- Source: The Elusive Pimpernel (1950 film)
The Elusive Pimpernel is a 1950 British period adventure film by the British-based director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. It was released in the United States under the title The Fighting Pimpernel. The picture stars David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney (a.k.a. The Scarlet Pimpernel), Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney and features Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack and Robert Coote. Originally intended to be a musical, the film was re-worked as a light-hearted drama.
Plot
During the French Revolution, the Scarlet Pimpernel, who is really Sir Percy Blakeney in disguise, risks his life to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine and take them across the English Channel to safety. As cover, Sir Percy poses as a fop at Court, and curries favour with the Prince of Wales by providing advice about fashion, but secretly he leads The League, a group of noblemen with similar views.
Chauvelin, the French ambassador to England, wants to find out who the Pimpernel is, so he can be brought to French justice. He blackmails Blakeney's French wife Marguerite into helping him by threatening to have her brother Armand (an associate of the Pimpernel) arrested and tortured. She intercepts a letter intended for the Pimpernel and gives it to Chauvelin, unaware that she has betrayed her husband. When she discovers the truth, she sets out to warn him of his great peril.
Cast
David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney/ The Scarlet Pimpernel
Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney
Jack Hawkins as Prince of Wales/Footpad attacking Lord Anthony
Cyril Cusack as Chauvelin
Robert Coote as Sir Andrew Ffoulkes
Arlette Marchal as Comtesse de Tournai
Gérard Nery as Philippe de Tournai
Danielle Godet as Suzanne de Tournai
Edmond Audran as Armand St. Juste
Charles Victor as Colonel Winterbotham
Eugene Deckers as Captain Merieres
David Oxley as Captain Duroc
Raymond Rollett as Bibot
Philip Stainton as Jellyband
John Longden as The Abbot
Robert Griffiths as Trubshaw
Patrick Macnee as the Hon. John Bristow
Production
The Elusive Pimpernel was financed by Samuel Goldwyn and Alexander Korda. Neither director Michael Powell nor star David Niven was very interested in doing the film, but had their minds changed by threats of contract suspension. (Rex Harrison had been originally announced as the star.) Powell wanted to make the film as a musical, but was not allowed to, and Margaret Leighton was cast despite his objection. Goldwyn forced numerous additions and changes to the film but when Powell delivered the final cut, Goldwyn refused to make the final payment, which caused Korda to sue him.
The film was shot in 1949 at various British film studios in Boreham Wood, Elstree and Shepperton, Surrey. Location shooting took place in Bath, Dover, in Savernake Forest, on the Marlborough Downs, and in the stables of Carlton House Terrace, St. James's, London. In France, filming took place in the chateaux of the Loire Valley and on Mont Saint-Michel.
Release
The Elusive Pimpernel was released in the UK in 1950, but because of the falling out between Korda and Goldwyn, did not gain an American distributor until July 1953 when Carroll Pictures acquired the rights. The film then premiered in New York City on 17 April 1954.
Niven's unhappiness at being forced to make the film later led to him severing his contract with Samuel Goldwyn.
References
= Notes
== Bibliography
=External links
The Elusive Pimpernel reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
The Elusive Pimpernel at IMDb
The Fighting Pimpernel at the TCM Movie Database
The Elusive Pimpernel at AllMovie
The Elusive Pimpernel at the BFI's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- David Niven
- The Elusive Pimpernel (1950 film)
- The Elusive Pimpernel
- The Scarlet Pimpernel
- Powell and Pressburger
- London Films
- Swashbuckler film
- David Niven
- List of British films of 1950
- Margaret Leighton
- Robert Cawdron
