El pimpinela triunfante

Some films it seems are destined to be dreadful. Here the whole enterprise was beset with production problems and it shows. Every film-maker is entitled to the occasional aberration but despite Michael Powell's lunatic notion of making this a musical being thankfully knocked on the head, the finished product retains the feel of a second rate operetta without the music. It does at least look pretty, courtesy of Christpher Challis' cinematography and Hein Heckroth's sets but the acting by some of the supporting cast is amateurish and the editing simply atrocious.

Although David Niven, on loan from MGM is affable as the title character this role once again reveals his limitations as an actor whilst Margaret Leighton is alas miscast as Lady Blakeney. It might at one stage have been the genuinely gallic Madeleine le Beau but Powell was overrruled. Cyril Cusack as Chauvelin is a pantomime villain and Sir Percy's aristo confederates resemble members of a rugby team on a weekend jaunt to France. It is best to draw a discreet veil over Jack Hawkins' Prince of Wales.

Mr. Powell at least possessed sufficient humility to acknowledge that "it was a terrible mess".

After their triumphs of the Forties, this and his subsequent films with Emeric Pressburger were hopelessly out of step with a Fifties audience but out on his own his 'Peeping Tom' from 1960, despite the chorus of disapproval that met its release, proved to be years ahead of its time.

What if Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made a Batman movie? Well, it'd probably turn out a whole lot like The Elusive Pimpernel. It'd be full of pretty gowns, balls, and more focused on Bruce Wayne's dandy cover than his skills as Batman. I mean, there's not one swordfight in this film. I was really not expecting that. Still, it's moderately entertaining but not entirely successful. Thriller mechanics are simply different from most dramatics, and I think many filmmakers who dip their toes into the thriller or adventure genre underestimate the challenges inherent in the genres, preferring to treat their exercises as extensions of drama rather than something with a different structural need to deliver a different audience experience. The creative pair manage to pull it together for the most part by the end, but it's not quite enough to save the film as a whole.

Revolution has engulfed France, and the mysterious figure of the Scarlet Pimpernel has been saving French nobles targeted by the mob and the Committee of Public Safety, represented by Citizen Chauvelin (Cyril Cusack). One of the early issues I have with this film is...I don't know where Chauvelin actually is. His early scenes I'm pretty sure are in Paris, but then he makes a decision to go to London because there's a party that very night he needs to attend...which he gets to without issue. So, was he always in London, and his discussion with Armand St. Juste (Edmond Audran) was at his house there, even though the plot, when it eventually manifests, is about saving Armand in Paris? I bet there's a scene missing.

Anyway, St. Juste (I have issues with the use of this name) is the brother to Marguerite (Margaret Leighton) who is married to the dandy Sir Percy Blankeney (David Niven) who is, of course, The Scarlet Pimpernel. He finds excuses of needing to recuperate at baths around England to sneak to France and do his work. He also spends times in real baths with the other elite of British society, including the Prince of Wales (Jack Hawkins), with whom he has a playfully antagonistic relationship, mostly around fashion.

The first half of this film is really largely plotless. We get two separate and repetitive examples of the Pimpernel rescuing people in France (I would recommend either combining them into one sequence or just cutting the first outright) and then a lot of focus on Marguerite. Her and Percy's relationship has soured heavily since they left France and she denounced some figures who went to the guillotine. He can't forgive her for that, and the refugees he brings back from France want nothing to do with her. I mean, this is solid stuff (I imagine it comes from the source novels by the Baroness Orczy), but it's presented in this dramatic idiom that when given such prominence in an adventure tale mostly just drags things down. The pacing (something I don't often gripe about) is just wrong here.

The weird thing is that the central plot, rescuing Armand, is introduced early. It just gets no attention for a long stretch, replaced, eventually, by some business around Chauvelin using a letter Armand had sent that contained some anti-revolutionary rhetoric as leverage over Marguerite to try and figure out who the Pimpernel is. So, essentially it's a distraction as Percy has to put on disguises to try and get his hand on the letter instead of going to France to save his wife's brother.

