The Perils of Pauline


1h 47m 1967
The Perils of Pauline

Film Details

Genre
Adventure
Comedy
Romance
Release Date
Jan 1967
Premiere Information
Fort Lee, New Jersey, opening: 9 May 1967
Production Company
Herbert B. Leonard Enterprises; Universal Pictures
Distribution Company
Universal Pictures
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Inspired by the motion picture serial The Perils of Pauline written by Charles W. Goddard (Pathé, 1914)

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 47m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (Technicolor)

Synopsis

Two orphans, Pauline and George, fall in love at the Baskerville Foundling Home. Before leaving the orphanage George vows to return as a millionaire and marry Pauline. Seven years later he fulfills his promise, only to find that Pauline has gone to Arabia as the governess of 12-year-old Prince Benji. Arriving in Arabia, George learns that Pauline, having frustrated the precocious prince's plan to make her the first member of his harem, has been sold to white pygmies in the Congo. Abducted by a gorilla, Pauline is rescued by the renowned hunter Sten Martin. While George is recovering in New York City from an African disease, Pauline falls into a sewer. Her elderly savior, millionaire Casper Coleman, freezes Pauline in anticipation of his grandson's maturity. Disconsolate, George has himself frozen. Both are thawed prematurely, but are separated again when Pauline is persuaded by Soviet agents to join the Wolf of Siberia in a spacewalk. Returning to Earth, Pauline finds George impecunious and consents to star in a film directed by Frandisi. During the filming she is abducted by her co-star, her former gorilla captor, but rescued by George. As Pauline and George honeymoon in Venice, their gondola sinks.

Film Details

Genre
Adventure
Comedy
Romance
Release Date
Jan 1967
Premiere Information
Fort Lee, New Jersey, opening: 9 May 1967
Production Company
Herbert B. Leonard Enterprises; Universal Pictures
Distribution Company
Universal Pictures
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Inspired by the motion picture serial The Perils of Pauline written by Charles W. Goddard (Pathé, 1914)

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 47m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (Technicolor)

Articles

Hamilton Camp (1934-2005)


Hamilton Camp, the diminutive yet effervescent actor and singer-songwriter, who spent nearly his entire life in show business, including several appearances in both television and films, died of a heart attack on October 2 at his Los Angeles home. He was 70.

He was born October 30, 1934, in London, England. After World War II, he moved to Canada and then to Long Beach with his mother and sister, where the siblings performed in USO shows. In 1946, he made his first movie, Bedlam starring Boris Karloff as an extra (as Bobby Camp) and continued in that vein until he played Thorpe, one of Dean Stockwell's classmates in Kim (1950).

After Kim he received some more slightly prominent parts in films: a messenger boy in Titanic (1953); and a mailroom attendant in Executive Suite (1954), but overall, Camp was never a steadily working child actor.

Camp relocated to Chicago in the late '50s and rediscovered his childhood passion - music. He began playing in small clubs around the Chicago area, and he struck oil when he partnered with a New York based folk artist, Bob Gibson in 1961. The pair worked in clubs all over the midwest and they soon became known for their tight vocal harmonies and Gibson's 12-string guitar style. Late in 1961, they recorded an album - Gibson and Camp at the Gate of Horn, the Gate of Horn being the most renowned music venue in Chicago for the burgeoning folk scene. The record may have aged a bit over the years, but it is admired as an important progress in folk music by most scholars, particularly as a missing link between the classic era of Woody Guthrie and the modern singer-songwriter genre populated by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Gibson and Camp would split within two years, and after recording some albums as a solo artist and a brief stint with Chicago's famed Second City improvisational comedy troupe, Camp struck out on his own to work as an actor in Los Angeles. His changed his name to Hamilton from Bob, and despite his lack of vertical presence (he stood only 5-foot-2), his boundless energy and quick wit made him handy to guest star in a string of familiar sitcoms of the late '60s: The Monkees, Bewitched, and Love, American Style. By the '70s there was no stopping him as he appeared on virtually every popular comedy of the day: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H, Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company, and WKRP in Cincinnati.

Eventually, Camp's film roles improved too, and he did his best film work in the latter stages of his career: Blake Edward's undisciplined but still funny S.O.B. (1981); Paul Bartel's glorious cult comedy Eating Raoul (1982); and Clint Eastwood's jazz biopic on Charlie Parker Bird (1988). Among his recent work was a guest spot last season as a carpenter on Desperate Housewives, and his recent completion of a Las Vegas based comedy Hard Four which is currently in post-production. Camp is survived by six children and thirteen grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole
Hamilton Camp (1934-2005)

Hamilton Camp (1934-2005)

