
The only thing remotely interesting about this flimsy drama is the number of gorgeous outfits worn by its star, former serial queen Pearl White. White plays Mary Vantyne, whose husband, Andrew (Charles Waldron), doesn't make a lot of money. Her friend Isabelle (Dorothy Cummings) has married a wealthy man, Richard Lenwright (George Howard) and when the Vantynes attend a party at their home, Mary feels dowdy next to the other women. So she does what many a woman has before and since -- she goes out and buys a load of beautiful clothes. Meanwhile two men have fallen for her -- Richard Blake (Wallace McCutcheon), wealthy neighbor of the Lenwrights, and Richard Lenwright's own son, Fred. Although Mary isn't interested, she's dismayed when she discovers she owes more on her new gowns than she can pay. Things get complicated when Blake tries to get her over to his place by blackmailing her, and some of Richard Lenwright's cash turns up missing. He thinks Fred is to blame. Blake has paid for some of Mary's clothes and when Andrew finds the bill he wants to kill him. Blake says he paid the bill to help Fred, so Andrew turns his ire towards the young man. But finally Mary admits she stole Lenwright's money to pay for her clothes. Since Mary is only a thief and not an adulteress, Andrew forgives her. This story, surprisingly, had a fairly long life -- first it was a successful play by Henri Bernstein, and then filmed in 1915 with Dorothy Donnelly before this version was made. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
In what many reviewers considered her best serial, Pearl White played the title-role of The Lightning Raider, a fearless young maiden who steals for the excitement alone and promptly replaces the loot. When a priceless block of ebony is stolen from the home of handsome Thomas Babbington North (Harry G. Sell) by someone else, Pearl readily helps him recover it. Alas, our heroes are opposed by Wu Fang (Warner Oland), a wily and deadly Asian, and it takes them 15 hair-raising chapters to get to the point where "Wu Fang Atones," which not coincidentally is also the title of the final installment. Directed by the best in the business, George B. Seitz, and written by Seitz and his frequent partner Bertram Millhouser, The Lightning Raider made a mint for the Pathé concern, who at this point was paying Pearl White an impressive $5,000 a week. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1918
The queen of the silent chapterplays, Pearl White battled both greedy relatives and a mysterious enemy known only as The Hooded Terror in this Pathé serial, released in, as the advertising promised, "20 stirring chapters." White is the heir to a munitions plant and in love with scientist Harry Gresham (Antonio Moreno). But to keep the factory in the family, she must marry a less than desirable cousin, and, to complicate matters further, another cousin, the cruel Naomi (Peggy Shanor), has designs on the handsome Gresham as well. And then there's The Hooded Terror, out to destroy the Walden munitions plant for his own reasons. As always, however, Pearl White survives her perils in fine style and with most of her sanity in check. Louis Wolheim, so memorable later as the amiable Sgt. Katczinsky in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), had a small part in this serial as one of the Terror's henchmen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Pearl White was back in this 20 chapter action serial from Pathé, this time playing Pearl Standish, a young girl fighting to retain a priceless violet diamond supposedly stolen by her father from an underground lost city. To regain possession of the diamond, Pearl is aided by Nicholas Knox (Earle Fox), a former adversary she has managed to win over to her side with her charming personality. The opposition, however, is rather powerful and includes both the High Priestess of the Sacred Order (Ruby Hoffman) and the debonair but deadly Richard Carlslake. The latter was played, to the hilt according to surviving reviews, by Warner Oland, the Swedish-born character actor who would eventually gain international fame as the clever Honolulu-based detective Charlie Chan. This early in his career, however, Oland was almost always cast as a heinous villain and would, in fact, return to menace poor Pearl in The Lightning Raider (1919). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This melodrama was first a novel, and then a play by Steele Mackaye before winding up on the "silver sheet" (as they called motion pictures in those days). When Dunstan Kirke (William Riley) is on the verge of losing his mill, squire Rodney (Bruce McRae) bails him out. His one condition: to send the Kirke daughter, Hazel (serial star Pearl White), to be educated, then marry her. But while Hazel is at school, she meets Arthur Carringford (Creighton Hale), the son of a wealthy, socially prominent family. They fall in love, and Kirke, believing that Hazel has betrayed Rodney's trust, tosses her out of the house. So she and Carringford are married -- except that Carringford's servant gets a fake preacher for the ceremony because he knows that the Carringford family will not approve of the union. Sure enough, Arthur's mother tells Hazel to get lost and reveals that the wedding was a sham. The dejected Hazel heads back to her parents' home, and Rodney offers once again to marry her. But Carringford comes around, determined to right the wrong he believes was done. However, it turns out that the minister was not really phony at all, but just pretended to be because he wanted to prevent the wedding from being faked. So Hazel and Carringford are happily married after all. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pearl White
