Growing up, I was vaguely aware of this story, largely through the work of Daffy Duck as The Scarlet Pumpernickel. Bravo recently aired the 1934 version of the film in the wee hours of the morning, and I tuned in to finally see the source material. What a great movie! Leslie Howard at his most simpering! Merle Oberon looking dewy and delectable! Raymond Massey scowling his way across revolutionary France! Anyone else a fan of this (or any other) incarnation of that damned elusive Pimpernel?
I shall be saying “Sink me!” with annoying frequency over the next few days. Frenchies beware!
My favorite Leslie Howard movie! It’s wonderful to watch how he goes from fop to action hero in the flicker of an eye.
I personally prefer “Damme!” (2 syllables) as an epithet.
Put me down as another person who loves this movie! I can still remember the first time I ever saw it - I was 12 years old, and an arthouse was doing a saturday at the movies sort of thing, all from the same year - a couple of cartoons, a couple of newsreels, and a double feature…ever since then I have loved the movies from the 30s and 40s - light romantic comedies, and noir mostly, though I confess I dont like Gone With the Wind or Wizard of Oz=\
I thought Daffy was The Scarlett Pumper-nickel?
Was the Scarlet Pimpernel (in whatever form he first appeared—novel, I think) the earliest example in literature of the Hero With The Misleadingly Unheroic Secret Identity?
Hear, hear! IRL, Howard and Oberon struck up a heated (and for him, adulterous) affair during the making of the movie – and their on-screen sexual chemistry is unmistakeable. But don’t overlook Howard’s WWII-based interpretation, Pimpernel Smith (1941), in which he…
…plays a college professor from Oxford (or was it Cambridge?) who leads a group of knowing, willing students on an “archaeology” trip to Nazi Germany, with the digs being a cover for his rescuing of political dissidents. The story is told with a lot of verve and charm. There’s a nice comic turn by a character actor who plays a boorish Nazi bureaucrat who insists Shakespeare was an Aryan. Another detail: one of Howard’s students is an American studying abroad, and at the beginning of the film, they don’t get along very well. The Yank is too informal, jocular, and doesn’t appear to be taking his classes very seriously; but he’s eager to volunteer for the mission and proves to be the Pimpernel’s most resourceful ally-in-arms. Anglo-American friendship & hands-across-the-water, in other words. The only serious drawback to this sequel of sorts is that the leading lady is no Merle Oberon in the looks or sexual chemistry departments; although, to be fair, her character is the serious-minded daughter of an imperilled dissident and wasn’t written as a glamorous flirt or sexpot.
I love both movies.
Correction to my description of the plot of PS:
Howard’s archaeology students were willing volunteers to go on a moderately-dangerous trip into politically hostile territory, but Howard hadn’t clued them in to his secret identity and mission. It’s the American student who eventually figures it out, whereupon they all join forces to protect their professor.
I’ve always enjoyed the story, and have read the novel several times. I never saw the Howard version, but did have seen the David Niven movie and the Anthony Andrews TV-movie. in the latter, Jane Semour looked pretty good as Margurete, although I don’t really recall anything about her performance – possibly due the extremely period gowns she wore, or barely so.
Our local theatre group put on a musical version this summer. I gather that it ran for about a week on Broadway, but it was a good show – perhaps a little too reminiscent of Le Miz, but an enjoyable show.
My favorite incarnation of the SP is the Anthony Andrews/ Jane Seymour version of 1981(?). Pretty good for a made for TV movie. I’ve seen it about 50 times. The Howard version is more faithful to the novel, however, while the 80’s movie combines two Scarlet Pimpernel books, “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and “Road to Eldorado”.
Then there’s the Daffy Duck version, “The Scarlet Pumpernickel”, which is my dad’s favorite… 
I guess I need to see Pimpernel Smith if I’m a big Scarlet Pimpernel fan, eh?