The Hazards of Helen (1914)

Directed by

Paul Hurst, J. P. McGowan, Helen Holmes, Robert G. Vignola

Genre

drama film, action film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

16h 39m

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A series of short silent melodramas follows a female telegraph operator and her adventures. Each episode is a self-contained story with a crisis or threat.

fast-pacedepisodicmelodramaticperilousnostalgicaction-packeddatedfragmented

What happens

The Hazards of Helen is an American adventure film serial (or possibly a film series) of 119 twelve-minute episodes released over a span of slightly more than two years by the Kalem Company between November 14, 1914, and February 17, 1917. At 23.8 hours, it is one of the longest non-feature-length motion picture series ever filmed, and is believed to be the longest of the film serial format. Based on a novel by John Russell Corvell and the play by Denman Thompson, the series was adapted to the silent screen by W. Scott Darling. Episodes 1-48 were directed by J.P. McGowan and the remainder by J. Gunnis Davis, who was credited as James Davis. Unlike the cliffhanger serials of the era, The Hazards of Helen is actually a film series made up of near autonomous single reel twelve-minute melodramas. Most episodes of this serial are presumed lost. Others are available online. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Under the Gaslight (1914)
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• Lena Rivers (1914)
• Through the Storm (1914)
• The Strange Story of Sylvia Gray (1914)
• The Stolen Engine (1914)