The Exploits of Elaine
Note: This page was taken from the now-closed Miraheze wikis.
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1994. | ||
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The Exploits of Elaine is a 1914 American film serial in the damsel in distress genre.
This 14-part serial tells the story of a young woman named Elaine who, with the help of a detective, tries to find the man, known only as "The Clutching Hand", who murdered her father.
The serial stars Pearl White (who also starred in The Perils of Pauline), Arnold Daly, Sheldon Lewis, Creighton Hale, and Riley Hatch. Lionel Barrymore had a small role. The serial was written by Arthur B. Reeve (novel), Charles W. Goddard, and George B. Seitz, and directed by Louis J. Gasnier, Seitz, and Leopold Wharton. The film was produced by the Whartons Studios and distributed by Pathé Exchange, the American distribution branch of the French company Pathé at that time.
Why It Rocks
- Although the Elaine serials are built on White's mass popularity in The Perils of Pauline, Exploits is considered to be the superior of the two as this one boasts increasingly sophisticated camera work and production values. Instead of repeating shots from fixed positions, for example, Exploits shifts camera angles based on the requirements of the story line. The cameraman also pans and tilts to frame action, a step away from the tableaux style most other filmmakers prefer. Plus the camera's mounted on trucks, trains, boats and planes, giving the serial films a sense of freedom missing from many other shorts of the period.
- While the early serials all featured women in the leading roles, who rejected old traditions, enjoyed jobs and emerging technologies, took control of their lives, and were often the prey of unsavory types, Pearl White was without a doubt one of the most famous. She really gets to show off her acting abilities as Elaine Dodge, to the point where she earned her nickname “The Girl with Ninety-Nine Lives”.
- Unique and interesting premise for its time where Elaine's father is killed by a mysterious outlaw, leading Elaine to set out after him with help from detective/science genius Craig Kennedy. She'd repeated risks life and limb to help solve the murder. It got to the point that Elaine Dodge held a very appeal to World War I soldiers on leave from the trenches, as they referred to White adoringly as “the peerless, fearless girl”.
- The serial also takes advantage of its concept by making its plots as exciting and outlandish as possible. The masked villain constantly comes up with new ways to endanger Elaine, which she'd somehow miraculously survive: drowning, a poisoned wristwatch, being gassed with small traces of arsenic dormant in her bedroom wallpaper, having all of the blood siphoned out of her own body, and being embalmed by notorious Chinese gang members. There's even a particular serial where Elaine's framed in a blackmail scheme and almost sacrificed by devil worshippers. (We kid you not)
- “The Life Current,” has Elaine literally die and then return from the dead, thanks toby a makeshift defibrillator creator Craig Kennedy
- The main villain, known solely as "The Clutching Hand" made history was the first mystery villain to appear in a film serial. The concept was widely used for the remainder of the format's existence.
- Episodes usually center on some mysterious new technology—such as “The Death Ray,” “The Life Current,” or “The Blood Crystals”—that would alternately imperil or salvage Elaine, either threatening her life or delivering her from the grips of death, showcasing not only how the Clutching Hand and Kennedy are basically foils to each other, but also that the writers had no shortage of creativity under their belt.
- Some of Kennedy's gadgets include the Teleview (a repurposed periscope for “seeing from a distance”)
- the Seismagraph (which accumulates intruders’ footprints inside one’s home)
- the Detectascope (a modified fisheye lens for seeing through private keyholes)
- the Vocaphone, (a secret telephone with amplified sound used that functions like an intercom)
- the Telegraphone, (pretty much a wiretap that records phone calls)
- Wry humor, such as a doctor's cure of a con artist posing as a cripple, lifts some of the episodes, while hard-edged tension helps others. There's a chapter where some criminals throw Elaine onto a library table, with violence that seems brutal even to this day.
Bad Qualities
- Outlandish plotting makes parts of the film difficult to watch today. There are characters who fail to recognize voices or even faces, give away secrets at random, fail to hide vital clues, forget to call the police, and seemingly never learn from their mistakes.
- Elaine's never really allowed to be much more than a victim who escapes one trap only to promptly fall into another.