La Pimpinela Escarlata (1935)

Leslie Howard portrays the Englishman, Sir Percy Blakeney, and Merle Oberon plays his wife, Lady Blakeney, who does not know her husband is the Scarlet Pimpernel. Citizen Chauvelin, portrayed by Raymond Massey, arrives from France to discover the identity of the Pimpernel. Chauvelin tricked Lady Blakeney into betraying her friends in the past and attempts to get his clutches into her again by threatening her brother Armand’s safety. I enjoy this movie for a number of reasons.

1) What you see is not what you get. The Pimpernel must use deception to successfully rescue the aristocrats so nothing is really as it seems. You are led to believe one thing but find out another at the end of the film.

2) The acting is superb. In one exchange between Sir Percy and Chauvelin, Sir Percy, who acts like a fop through much of the film, reads a poem that he has written about the Pimpernel with Chauvelin. One of the lines is “those Frenchies seek him every where.” Chauvelin placidly responds, “I like it, Sir Percy. Particularly that those ‘Frenchies seek him every where’ part.”

3) It is brains over brawn. Although Sir Percy is capable of physically defending himself, but Sir Percy is successful because of his ability to out think the enemy. In one scene, his followers want to storm the French garrison but Sir Percy tells them such action will render them useless. They could win one battle and lose the war.

It is a great movie running just about 90 minutes. Many of the DVDs leave out the scene between Sir Percy and his brother-in-law Armand, which is one of the keys to understanding Sir Percy and his motivation.

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