A pimpernel's love is different from a square's

One of the first movies I put on the new DVR was the 1934 version of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

It's 1792 in France, and if you know your history which you should since I just mentioned this era a week or so ago regarding Désirée, there's a revolution on, and the revolutionaries are killing the non-revolutionary nobles. However, a cart driven by an elderly lady leaves Paris. Only it's not an elderly lady, but an Englishman, Percy Blakeney (Leslie Howard) in disguise. The guards let the cart pass because Percy says there's a patient with the plague in the back, which is why they don't inspect it. In fact, there's a nobleman who was slated for the guillotine.

Now, the authorities know about a man called the Scarlet Pimpernel who has been getting noblemen out of France, but they don't know the identity of the Pimpernel (if you haven't figured it out from my description, it's made quite clear that it's Blakeney). So Robespierre (Ernest Milton) sends his envoy Chauvelin (Raymond Massey) to England to try to figure out who the Pimpernel is, because after all there's a substantial French expat population in England.

One of those French is Blakeney's own wife Marguerite (Merle Oberon). Percy still loves her, but doesn't really trust her, because after all she's French and there's been some rumor that she was responsible for getting some noblemen arrested. Worse, Marguerite's brother Armand (Walter Rilla) is one of the Pimpernel's men in France, so Chauvelin has Armand arrested so that he can put pressure on Marguerite to reveal the identity of the Pimpernel (which she doesn't know).

The Pimpernel has to head back to France for his most dangerous mission, saving one of his own men, knowing fully well that Chauvelin has more men then ever trying to find the Pimpernel. Marguerite follows him to France to try to warn him, but that might be a mistake because if Chauvelin can get her in custody, then there's even more pressure on Percy.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a Korda brothers production, made in England for London Films, which if you've seen enough movies from that era you know is a byword for high technical quality. The only thing is, I couldn't help but think the movie could have been better. But that's largely because knowing the basic plot synopsis, I was expecting more of an action movie. Instead, The Scarlet Pimpernel is rather talky at times, especially in a long section I haven't mentioned set at a society party attended by Percy and Chauvelin. The one big action scene comes in the finale, and even that doesn't have all that much action.

Still, as I implied in the previous paragraph, the acting and production values are both top-notch. So if you know going in that there's a bit less swashbuckling-type action, it's not a bad movie at all.

The TCM Shop has a DVD of the movie from Reel Vault available for purchase that doesn't seem to be on Amazon. Amazon, however, has the movie on streaming. The story has been filmed for the big screen and TV on quite a few occasions, so you may want to make certain you're getting the right version.