Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937)

Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Directed by Hanns Schwarz
Written by Lajos Biró, Adrian Brunel, and Arthur Wimperis from a novel by  Baroness Emmuska Orczy
1937/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing

[box] Chauvelin: [Defining the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’] A demmed intrusive weed[/box]

This has a low IMDb user rating of 5.3/10, so I didn’t expect much going in.  I must say I thought it was perfectly fine!

Sir Percy Blakeney’s (Barry K. Barnes) cover has been blown and the French know he is the notorious Scarlet Pimpernel, savior of condemned aristocrats during the Reign of Terror. Robespierre orders the Pimpernel’s arch-foe Chauvelin to capture him or else. Chauvelin uses the Spanish lover of Jean Tallien (James Mason) to bait his trap. Marguerite Blakeney’s misplaced sympathy for the woman is used to lure her into a situation where she can be spirited to France.  Once this happens, the Scarlet Pimpernel must leap into action, employing all the many disguises at his disposal.

If one does not expect the film to reach the levels attained by the 1934 original with Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey, it turns out to be an entertaining movie, if not much more than that.