It's at about the halfway point where the film actually gains the overall character of an adventure story instead of a drama with some exciting bits thrown in here and there. It starts with the sudden need to make it to France, Chauvelin figuring out where and when the Pimpernel is going to depart for France from, Percy and the Prince of Wales getting into a race to Dover from London, and more. It suddenly has this drive, and we discover that some things set up in the first act shenanigans actually pay off in the final act, in particular the use of Mont St. Michel and its tides. I'm still disappointed that there isn't a single crossed sword, but Percy using his wits to win against Chauvelin is not unsatisfactory.

So, really, the film is alright. It's outside of Powell and Pressburger's wheelhouse, so the fit into the thrilling adventure is not quite right. However, they seem to be students of cinema enough to be able to adapt in the final act. Niven is the anchor of it all, and he's obviously just there to have some fun. He alternates between his dandy personality and that of the harder Pimpernel with ease, carrying the film on his back as best he can.

I wish Powell and Pressburger had studied adventure stories a bit more before finalizing their draft before filming, restructuring things and reprioritizing plot a bit more in the first half to give the film a clearer drive. It's never dull, though, it just never quite comes together despite the efforts of the final act.

Given that "The Elusive Pimpernel" was a Powell-Pressburger production, I expected the film to be top-notch. Instead, sadly, it's just okay...and I really think the made for TV version with Anthony Andrews from 1982 is a much more enjoyable film. Why? Well, I think a lot of the fault is casting David Niven in the lead. While an amazingly good actor, here he just seems way too subdued and his character should have been more foppish and effete.

The story is set during the worst days of the French Revolution. It's the so-called 'Reign of Terror' and the country's bloodlust seems unquenchable. Again and again, aristocrats and their entire families are being beheaded all in the name of justice! The Scarlet Pimpernel and his small group of friends are doing their best to save a few families here and there...and they are as a result, among the country's most wanted men...though their actual identities are unknown.

The story covers most of the basic elements of the book but just feels flat. I think part of it is that the TV film works better because it's longer...and can take a more leisurely pace in covering the material. This and Niven's performance really harm this film...which is watchable but lacking. The same can be said when comparing it to the 1934 Alexander Korda version...one that isn't quite as good as the miniseries but nonetheless is an exceptional film. The leads were better and the story seemed much cleverer and lighthearted.

David Niven takes on the mantle of Baroness Orczy's hero in this classy but a little lightweight take on the escapades of the "Scarlet Pimpernel". Hugely successful at smuggling doomed artisto's from under the nose of the Reign of Terror, the French authorities charge "Chauvelin" (Cyril Cusack) to track down the culprit. He has some leverage with the new and glamorous "Lady Blakeney" (Margaret Leighton) and so offers her the life of her brother if she will agree to help him. She just happens to be married to the foppish "Sir Percy", but is he so useless as his persona suggests? Niven is on quite good form in this; there is enough intrigue to keep it moving along well and Leighton can always be relied upon to deliver competently (even if this is far from her best effort). It's not the best Powell & Pressberger film, but it is still a polished adventure with a soupçon of humour as we head to an exciting last fifteen minutes. Perhaps not as good as Leslie Howard's 1934 iteration, but Niven looks like he enjoyed making it and I enjoyed watching it, too.

David Niven must have had so much fun making The Fighting Pimpernel! He got to work with inventive directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who directed him in A Matter of Life and Death, and he got to put on so many different disguises throughout the film. He plays the famous Scarlet Pimpernel, and as he goes incognito planning out various schemes to aid in the French Revolution, he always makes sure his costume, face, and accent are different. Can't picture him with missing teeth and a thick Cockney accent? Can't see him with patches in his trousers and a wild reg wig? Can't imagine him as a hag? You certainly can, if you rent The Fighting Pimpernel.

Without The Niv, this movie wouldn't be anything to write home about. It has a very European feel to it, and the supporting actors are often over-the-top or just plain strange. Thankfully, there is my beloved Niv, to make everything all better. He may not be insanely handsome in this one, since he spends most of his time making his face unrecognizable, but he gets to show off a lot of hidden talents. It's always fun to see an actor let his or her hair down, isn't it? If you liked him in this, next up is Candleshoe, where he also gets to wear many different hats.