Customer Reviews

The Scarlet Pimpernel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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 . . ."

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!!!

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.

As I've gotten older, the appreciation for older films has surfaced. This film is easy to like and watch. Like the Batman series, every interpretation of the Pimpernel character, league, and Lady Blakeney are a little different, but stand on common ground. The film to DVD transfer is reasonable (would one day like to see it get a digital clean up). Sound is pretty good for the time it was done and the acting is superb. Leslie Howard is great. If you liked the books or any other Pimpernel movies this is one to have in your collection.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic reflection of the times of changes in nations. It captures the feel of the animosity between classes and then convinces the viewer of the wonders of liberty. The mixture of excellent humour and suspense make this presentation a pleasure to see.

A fine movie, it holds up well. This version, starring Leslie Howard, a Hungarian Jew working in films in England, seems to have made a deep impression on Raoul Wallenberg, a young Swede who saw "The Scarlet Pimpernel" in Stockholm with his sister. Many years later, she said Raoul had liked the film very much and told her that "he'd like to do that, too." Although no one can say for sure that this film was crucial to Wallenberg's character, it may have been.

Unlike the Pimpernel, a fictional character who saved French aristocrats from the guillotine, Wallenberg really did save lives. Attached to the Swedish Embassy in Budapest during World War II, Wallenberg saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the death camps during the Holocaust.

Them Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in Heaven?
Is he in Hell?
That damned elusive pimpernel.

By Sir Percy Blakeney/The Scarlet Pimpernel (Leslie Howard)

It is the French revolution and everone is losing their heads. Sir Percy Blakeney must fake being ridicules and may even lose the love of his life Lady Marguerite Blakeney (Merle Oberon.) This is necessary to save their friends from the guillotine.

How long can he pull this off while right next to hem is Citizen Chauvelin (Raymond Massey) who is trying to track down The Scarlet Pimpernel. He even threatens Marguerite's with the life of her brother to find the pimpernel.

The story, originally a play then a novel has been remade and in some ways improved through the years. However, this version will always be the classic that others are measured by.