THE PERILS OF PAULINE

An orphaned boy named George finds baby Pauline in a basket on the ground. George takes her back to the orphanage and promises to protect her no matter what. When George's over-protectiveness puts Pauline in danger, Mrs. Carruthers, the owner of the orphanage, kicks him out. George tells Pauline that when he makes his fortune, he will come back for her. Pauline promises to wait.

The bulk of the film consists of Pauline getting into and escaping from increasingly ridiculous slapstick situations, with George always arriving slightly too late.

Pauline finds work as a teacher for a young African prince, Benji, who thinks Pauline is his fiancé. Pauline escapes him and hides, but is sold to a tribe of pygmies in the Congo, who attempt to make her drink a potion to shrink her down to pygmy size. Benji sends his servant Sten to bring back Pauline. Sten falls in love with Pauline and the two have adventures on the river in Africa.

Pauline is in the New York Mercy hospital with Sten, intending to marry him. Pauline finds out George contracted a disease while in Africa, attempting to save her. She decides to nurse George back to health, and goes to the store to buy hospital clothes. As she is walking down the street, she falls into a manhole.

Pauline ends up on the estate of Casper Coleman, who decides to have her married to his grandson. As his grandson is only a baby, he plans to freeze Pauline, until he gets older. Sten and George both make bumbling attempts to rescue her.

Sten colludes with the Russians to have himself launched into orbit with Pauline. Two FBI agents give Pauline a micro-camera to take pictures while on the spacecraft. At an arms parade following the success of the space launch, Pauline meets a U.S. double agent and gives him the photographs. Thinking he has lost Pauline forever, George has himself brainwashed in an attempt to forget her. Pauline suggests that George go to a sanitarium in Switzerland to jog his memory, while she goes to Venice to be in Frandisi's movie and makes George's fortune back.

At the sanitarium, George's memory comes back and he goes to Venice to see Pauline. On set, he rescues her from an escaped gorilla. The film ends as George and Pauline finally get married, and share a kiss on their gondola as it sinks.

George and Pauline finally marry and share a kiss on a sinking gondola after a series of chaotic adventures and near-misses.

The ending delivers a final wink to the audience by uniting the perpetually imperiled Pauline with her devoted George, but not before their wedding gondola begins to sink—a last gag that keeps the tone light and absurd to the very end. The resolution suggests that while Pauline might never escape chaos, she’ll always have George at her side (and a pratfall waiting in the wings). The film lands as a comic tribute to the cliffhanger tradition, with romance and calamity perfectly entwined.