The note that the Scarlet Pimpernel sends to Citizen Chauvelin at the restaurant is reminiscent of the verse Percy created to mock his opponent in the first movie. This one reads, "You seek him here, you seek him there / and you're serenely unaware / He's at your elbow lunching well / That dem'd elusive Pimpernel!"
The co-writer Lajos Biró was a Hungarian novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who did his best work in Britain in the 1930's and early 40's on several classic pictures made by Alexander Korda's London Films, including in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) with Charles Laughton. He also collaborated on three screenplays for Gainsborough (film) Production, a subsidiary of Gaumont British, which also produced four early Alfred Hitchcock films.
On May 31, 1938, experimental TV station W2XBS (now WNBC) in New York City telecast the film, making it the first time that a first-run movie was shown on television. Unfortunately, the staff projectionist played the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early. After this incident, NBC could not obtain first-run movies for many years.
"Demmed" is a euphemism for "damned," in common use in England at the time portrayed in the film. "Sink me!" is an English curse, especially popular among sailors; it is short for "Sink me to the devil!"
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By what name was The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937) officially released in Canada in English?
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