La primula Smith

Concerning this film, I can't decide if my soft spot is for the always superb Leslie Howard, or for one of the old heroes of literature, resurrected to fight the nazi menace. This is a clever update of the Scarlet Pimpernel story. I found this re-incarnation of the classic much more enjoyable than the original. It was even more fun than another personal favorite, Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, who came back in the 1940's to do his bit for king and country against the Third Reich.

Albeit, very light fair, films like this were more to entertain and keep spirits high in not so certain times. The horrors of war can be looked back upon, but to push onward, the propaganda of the day was to show the enemy as almost comical foes, outwitted by the ever sensible Englishman. Leslie Howard plays this role beautifully and it remains one of my favorite performances by him...

"Pimpernel Smith" is a superb wartime film about rescuing scientists from Nazi Germany. It's a fictional story that takes its cues from the earlier books and films about "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Leslie Howard plays Professor Horatio Smith. He is an archaeologist from Cambridge University who says he's on a quest to find evidence of the Aryan civilization. But, in reality, he "digs" the Allied cause. The setting for the film is just before September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland to start World War II.

Francis Sullivan is General von Graum, the head of the gestapo. He's not a dumb Nazi, but cunning and committed. The large cast includes college students, scientists, underground characters, German soldiers, gestapo men and others. All of the cast are very good in their roles.

Other reviewers discuss the story and actors. Those who are interested in the background of the film and its significance for the time may like more information. The following is a brief overview.

Baroness Emma Orczy de Orci was still alive in 1941 when Leslie Howard and British National Films made this movie. "Pimpernel Smith" borrows its plot, and part of its name, from de Orci's 1903 play and 1905 book. "The Scarlet Pimpernel" was a big hit. In 1934, Howard played Sir Percy Blakeney in the movie of the same title that set the standard for all film versions to follow. Indeed, all but the 1982 TV film with Anthony Andrews in the role, pale in comparison.

In 1940, De Orci had just written the last of a dozen sequels to her original. In the meantime, Scottish author A.G. Macdonell had written a story, "'Pimpernel' Smith," that brought the famous rescuer up to the time of World War II. One wonders if Macdonell, Howard or others consulted de Orci about the 1941 film. Did Howard correspond with her about it? Would she have approved and been pleased?

Howard was interested in a rescue type film against Nazi Germany as early as 1938. After Macdonell's modern "Pimpernel Smith" came out, Howard made this film his project, from start to finish. He co-produced, directed and starred in it. Besides being a first-rate wartime thriller, "Pimpernel Smith" is one of the best propaganda films ever made. It was highly regarded as such from its opening early in WW II.

The movie was released in Great Britain on July 28, 1941, and around the rest of the U.K. in the days that followed. It wasn't released in the U.S. until February 12, 1942, after America had entered the war. But it was a big success there as well as in the U.K. It was the third most popular movie in England in 1941. In the U.S. it was released under the title, "Mister V."

"Pimpernel Smith" may have inspired Sweden's Raoul Wallenberg, whose efforts in 1944 saved many thousand Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps. Wallenberg's story has been told in several documentaries and two movies. "Wallenberg: A Hero's Story" was a 1985 Paramount movie made for TV. "Good Morning, Mr. Wallenberg" is a Swedish film from 1990.

When "Pimpernel Smith" reached Sweden in November 1943, it was banned by the Swedish Film Censorship Board. The Swedes feared for their continued neutrality during the war because of the portrayal of the Germans in the movie. But, Wallenberg and his sister saw the film at a private screening. She later said that he was impressed by the movie and said he would like to do something like that. Since 1941, he had been traveling frequently to Hungary as a businessman. By 1944, he would be a special envoy for Sweden to Hungary, as well as a contact for the American OSS. He made it his mission to help save Hungarian Jews.

Wallenberg did save many thousand Austrian Jews by giving them Swedish passports and secured housing. But, his fate is unknown. After the Soviet Army took Budapest in 1944, Wallenberg disappeared. He was summoned to Soviet headquarters and was never heard from again. The later movies, books and articles conjecture about his final end. While no one can be sure, and actual evidence has never surfaced as to when or how he died, there's no doubt that he died or was killed while a prisoner of the Soviet Union.

And, Leslie Howard himself would not survive World War II. Howard was too old for military service - he was 46 at the start of WW II in 1939. But, he worked feverishly in his trade against the Nazis. He made several documentaries and starred in a number of World War II films. His other films included "49th Parallel of 1941, "Spitfire" (aka, "First of the Few") of 1942, and "The Gentle Sex" of 1943.

