The Scarlet Pimpernel

"They seek him here, they seek him there/ Those Frenchies seek him everywhere/ Is he in Heaven or is he in Hell?/ The damned elusive Pimpernel." "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is a neat, elegantly acted conspiracy thriller, reminiscent of several '30s/ early '40s Hitchcock films.

Half an hour too short, and with many moments that seem terribly stilted by today's sensibilities, or just outright badly shot. However once the leads start getting proper scenes with each other then the movie really sparks and crackles with fun. It's a good watch, but despite having big crowd scenes, spy games, a novel love story, and a worthy villain, it feels that the filmmakers just couldn't figure out how to make it the epic that a movie set in revolutionary France really should have been.

Not at all bad. Just goes to show that a film from the 30's can still hold your disbelief. Stronly faithful to the book with stylish (although dated) acting styles. However, this only adds to this period piece. Don't write it off

Good movie, but way too much talking about the adventure and not any showing of it.

Probably the coolest thing about this movie is that the male lead is named 'Leslie' and the female lead is named 'Merle.'

The pre-Batmannery is kind of nice, but the guy is really nowhere near as flamboyant as someone named "The Scarlet Pimpernel" should be.

A London Film version of legend of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard in the lead as our hero. Howard is usually so bland that he can suck up the atmosphere in any scene, but here he got to play a bit and this was one of his better roles showing the personality needed to make it work. Didn't hurt that he had Merle Oberon as his wife who in this period looked like a Goddess! And a worthy foe in Raymond Massey as Chauvelin who's trying to hunt him down. So overall a very pleasant adaptation

I like Leslie Howard but wasn't a fan of his poofy character here.

Sorry it took me so long to get to this one. One of the original action/adventure films and said to be the inspiration for Zorro and Batman. Not only a great film, but an outstanding performance by Leslie Howard.

Merle Oberon has never been hotter.

Classic.

I don't remember much of this, but I do recall that Leslie Howard was very charming. Interesting for both the old-fashioned humour and the French Revolution setting.

Shows the garish lives of the aristocratic rich of 18th century France and England. A look at the elaborate and showy pretentiousness of the aristocratic class of the day. The story is quite heavy on pomp and light on action. The love story was rather unconvincing, and the horrors of the deaths by guillotine was represented too gingerly. A few elements of a cat & mouse chase. Moderately amusing. Somewhat entertaining. Highly dated.