The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935)

Sink me, a dammed good movie about the Reign of Terror and the dangerous efforts of an Englishman known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, aka Sir Percy Blakeney, aka Leslie Howard, and his small band of colleagues to rescue at least a few aristocrats from the French guillotine.The film has three themes going on at the same time: (1) Howard's constant trips to France to smuggle out the aristos; (2) the measures taken by the French ambassador to England (Raymond Massey, the one with the ineradicable sneer) to discover the hidden identity of the Pimpernel; and (3) the fact that Howard's wife is being blackmailed to pass that secret identity over to the French so they can capture him and lop off his head.It's an unpleasant situation altogether. The French aristocrats and their neglectful king were bad enough -- though we hear only one guilty reference to some "mistakes" they made. But the Reign of Terror -- covered also in Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" -- was worse, if possible. They lopped off the heads of everyone associated with the French nobility, including men, their families, their children, some of the servants, any rebellious anti-rebels, and -- well, just about anybody they wanted. One proud revolutionary, Condorcet, had to write a tract in support of the movement while hiding out himself from his fellow citizens under suspicion of harboring anti-revolutionary thoughts. At the head of the French citizens was the dictator manqué Robespierre. I think his head wound up under the guillotine as well. So may that of M. Guillotine, the proponent of the device. Actually, Guillotine's neck remained intact but he must have worried about it when he was imprisoned. And what did the French revolution wind up with? Napoleon. Sometimes revolutions, or any social movements, can go too far. Read my forthcoming study of the subject: "Why All Revolutions Should Take Place Inside the Head." The direction and photography are grand. Huge ballrooms crowded with fine ladies and gentlemen listening to Mozart. The score is by Arthur Benjamin, who also wrote "The Storm Cloud Sonata" for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much." A scene in which Leslie Howard, posing as a fop, appears to be sprawled asleep on a library chair while Raymond Massey (always dressed in dark garb as befits a villain) paces around waiting for the Pimpernel to stumble in. A scene in which Massey finally captures Howard in France and orders the firing squad to execute him, only to find out the squad belongs to Howard. And here you can tell the novel was written by a woman. The firing squad don't kill Massey either. Under Howard's orders they just dump him into a wet hole in the floor and cover it with a heavy barrel while they escape. If the writer had been a man, he would have concocted a magnificent duel using swords and furniture, with the two men exchanging insults, and Massey fighting dirty. A final dramatic shot of Howard and his lovely wife, Merle Oberon, as they reach England and the key light fades from their smiling faces and they become silhouettes against a romantically fuzzy, yet still slightly ominous, backlight.There's more intrigue than action in the story, and it doesn't carry with it Dickens' genuine concern for realism, but it pumps up the tension and we are always rooting for the hero who must play the humiliating part of the fool in the interests of justice. How the Scarlet Pimpernel must have wanted to tear off that lace and fling away that monocle-on-a-stick and declare himself for what he was. We may call this "the Clark Kent Problem." Speaking of Howard's being an English Baron and pretending to be a clothes-conscious fop -- one step removed from fairyhood -- I can't bring myself to believe that the writers of "The Mark of Zorro" weren't familiar with this tale.

"The Scarlet Pimpernel" takes place during the Reign of Terror in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It is the story of Sir Percy Blakeney, an English aristocrat that rescues condemned French aristocrats from the guillotine under the secret identity of "The Scarlet Pimpernel". The film features nice sets, scenes and costumes that fit the period.Leslie Howard leads the cast as Sir Percy Blakeney. Howard definitely delivers the outstanding performance of the film. He is equally good as playing the two sides of his character, public fop and secret hero. It is quite enjoyable to see Howard in the various disguises of the Pimpernel. Merle Oberon also gives a fine performance as Lady Blakeney and the relationship between her and Sir Percy is well-developed. Raymond Massey is decent, but not outstanding villain as Citizen Chauvelin.This film develops an interesting story with intrigue and memorable dialogue. However, I found that the film was unevenly paced and somewhat tedious or bogged down in ceremony at times. This version is decent overall, but I preferred the 1982 version in all aspects: the casting (even though Howard is excellent, I prefer Andrews as Sir Percy), the pacing, the development of the rivalry between Percy and Chauvelin and the ending.

