| The Seven Pearls | |
| Director: | Louis J. Gasnier Donald MacKenzie |
| Starring: | Mollie King Creighton Hale |
| Studio: | Astra Films |
| Distributor: | Pathé Exchange |
| Runtime: | 15 episodes (2 reels each) |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | Silent (English intertitles) |
The Seven Pearls is a 1917 American silent action film serial directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie. Fragments are held by the Library of Congress.[1]
Like many American films of the time, The Seven Pearls was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required, in Chapter 5, a cut of the scenes where an airman threw two bombs at an automobile and of the shooting of a man in a ship;[2] in Chapter 7, of the binding of the woman and man,[3] in Chapter 10, the intertitle "Have $100,000 in the safe, etc.", setting fire to the waste paper basket, the holdup of the bank watchman, and all scenes showing detail of the attempt of the bank robbery;[4] in Chapter 11, Reel 1, three scenes of the holdup of the young woman and her abduction, the pointing at woman's side as officer stops the machine, five holdup scenes in room, the holdup of the woman in the house, the binding of the woman, and Reel 2, the entire incident of the acid and candle burning nearby and the intertitle "It will not kill you - it will only spoil your beauty";[5] and, in Chapter 13, putting the bound and gagged young woman into a piano box;[6] in Chapter 14, two scenes of choking young woman, blow to man's head, throwing man in front of train;[7] in Chapter 15, the detailed method of a man fixing a gas bomb, drilling a safety deposit box, stealing pearls, and choking the young woman.[6]