Hamilton Camp, the diminutive yet effervescent actor and singer-songwriter, who spent nearly his entire life in show business, including several appearances in both television and films, died of a heart attack on October 2 at his Los Angeles home. He was 70. He was born October 30, 1934, in London, England. After World War II, he moved to Canada and then to Long Beach with his mother and sister, where the siblings performed in USO shows. In 1946, he made his first movie, Bedlam starring Boris Karloff as an extra (as Bobby Camp) and continued in that vein until he played Thorpe, one of Dean Stockwell's classmates in Kim (1950). After Kim he received some more slightly prominent parts in films: a messenger boy in Titanic (1953); and a mailroom attendant in Executive Suite (1954), but overall, Camp was never a steadily working child actor. Camp relocated to Chicago in the late '50s and rediscovered his childhood passion - music. He began playing in small clubs around the Chicago area, and he struck oil when he partnered with a New York based folk artist, Bob Gibson in 1961. The pair worked in clubs all over the midwest and they soon became known for their tight vocal harmonies and Gibson's 12-string guitar style. Late in 1961, they recorded an album - Gibson and Camp at the Gate of Horn, the Gate of Horn being the most renowned music venue in Chicago for the burgeoning folk scene. The record may have aged a bit over the years, but it is admired as an important progress in folk music by most scholars, particularly as a missing link between the classic era of Woody Guthrie and the modern singer-songwriter genre populated by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Gibson and Camp would split within two years, and after recording some albums as a solo artist and a brief stint with Chicago's famed Second City improvisational comedy troupe, Camp struck out on his own to work as an actor in Los Angeles. His changed his name to Hamilton from Bob, and despite his lack of vertical presence (he stood only 5-foot-2), his boundless energy and quick wit made him handy to guest star in a string of familiar sitcoms of the late '60s: The Monkees, Bewitched, and Love, American Style. By the '70s there was no stopping him as he appeared on virtually every popular comedy of the day: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H, Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company, and WKRP in Cincinnati. Eventually, Camp's film roles improved too, and he did his best film work in the latter stages of his career: Blake Edward's undisciplined but still funny S.O.B. (1981); Paul Bartel's glorious cult comedy Eating Raoul (1982); and Clint Eastwood's jazz biopic on Charlie Parker Bird (1988). Among his recent work was a guest spot last season as a carpenter on Desperate Housewives, and his recent completion of a Las Vegas based comedy Hard Four which is currently in post-production. Camp is survived by six children and thirteen grandchildren. by Michael T. Toole

Leon Askin (1907-2005)


Leon Askin, the rotund, imposing Austrian character actor, who was best remembered as General Albert Burkhalter, Conolel Klink's exasperated superior on the hit sitcom Hogan's Heroes, died of natural causes on June 3 in his hometown of Vienna. He was 97.

Born in Vienna, Austria as Leo Aschkenasy on September 18, 1907, Askin developed a taste for theater through his mother's love of cabaret, and as a youngster, often accompanied his mother to weekend productions.

He made a go of acting as a profession in 1925, when he took drama classes from Hans Thimig, a noted Austrian stage actor at the time. The following year, he made his Vienna stage debut in Rolf Lauckner's "Schrei aus der Strasse."

For the next six year (1927-33), he was a popular stage actor in both Vienna and Berlin before he was prevented to work on the stage by Hitler's SA for being a Jew. He left for Paris in 1935 to escape anti-semetic persecution, but returned to Vienna in 1935, to find work (albeit a much lower profile to escape scrutiny), but after a few years, the writing was on the wall, and he escaped to New York City in 1939, just at the outbreak of World War II. His luck in the Big Apple wasn't really happening, and in 1941, he relocated to Washington D.C. and briefly held the position of managing director of the Civic Theatre, a popular city venue of the day. Unfortunately, after the tragic events of Pearl Harbor in December of that year, the United States became involved in the war that had already engulfed Europe for two years, and seeing a possibility to expediate his application for American citizenship, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

After the war, Leon indeed became a U.S. citizen and changed his name from Leon Aschkenasy to Leon Askin. He returned to New York and found work as a drama teacher, and more importantly, landed his first gig on Broadway, as director and actor in Goethe's Faust in 1947, which starred Askin in the title character opposite the legendary Albert Bassermann who played Mephisto. The production was a huge success. Askin followed this up with another director/actor stint with Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and co-starred with Jose Ferrer in Ben Hecht's 20th Century. They were all Broadway hits, and Askin had finally achieved the success he had worked so hard to seek and merit.

It wasn't long before Hollywood came calling, and soon Askin, with his rich German accent and massive physical presence, made a very effective villian in a number of Hollywood films: the Hope-Crosby comedy Road to Bali (1952); Richard Burton's first hit film The Robe; and the Danny Kaye vehicle Knock on Wood (1954).

Askin's roles throughout the 50's were pretty much in this "menacing figure" vein, so little did anyone suspect that around the corner, Billy Wilder would be offering him his most memorable screen role - that of the Russian commissar Peripetschikof who gleefully embraces Amercian Capitalism in the scintillating politcal satire, One, Two, Three (1961). Who can forget this wonderfully exchange between Peripetschikof and Coca Cola executive C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney):

Peripetschikof: I have a great idea to make money. I have a storage full of saurkraut and I'll sell it as Christmas tree tinsil!
MacNamara: You're a cinch!

