The Scarlet Pimpernel ***** (1935, Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 2949

‘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 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’s 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 may be a shade 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’s 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).

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 novel and with a beautiful production at his command, designed by Vincent Korda. It is a shame there’s no colour, but Harold Rosson’s cinematography is beautiful, and it’s still a winner.

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.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2949

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