If I had never seen the 1982 mini-series version (shown on successive nights) of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour), I probably would have really loved this Leslie Howard/Merle Oberon picture a lot more. However, the 1982 version was so perfect in every way that when I later saw the 1934 film, I was a bit let down. This isn't because the 1934 film is bad--on the contrary, it's excellent. But the story is simply too much for a conventional movie lasting only 97 minutes. As a result, many of the plot elements are a bit vague or have been removed altogether. Plus, the wonderful romance of the 1982 film is mostly gone because the production had to be rushed and the romance wasn't allowed to be explored in such a beautiful fashion. The extra 47 minutes of the later film REALLY made the film a wonderful experience that the earlier film just couldn't match. Plus, this is one costume drama that really was helped by filming it in color.Now as for the 1934 film, the acting was very good. In particular, Leslie Howard did a great job as the lead, Merle Oberon was fine and Raymond Massey was fine as the villain. They had nothing to be ashamed of in their performances (though I also think that the remake DID have slightly better acting--mostly due to the characters being more complex). The direction was fine and the cinematography was fine as well--no complaints. It's a good film that I do recommend--just not as highly as the later version. And, this IS saying something as I usually prefer the original versions of most films.

I bought the DVD of this movie at a Dollar Store in my town. It looked interesting, and I thought "If it's bad, I only paid a dollar." Well, it far exceeded my expectations. I was surprised by the level of humor, skill and wit in this movie. Sure, it has flaws - but for heaven's sake, it's from 1934! The art of subtlety was not as broadly applied in the cinema back then. I later saw a more recent BBC version of this story and I still like this version better.The story: I know some read comments to get the gist of the story, so here it is. The movie is set at the height of the French revolution, when all the peasants were out for aristocratic blood, be it deserved or undeserved. A mysterious hero known only by the name of The Scarlet Pimpernel has been rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine through various tricks and disguises. The movie then transports us to England, where we meet Sir Percy Blakely, Baronet.His only concern is fashion and himself, and he appears to be incapable of higher thought or consideration for the feelings of others. He is distant and rude to his beautiful French wife (played by Merle Oberon) for reasons unknown to her or the audience. We learn that Sir Percy is in fact the Pimpernel, and he commands a whole club of men who operate as a team to rescue French aristocrats.In reality, Percy is an intelligent, compassionate, courageous man who is in conflict with himself. He loves his wife, but he believes that she has betrayed a family that went to the guillotine, and so she cannot be trusted with his secret identity. He barbs her, but then he has moments where it's obvious how heartbroken he is by the whole situation. He knows that everyone, including his own wife, thinks of him as an idiot, but it's the price of his secrecy.Onto the scene steps the villain, Chauvelier, the head spy for the new French government. He has been sent to England to discover exactly who this Scarlet Pimpernel is, and kill him. He has connections to Lady Blakely, who is at the center of the London social scene, so he blackmails her into finding the Scarlet Pimpernel. Eventually Percy discovers that his own wife has been commissioned to betray him. Marguerite Blakely is smitten with the Pimpernel just from hearing of his heroic exploits, so she secretly warns him of Chauvelier's intentions, still unaware of his true identity. What ensues is an adventure of romance, action and humor, as all things become revealed.The strengths: First, I love Leslie Howard as the Pimpernel. He is a fantastic actor, which makes his premature death in WWII all the more tragic. His nuance between the grinning, squinting, monocle-using Percy and the serious, brisk-toned, wide-eyed Pimpernel is entertaining and incredible to watch.Second, the romance between Percy and Marguerite is beautifully done, and heart-wrenching every time. Just watching Percy as he lets his immense love for Marguerite show through the cracks and then as he puts his guard up and coldly wounds her is achingly tragic. Then there's the fact that Marguerite, who desperately wants affection from the one man who seems to scorn her, becomes torn between her seemingly unreturned love for Percy, her crush on the Pimpernel, and her love for her brother. Just when Percy's secret identity becomes known to Marguerite and it seems there is hope for them, all is lost because of Chauvelier. Thankfully, everything is righted in the end.Third, the script is wonderful. There are great little one-liners, hilarious scenes with Percy, and just all around good dialog. Some parts that explain the background story are a little forced and cheesy, but I think it works. I love some of the lines. Percy recites his poem about the Pimpernel: "They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven, is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel." Later Percy says, "I'm in love." A man replies, "Another man's wife?" and Percy responds, "No; my own." Another sweet bit of dialog is when Percy finds that Marguerite has fallen for the Pimpernel. "You shouldn't fall for a phantom," he chides her . "For all you know, he's a married man who's deeply in love with his wife." Now for the few flaws: First, at least on my DVD, the sound and the visual are very poor. Perhaps some restoration could be done? It's better to watch it on a big screen because there are scenes where notes must be read by the audience (not something filmmakers do much anymore).Second, everyone speaks English in this film, and most everyone has a British accent, but the story also switches to France form time to time, where apparently everyone is also British. It can get confusing at times, because you lose track of what country they're in.Finally, a lot of the story is never shown. It's talked about, alluded to, but never actually shown. Unfortunately, if it were shown, the movie would be unbearably long. That's probably the only structural weakness to this film.All in all, you should definitely see this movie. Some parts may be cheesy, but you'll be laughing out of your seat, and then you'll be sucked in by the love story. I wish this film were more widely available and better known. If you find it at your dollar store, buy it. It's worth the dollar.