The Scarlet Pimpernel ***** (1935, Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 2,949

Leslie Howard enjoys himself enormously as both foppish Sir Percy Blakeney and a brave French Revolution vigilante, in the high-spirited 1935 British adventure movie The Scarlet Pimpernel.

‘They seek him here. They seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him here everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel.’

Director Harold Young’s high-spirited 1935 British adventure movie The Scarlet Pimpernel is an ingratiatingly genial, highly entertaining adventure from producer Alexander Korda’s film empire, full of brio and bottle.

An ideally cast Leslie Howard enjoys himself enormously in the double role Sir Percy Blakeney, the lorgnette-waving English fop who is also The Scarlet Pimpernel, the brave scourge of the French Revolution, a vigilante making repeated daring trips to France to save aristocrats from the guillotine. Merle Oberon looks lovely but may be a shade clipped and colourless as Lady Blakeney, who is French and finds that her brother has been arrested by the Republic and discovers that her husband is The Pimpernel.

However, Raymond Massey’s wonderful lip-smacking villain, secret police chief Citizen Chauvelin, provides ample compensation.  And there is also good, colourful work from the other stars – Nigel Bruce (The Prince of Wales), Bramwell Fletcher (The Priest), Anthony Bushell (Sir Andrew Ffoulkes), Joan Gardner (Suzanne de Tournay), Walter Rilla (Armand St Just), Mabel Terry-Lewis (Countess de Tournay), O B Clarence (Count de Tournay), Ernest Milton (Robespierre), Edmund Breon (Colonel Winterbottom) and Melville Cooper (Romney).

Harold Young directs with verve from a smashing screenplay by Robert E Sherwood, Arthur Wimperis, S N Behrman and Lajos Biro based on Baroness Orczy’s play and 1905 novel, and with a beautiful production at his command, designed by Vincent Korda. It is a shame that there is no colour, but Harold Rosson’s cinematography is beautiful, and the film is still a winner.

The Scarlet Pimpernel introduced into popular culture the notion of a hero with a secret identity. His influential characteristics became superhero conventions, including disguises, a signature weapon (sword), ability to outwit his adversaries, and a calling card.

Also in the cast are Gibb McLaughlin, Morland Graham, John Turnbull, Gertrude Musgrove, Allan Jeayes, A Bromley Davenport, William Freshman, Hindle Edgar, Bruce Belfrage, Derrick de Marney, Hugh Dempster, Philip Desborough, Arthur Hambling, Laurence Hanray, Carl Harbord, Kenneth Kove, Renée Macready, Roy Meredith, Bill Shine, Douglas Stewart, Philip Strange, Harry Terry, Evan Thomas, Edmund Willard and Brember Wills.

Howard revisited the role in the wartime Pimpernel Smith (1941) and the 1935 movie was remade in 1950 as The Elusive Pimpernel with David Niven. It was remade for TV in 1982 as The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen.

There were also previously four silent film versions: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1917) starring Dustin Farnum, Winifred Kingston and William Burress; The Elusive Pimpernel (1919) starring Cecil Humphreys, Maire Blanche and Norman Page; I Will Repay (1923) starring Holmes Herbert; and The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1928) starring Matheson Lang.

On TV, the most notable is the British ITV series The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1955–1956) starring Marius Goring as Sir Percy, Stanley Van Beers as Chauvelin and Patrick Troughton as Sir Andrew. Network (UK) released the entire 18-episode series on a three disc DVD set on 30 July 2012.

More recently, The Scarlet Pimpernel, two TV series of three episodes each (1999, 2000). starred Richard E Grant as Sir Percy and Martin Shaw as Chauvelin.

Baroness Emma Magdalena Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci (23 September 1865 – 12 November 1947)

The Scarlet Pimpernel started life as one of Baroness Orczy’s short stories, and then became a stage play written by Baroness Orczy and her husband Montague Barstow, which enjoyed a long run of four years in London, playing more than 2,000 performances, after opening in Nottingham in 1903. Baroness Orczy’s novel The Scarlet Pimpernel, the first in her series of historical fiction novels, was published in 1905. She wrote over a dozen sequels featuring Sir Percy Blakeney.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,949

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