After his last film in America - "Gone With the Wind" of 1939 (in which he plays Ashley Wilkes), Howard returned to England to help with the war effort. But, he was killed on June 1, 1943. He was one of 17 passengers on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777. It was enroute from Lisbon, Portugal, to Bristol, England, when German fighters shot down the DC-3 over the Bay of Biscay. The plane was off the coast of France, 500 miles West of Bordeaux.

Leslie Howard is one of the great film and stage actors of all time.

Returning to England before the war, Leslie Howard was a towering figure in the British government's anti-Nazi propaganda policy, making patriotic radio broadcasts and movies that lifted the spirits of the British people in the dark days of the war. One such film was Pimpernel Smith in which Howard plays Archeology Professor Horatio Smith who doubles as a British spy, undertaking to help refugees escape from the Gestapo. Based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy and modeled after the 1934 film of the same name, Pimpernel Smith is said to have influenced Raoul Wallenberg, known for his heroism in rescuing Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.

In the film, Professor Smith takes six students with him on an archaeological dig in Germany, presumably to find out whether or not there was an early Aryan civilization in Germany. Smith tries to convince Gestapo leader General Von Graum (Francis L. Sullivan) that he is just a learned professor, reading from The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll and telling him his theory that William Shakespeare was really the Earl of Oxford. Imagine that! The Professor's wit and wisdom are no match for the humorless Nazis and they seem to fall for each of the professor's tricks. Unfortunately, the Nazis are depicted not as mass murderers but only as bumbling clowns who speak English as well as Winston Churchill.

When Smith is wounded, the students catch on to what he is up to and agree to help him in his attempts to secure the release of pianist Sidimir Koslowski (Peter Gawthorne). In his clandestine cat and mouse game, he meets Koslowski's daughter Ludmilla (Mary Morris) who is working for the Nazis in order to save her father and the two form a bond. Howard's role as Professor Smith is one of his most acclaimed in a career that included roles as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind and Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel. He had a great sense of style and screen presence and his death in 1943 on what was most likely an intelligence gathering mission for the British left the film industry bereft of one of its brightest stars.

Leslie Howard was an actor's actor, the highest form of praise, a man whose skill at his craft would allow him to blend into almost any character, any role. While he left behind for fans of the future many fine performances, it is generally thought that one of his best was the original Scarlet Pimpernel in which he had to play what was arguably one of the screen's first "superheros" complete with a secret identity. In the iconic original he manages to effectively portray the mild-mannered fop (more interested in clothing than fighting); the warrior and man of action known as the Pimpernel; and even the romantic counter-part to his wife (who, in a brilliant sub-plot, was also not what she seemed, but for entirely different reasons). It was an astonishing portrayal. Hollywood being what it is (was?)

Howard was given a second chance to play the same character in a modern setting, as an underground agent working against the Nazis on their own soil. The script, direction, and acting are all superb. The only negative is that this film TAKEN ON ITS OWN might seem contrived and over-written. Unless - THIS IS THE KEY -- you see the original first. Remember that this was the era before 500 cable channels and streaming video. It is a 'given' that the audience for this film was familiar with the first. So if you you follow their footsteps and see the films in proper order, the sheer bravado and outrage within this script will pop, and you will enjoy a tremendously entertaining film by a master at the top of his craft.

In particular, the exchanges between Howard and his nemesis, played by Francis L. Sullivan, and are the stuff of legend.

And the scene where Howard, playing a die-hard bachelor, shows a photo of his lifelong love (the statue Aphrodite) to the character played by Mary Morris and then tears it up in front of her ... remains one of the most romantic scenes ever films. A declaration of love with no words spoken.

The pity is that being B&W this film will have a smaller and smaller audience in years to come. Pity.

((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Leslie Howard plays absent minded professor in updated version of the scarlet pimpernel spiriting away enemies of Nazi Germany.Set almost at the outbreak of world war II the film is clearly anti Nazi propaganda with classic quips such as "that is to stop the oppressed Swiss from escaping into free Germany".The Germans are typically portrayed as bungling half wits afraid of their masters with the exception of Francis Sullivan's character Graum who is portrayed as a parody of Herman Goering. I love this film despite its limitations and deficiencies it reminds me of a happier bygone England, it is full of humour,a hint of romance and plenty of adventure. Great.