The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 film)
| The Scarlet Pimpernel | |
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theatrical release lobby card
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| Directed by | Harold Young |
| Produced by | Alexander Korda |
| Written by |
Scenario, continuity & dialogue: Lajos Bíró S. N. Behrman Robert E. Sherwood Arthur Wimperis Baroness Emmuska Orczy (uncredited) Alexander Korda (contributing writer, uncredited) |
| Based on |
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905 play) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy and Montagu Barstow and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1908 novel) by Baroness Orczy |
| Starring |
Leslie Howard Merle Oberon Raymond Massey |
| Music by | Arthur Benjamin |
| Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
| Edited by | William Hornbeck |
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Production
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1934 British adventure film directed by Harold Young and starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, and Raymond Massey. Based on the 1905 play by Baroness Orczy and Montagu Barstow and the classic 1908 adventure novel by Baroness Orczy, the film is about an eighteenth-century English aristocrat who leads a double life, appearing as an effete aristocrat while engaged in an underground effort to free French nobles from Robespierre's Reign of Terror. The film was produced by Alexander Korda.
In 1792, at the bloody height of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, vengeful French mobs are outraged when again and again French aristocrats are saved from death by the audacious "Band of the Scarlet Pimpernel", a secret society of 20 English noblemen, "one to command, and nineteen to obey". Among the latest scheduled for execution are the Count de Tournay, former ambassador to Great Britain, and his family. However, one of the Scarlet Pimpernel's men visits them in prison disguised as a priest and gives them a message of hope. As the prisoners are being escorted to the cart to be taken to the guillotine, the guards take the count away; French leader Maximilien Robespierre wishes to question him further. The countess and her daughter are rescued and spirited away to England.
Back in Paris, Robespierre meets with Chauvelin, the republic's new ambassador to Britain, to discuss the problem of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Summoning the Count de Tournay, they offer him his life in return for information from his English contacts as to the Pimpernel's true identity. The Scarlet Pimpernel is Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English baronet and friend of the Prince of Wales. Sir Percy cultivates the image of a fop in order to throw off suspicion. His pose is so successful that not even his French wife Marguerite suspects the truth. Though the two are in love, Sir Percy no longer trusts his wife because of her past denunciation of the Marquis de St. Cyr, which led to the execution of the marquis and his family.
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