# Silent film with heroine tied to railroad tracks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334 "2005-11-22T21:59:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/1 "2005-11-22T21:59:01Z")
Any of our silent film buffs here able to identify this cultural meme? What film(s) had the heroine either tied to the railroad tracks (while the villain twirled his mustache) or tied up to be bisected by a spinning lumber saw? I’ve been watching some old silent films lately and it occurred to me to wonder if this might be available on DVD somewhere. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/2 "2005-11-22T22:09:32Z")
I wondered about it once, so you could [start with this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=278264&referrerid=21250) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/3 "2005-11-22T22:10:12Z")
I believe that _The Perils of Pauline_ (1914) is the source of that cliche – if it wasn’t the first, it was certainly the most well-known. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/4 "2005-11-22T22:11:54Z")
Curses – foiled again. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/5 "2005-11-23T10:00:13Z")
It was already a cliché by 1913, when comedy producer-director Mack Sennett parodied it in _Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life_, with Mabel Normand tied to the tracks as moustche-twirling villain Ford Sterling manned the train engine. While some modern sources claim that _The Perils of Pauline_ (1914) had a tied-to-the-tracks scene, I am skeptical. No such scene happens in the few episodes of the serial that survive, and I’ve never seen a still photograph of the scene. And like I said, it was already a comical cliché by that time. I’d be more convinced if someone could present 1914-era evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/6 "2006-06-08T22:40:35Z")
I am resurrecting this thread because I think I have an answer to the question: the melodrama _[The Train Wreckers](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0234913/)_ (1905), probably the most popular Edison film made that year. Charles Musser describes the plot: > [@](#): > > A romance between the engineer and the switchman’s daughter is threatened by a group of train wreckers seeking to derail a train. The girl overhears their plans, is captured, escapes, and successfully warns her lover. Ready to try again, the train wreckers knock her out and leave her on the tracks to be run over. After the heroic engineer courageously positions himself on the train’s cowcatcher and rescues her from certain death, railroad personnel and passengers chase and kill the desperados: society unites to protect itself. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-film-with-heroine-tied-to-railroad-tracks/332334/7 "2006-06-08T23:21:43Z")
A [still photograph](http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgdisplaylargemeta.cfm?strucID=559495&imageID=TH-58797&parent_id=559484&word=&s=¬word=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&num=0&imgs=12&total=12&pos=11&snum=) of the rescue.