The Perils of Pauline

An orphaned boy named George discovers Pauline, a baby left in a basket on the ground. He takes her back to the orphanage and promises to protect her no matter what. Pauline promises to wait for him until he returns.

George's intense protective behavior puts Pauline at risk in ways the orphanage won't tolerate. Mrs. Carruthers, the stern owner, rebukes him and moves to eject him from the home.

Before leaving, George tells Pauline that once he has made his fortune, he will come back for her. Pauline responds that she will wait for him. The vow marks the start of their separate journeys.

Pauline lands a job as a teacher for Benji, a young African prince. Benji believes she is his fiancé, creating a dangerous and whimsical misunderstanding that drives much of the early plot.

Pauline escapes Benji and hides, but is captured and sold to a tribe of pygmies in the Congo. The pygmies decide to shrink her with a potion, heightening her peril and innocence amid the chaos.

Benji dispatches his loyal servant Sten to fetch Pauline. During the mission, Sten falls in love with her, turning a simple rescue into a romance against a backdrop of farce.

Sten and Pauline embark on river adventures through Africa, facing comic dangers and shared moments as their relationship develops amidst the journey.

Pauline and Sten find themselves in Mercy Hospital in New York, where they plan to marry and settle into a life together away from earlier misadventures.

Pauline learns that George contracted a disease while in Africa trying to save her. She returns to nurse him back to health, buys hospital clothes, and, while walking the city streets, falls into a manhole, complicating their reunion.

Pauline ends up at Casper Coleman’s estate, where the old man intends to marry her to his baby grandson. Since the grandson is a baby, Casper plans to freeze Pauline until the boy grows, keeping her under his control.

Sten and George both make bumbling attempts to rescue Pauline from Casper's schemes. Their clumsy efforts provide ongoing slapstick relief as the danger intensifies.

Sten colludes with the Russians to launch himself into orbit with Pauline. Two FBI agents equip Pauline with a micro-camera to document the mission, and at an arms parade afterwards she meets a U.S. double agent and hands him the photographs.

Thinking he has lost Pauline forever, George has himself brainwashed to forget her, hoping to erase the longing. The plan backfires as the memory of Pauline continues to haunt him.

Pauline suggests that George go to a sanitarium in Switzerland to jog his memory, while she goes to Venice to star in Frandisi's movie and rebuild George's fortune. The arrangement sets the stage for a reunion across continents.

At the sanitarium, George's memory returns, and he travels to Venice to find Pauline. On the film set, he rescues her from an escaped gorilla, and the film ends with George and Pauline marrying and sharing a kiss on a sinking gondola.