His performance for Wilder was wonderfully comedic and wholly memorable, and after One, Two, Three the film roles for Askin got noticable better, especially in Lulu and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (both 1962); but he began to find prominent guest shots on hit television shows too: My Favorite Martian and The Outer Limits to name a few; yet his big break came in 1965, when for six seasons he played General Albert Burkhalter, the Nazi general who was forever taking Col. Kilink's ineptitude to task in Hogan's Heroes (1965-71).

Roles dried up for Askin after the run of Hogan's Heroes, save for the occassional guest spot on television: Diff'rent Strokes, Three's Company, Happy Days; and parts in forgettable comedies: Going Ape! (1981), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). After years of seclusion, Askin relocated to his birthplace of Vienna in 1994, and he began taking parts in numerous stage productions almost to his death. In 2002, he received the highest national award for an Austrian citizen when he was bestowed with the Austrian Cross of Honor, First Class, for Science and Art. He is survived by his third wife of three years, Anita Wicher.

by Michael T. Toole

Leon Askin (1907-2005)

Leon Askin, the rotund, imposing Austrian character actor, who was best remembered as General Albert Burkhalter, Conolel Klink's exasperated superior on the hit sitcom Hogan's Heroes, died of natural causes on June 3 in his hometown of Vienna. He was 97. Born in Vienna, Austria as Leo Aschkenasy on September 18, 1907, Askin developed a taste for theater through his mother's love of cabaret, and as a youngster, often accompanied his mother to weekend productions. He made a go of acting as a profession in 1925, when he took drama classes from Hans Thimig, a noted Austrian stage actor at the time. The following year, he made his Vienna stage debut in Rolf Lauckner's "Schrei aus der Strasse." For the next six year (1927-33), he was a popular stage actor in both Vienna and Berlin before he was prevented to work on the stage by Hitler's SA for being a Jew. He left for Paris in 1935 to escape anti-semetic persecution, but returned to Vienna in 1935, to find work (albeit a much lower profile to escape scrutiny), but after a few years, the writing was on the wall, and he escaped to New York City in 1939, just at the outbreak of World War II. His luck in the Big Apple wasn't really happening, and in 1941, he relocated to Washington D.C. and briefly held the position of managing director of the Civic Theatre, a popular city venue of the day. Unfortunately, after the tragic events of Pearl Harbor in December of that year, the United States became involved in the war that had already engulfed Europe for two years, and seeing a possibility to expediate his application for American citizenship, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After the war, Leon indeed became a U.S. citizen and changed his name from Leon Aschkenasy to Leon Askin. He returned to New York and found work as a drama teacher, and more importantly, landed his first gig on Broadway, as director and actor in Goethe's Faust in 1947, which starred Askin in the title character opposite the legendary Albert Bassermann who played Mephisto. The production was a huge success. Askin followed this up with another director/actor stint with Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and co-starred with Jose Ferrer in Ben Hecht's 20th Century. They were all Broadway hits, and Askin had finally achieved the success he had worked so hard to seek and merit. It wasn't long before Hollywood came calling, and soon Askin, with his rich German accent and massive physical presence, made a very effective villian in a number of Hollywood films: the Hope-Crosby comedy Road to Bali (1952); Richard Burton's first hit film The Robe; and the Danny Kaye vehicle Knock on Wood (1954). Askin's roles throughout the 50's were pretty much in this "menacing figure" vein, so little did anyone suspect that around the corner, Billy Wilder would be offering him his most memorable screen role - that of the Russian commissar Peripetschikof who gleefully embraces Amercian Capitalism in the scintillating politcal satire, One, Two, Three (1961). Who can forget this wonderfully exchange between Peripetschikof and Coca Cola executive C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney): Peripetschikof: I have a great idea to make money. I have a storage full of saurkraut and I'll sell it as Christmas tree tinsil! MacNamara: You're a cinch! His performance for Wilder was wonderfully comedic and wholly memorable, and after One, Two, Three the film roles for Askin got noticable better, especially in Lulu and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (both 1962); but he began to find prominent guest shots on hit television shows too: My Favorite Martian and The Outer Limits to name a few; yet his big break came in 1965, when for six seasons he played General Albert Burkhalter, the Nazi general who was forever taking Col. Kilink's ineptitude to task in Hogan's Heroes (1965-71). Roles dried up for Askin after the run of Hogan's Heroes, save for the occassional guest spot on television: Diff'rent Strokes, Three's Company, Happy Days; and parts in forgettable comedies: Going Ape! (1981), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). After years of seclusion, Askin relocated to his birthplace of Vienna in 1994, and he began taking parts in numerous stage productions almost to his death. In 2002, he received the highest national award for an Austrian citizen when he was bestowed with the Austrian Cross of Honor, First Class, for Science and Art. He is survived by his third wife of three years, Anita Wicher. by Michael T. Toole

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

The story was previously filmed as a 20-chapter serial starring Pearl White (Pathé, 1914). The 1947 Paramount feature of the same name was actually a semi-fictional biography of White.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1967

Released in United States 1967