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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very poor quality DVD, October 25, 2010
This review is from: The Scarlet Pimpernel (DVD)
The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of my all-time favorite movies, 5 stars, worth watching just to hear Leslie Howard quote from Richard II, and there is much more to like. But the quality of this DVD is dreadful, 1 star. There is considerable background noise. Faces go white. The quality is such that it appears the DVD was made from a TV broadcast of the movie. It is advertised as digitally remastered, and that does not seem possible.
The DVD is made in Taiwan. The description on the DVD case identifies the Scarlet Pimpernel as "Hero to the Oppressed People of the French Revolution." Not exactly :-). I will not purchase another DVD made by the company that made this DVD, Digiview Productions.
As Percy Blakeney says, "There is nothing that is quite so bad . . ."
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
EXTREMELY POOR QUALITY, July 21, 2011
This review is from: The Scarlet Pimpernel (DVD)
We own quite a large collection of movies on DVD from the 30's, 40's and 50's... We also own several titles from the late 20's. None of them, I repeat, NONE of them possesses anything even close to the HORRIBLE SOUND AND PICTURE in this particular DVD. It claims to be digitally remastered. I doubt that very, very much. If I had to make a guess, I would say it was a public domain VCR tape that was transferred quickly and cheaply to DVD, and then mass produced and sold.
We purchased this DVD from one of these sellers. When approached, their response was "hey, it's a 1930's film, what do you expect?" which is asinine. I don't hold the horrible quality against them, they didn't produce the DVD, just sold it. But the date of the film is immaterial, there are great (remastered) DVD's of contemporary and earlier films abounding. This is a terribly SHODDY BIT OF GARBAGE that should not be sold to film buffs. And at LEAST one of the companies selling it took no pains to understand that, or stop selling the item.
DO NOT BUY!!!
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
6 out of 5 stars, February 26, 2009
This review is from: The Scarlet Pimpernel (DVD)
This must be Leslie Howard's best performance, the best film version of Scarlet Pimpernel and one of the best screen adaptions of a classic book. The 'cravat' scene must be one of the most amusing episodes in film history.
The plot has been changed somewhat, especially the end, but the film creates such a sense of unity and rightness that I sometimes forget that 'that's not how it goes in the book'. Of course, if you didn't read the book, or don't remeber it or don't mind when movies deviate from the novels they were inspired by, there's nothing at all to worry about.
Merle Oberon is a suitably beautiful but disenchanted French wife to Leslie Howard, who is a master at his changes of personality from 'Sir Percival Blackeney' to 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'. The film sticks to the spirit of The Scarlet Pimpernel even when it deviates from the letter.
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