THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934)

With Leslie Howard in this Alexander Korda production and Robert Donat in Rowland V. Lee’s COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, 1934 was a stellar year for Brits to gentlemanly swashbuckle in smart pics on tight budgets. Journeyman megger Harold Young does a solid job, though the pace goes stiff now & then (Miklôs Rôzsa not yet on the scene to musically help out), but between Vincent Korda’s fabulous sets, Harold Rosson’s imaginative lensing and plus-perfect leads in heroic fop Leslie Howard, glamorously distraught wife Merle Oberon, sneeringly powerful villain Raymond Massey all showing tremendous panache working thru the story of British aristo Sir Percy (and confederates) as they jump the border in & out of Revolutionary France to rescue nobility from Madame Guillotine, with Howard’s Pimpernel too much the jester to come under suspicion. (Does ZORRO came out of this; or vice versa?) Technically, the film holds up quite well for the period (beware of subfusc Public Domain copies!) and there’s tasty character support, but it’s Howard who really makes the film. Broadly comic, noble, fey, athletic & romantically dreamy all at once. His finesse & sense of fun showing a star power & command rarely seen even from him. The over-produced Powell/Pressburger TechniColor remake (THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL/’50) with David Niven shows just how much goes missing. And Powell knew it, dubbing his version a ‘super-turnip’ flop.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Oberon was tricky to shoot with that high, high, high forehead, but a piece of cake for Rosson who’d not only shot, but married the equally tricky to shoot Jean Harlow.

DOUBLE-BILL: Stakes were raised in all directions the following year when Warners took a chance on unknown Aussie Errol Flynn for CAPTAIN BLOOD/’35.