Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce, Anthony Bushell, Joan Gardner

(7-Very Good Film)

Entertaining. Frenzied. Slight.

Percy Blakeney: They seek him here, they seek him there, / Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. / Is he in heaven? Or is he in hell? / That damned elusive Pimpernel!

Sir Percy Blakeney is an English nobleman during the late 18th century. While England enjoys its time of peace, nearby France is plunged into hell by the Reign of Terror and its new leader, Robespierre’s penchant for the guillotine. Blakeney, in response, becomes “the Scarlet Pimpernel,” masked vigilante determined to rescue condemned aristocrats from France and bring them over to England. He also affects the role of idiotic fop in his own country so that no one would ever suspect him of being the masked hero; including his beautiful wife, Lady Marguerite (Oberon), who’s ashamed of him. This premise has been recycled through the decades and told much better in my opinion through the characters of, first, Zorro and, later, Batman, but I believe it started with The Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s a well-crafted swashbuckler with a compelling romance between Blakeney and his estranged wife, but I do wish the ending was more exciting.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,113)