The Scarlet Pimpernel

I loved this movie largely for the fabulous performances that both Oberon and Howard give. Nothing beats Howard dressed up as an old woman and fooling the silly French soldiers!

Howard's performance is beautifully understated. His performance is based mostly in his facial expressions, which gives the performance its power. There is a tendency by later actors who have played the Pimpernel to really over do the fop business, but he gives it just the right intensity.

Oberon is perfect as Lady Blakeney, and she has wonderful chemistry with Howard. She also does a lot with facial expressions and closeups

The other good thing is that not all the French people in this movie sounded like they were English!

"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is one of the classics and the 1934 film is by far the best cinema version. Leslie Howard is perfect for the part of Sir Percy Blakeney. Howard bounces between the foppish, sissy boy aristocrat and the cunning, ingenious hero, who is a master of disguise. You want to kick him in the teeth one minute and you're cheering for him the next.

Merle Oberon, who has never impressed me much as an actress, plays Lady Blakeney. She is painfully and completely oblivious to her husband's true identity. Her performance is strained but Miss Oberon is still one of the most breath-takingly beautiful women to ever grace black and white film. Raymond Massey is excellent as Chauvelin, especially his scenes with Howard where he is having to keep his temper in check when dealing with the impossible antics and behavior of Sir Percy's alias. Excellent cinematography, and good supporting performances. One of my favorite hero movies.

LESLIE HOWARD and MERLE OBERON both shine in this thoroughly entertaining film classic about the man who was an effete British gentleman by day (Sir Percy) and a noble avenger who saved many of his countrymen from the guillotine. As the dandy, Leslie is an unmitigated delight, delivering some ripely amusing lines with great flair. And Merle Oberon is a vision of loveliness as his wife who almost gives his identity away before she realizes who he actually is.

It's photographed in crisp B&W splendor with elegant costumes and settings and given a rich supporting cast of players including RAYMOND MASSEY as the Frenchman anxious to trap The Scarlet Pimpernell, NIGEL BRUCE, MELVILLE COOPER and many others.

The brilliant script has many memorable lines, most of them given to Leslie Howard's character when he's playing the dandy seemingly oblivious to the hunt for the disguised Pimpernell. Especially riveting are the opening scenes depicting the ugly public executions during the French Revolution and the crowds that delighted in them.

There's never a dull moment. Well worth watching and should give fans a new impression of just how great an actor LESLIE HOWARD actually was.

"They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere..." He's the cunning English spy code-named Pimpernel: master of disguises, savior to guillotine-bound aristocrats during the French Revolution, and most likely to be found in London making as big an ass of himself as credulity will allow. No one (not even his wife) would ever suspect the idiotic Sir Percy Blakeney of being the leader of an underground network of anti-Republic rebels, and it's still a joy to watch Leslie Howard, in the title role, successfully negotiating the ruse under the disdainful noses of his enemies. Without the unexpected element of farce the whole thing would be just another dated exercise in derring-do and low adventure, but the Pimpernel's foppish alter ego makes him one of the more unique (and hilarious) heroes ever to grace the silver screen. The poetry is, by the way, Sir Percy's own: "Is he in heaven, or is he in hell, that damned elusive Pimpernel?" ("It has a certain something..." he tells a giggling audience of landed gentry, "which gives it a certain...something.")

This aged take on the popular novel of a foppish English hero saving aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution is an absorbing British movie; benefiting in particular from the excellent performance of Leslie Howard (one of England's greatest screen actors, despite his Hungarian ancestry), who gives the character of Percy Blakeney a humour and charm lacking from other actors who have attempted the part.

Merle Oberon also does well as his French expat wife - perhaps her best acting, even surpassing her later work opposite Olivier in 'Wuthering Heights'. Given that Howard and Oberon had a real-life love affair which started during this movie, it is interesting to note there are definite sparks between the pair on screen. Other actors in the cast are good value; Raymond Massey as the arrogant French ambassador who never thinks he can be outwitted; and Nigel Bruce, beloved later in the decade as Dr Watson, as the dullard Prince of Wales.