- 1916
Many film historians claim that actress Pearl White concentrated exclusively on serials before switching over to "straight" drama around 1920. In fact, even while White was thrilling her fans in such mid-teens cliffhangers as The Exploits of Elaine, she was showing up in such non-serial endeavors as Pathe's The King's Game. Though there's no "Continued Next Week" in this 5-reel endeavor, White undergoes quite a few Pauline-like perils in her role as the daughter of a fugitive Russian military officer. Escaping the Czarist police, the heroine and her dad become involved with a band of revolutionaries. With plucky White in charge, however, the authorities and the nihilists come to an understanding without resorting to useless violence (would that real life were so simple!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
The sequel to 1914's popular serial The Exploits of Elaine, the plainly titled The New Exploits of Elaine was once again filmed in and around Ithaca, New York, by George B. Seitz and starred the irrepressible Pearl White in the title-role. Although Elaine and her savior, master detective Craig Kennedy (Arnold Daly), had defeated the devil-worshipping Wu Fang (Edwin Arden) in the 14th and final chapter of the previous serial, the wily villain was back to terrorize the civilized world in general and Elaine in particular in 10 new chapters. Also back for more punishment was Elaine's beau, intrepid newspaper reporter Walter Jameson (Creighton Hale), this time helping Mr. Kennedy and Elaine launch a newfangled torpedo in their fight for democracy. Alas, democracy was threatened yet again in the third and final "Elaine" serial, The Romance of Elaine, produced later in 1915. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1914
The Perils of Pauline was not the first movie serial ever made, but it is perhaps the best known -- though that doesn't mean it was the best. The throughline of this 18-episode chapter play was disarmingly simple: Pauline Harvin (Pearl White) has fallen heir to a fortune, all of which will go to her family lawyer and "trusted friend" Koerner (Paul Panzer) should anything happen to her. Naturally, Koerner wants to get his mitts on the money as soon as possible, so he concocts innumerable diabolical schemes and adopts countless "clever" disguises, the better to do away with Pauline. Fortunately, all-around hero Harry Marvin (played by future screenwriter/director Crane Wilbur) is on hand to rescue Pauline from her various perils, which include abductions by Gypsies, Indians, and demented pirates. Equally fortunate, Pauline is supremely capable of taking care of herself whenever Harry isn't around. To prove this at one point, she enters and wins an international motor race. In the final episode, the despicable Koerner is hoist on his own petard, while Pauline (who never suspected that her lawyer was behind all of her troubles!) enjoys a climactic embrace with faithful Harry. Poorly directed and miserably photographed in some of the least attractive locations in New Jersey, The Perils of Pauline wouldn't have been worth anyone's time had it not been for the presence of Pearl White, a truly appealing and charismatic actress who invariably seemed better and more intelligent than her material. Of the 18 episodes, only nine survive (all of them self-contained stories, and none of them "cliffhangers"); these were culled from a French re-release version, which contained some of the most illiterate subtitles in screen history. (At one point, a character suggests that Pauline's "immoral strength" be tested; of course, he meant "immortal," but the French translator didn't know that!) The title Perils of Pauline was reused in 1934 for an unrelated talkie serial; in 1947, for a filmed biography of Pearl White with Betty Hutton; and in 1967, for a TV pilot starring Pamela Austin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Although not as remembered as The Perils of Pauline (also 1914), The Exploits of Elaine was by all accounts the superior serial, grossing over $1 million dollars and further establishing its athletic leading lady Pearl White as the serial queen to beat. White played Elaine Dodge, whose father (William Riley Hatch) is murdered for some papers that may reveal the secret hideaway of a notorious and ruthless master criminal known only as The Clutching Hand (Sheldon Lewis). Helping Elaine track down the villain is noted detective Craig Kennedy (Arnold Daly), who is himself aided by newspaperman Walter Jameson (Creighton Hale in the first three chapters then Raymond Owens in chapters 4-14). Among the Clutching Hand's minions and henchmen are a South American Indian who uses darts dipped in curare as his weapon of choice, an insane scientist who invents an apocalyptic killing machine, and a gang of crooks known as "The Brotherhood of the Falsers." Along the way, Elaine is framed in a blackmail scheme by Wu Fang (Edwin Arden), a devil-worshipping Asian, and is almost sacrificed to the devil herself. Our heroine is rescued again and again by the stalwart Mr. Kennedy, who uses a scientific gadget or two to battle the forces of evil. Produced by the Wharton Brothers in and around Ithaca, New York, The Exploits of Elaine was co-directed by George B. Seitz, an early serial expert who is today perhaps better known for helming M-G-M's pleasantly nostalgic "Andy Hardy" series 1937-1944. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
