PIMPERNEL AGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 5 (Supplement)

PIMPERNEL AGAIN.

BY BARRY K. BARNES. KORDA'S NEW ORCZY FILM. NEW FOR THE SCREEN. (By JOAN LTTTLEFIELD.) On a set representing a great hall 500 excited citizens, wearing French Republican dress of 1794 but speaking in English accents of 1937, are surging round Robespierre, in <the person of Henry Oscar, and demanding his downfall. Time and again they rush down a huge staircase, roaring and shouting themselves hoarse, while Cameraman Mutz Greenbaum "shoots" from a 40ft rostrum near the roof and Director Hans Schwartz gives his orders through a loudspeaker. The film is "The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel," said to be more exciting than the original picture, and although the Orczy characters have been retained many of the incidents are original. In the film, the Pimpernel becomes partly

responsible for the fall of Robespierre, but the Convention has been reconstructed as accurately as possible and the speeches of Robespierre and the others are taken from their real utteranew. An interesting feature of the Convention room is the American flag which hangs over the Sj>eaker's chair as a tribute to Lafayette and a mark of the close co-o|wr«tion between America and France at that time. "Discovered" Korda and Luise Rainer!

The producer of the picture. Arnold Pressbnrger. now one of Alexander Korda's associates at Denham, declares that he "discovered" Korda years ago in Budapest. where hp was working as a journalist, and took him to Yienna to direct Mark Twain's "Prince and the Pauper." a new Hollywood version of which was made this rear.

"1 also found Luise Rainer." said Mr. Pressbnrger. '"and T think I have a new star in Barry K. Barnes, who plays the Pimpernel." The gleam of the connoisseur shone in his eye. Asked what qualities he looked for in a star, he became a little vague and said it was hard to toll in words. One Just knew an embryo star when one saw one.

Mr. Barnes then came up. tall and immaculate in the uniform of a French ensign, a figure of undoubted glamour, born to flutter the hearts of feminine fans. He i* extremely cool and collected at his sudden entrv into films.

"Honestly, the 'mike' and the camera don't make me in the least nervous," he said. "I think I shall turn to a jelly when the premiere of the film approaches, but at present I don't mind a bit. Jso, I have never made a picture before, but I have done a lot of stage work. I am immensely interested in the mechanics of film-making and I try to learn everything I can about them. In this picture we are trying to get the speed that English films sometimes lack. It is essential for this sort of romantic story, but I am sure the American language, with its direct way of putting things, is more suited to the cinema than the more leisurely English tongue." Assumes Many Disguises. Mr. Barnes has three remarkable disguises as the Pimpernel and spends almost as much time in the hands of Guy Pearce, the make-up expert, as he does before the cameras. "It takes me three hours to assume any of these disguises." he said, "and constant repairs are necessary during the day. In one disguise I am a tumbril driver with long matted hair and protuberant teeth; in the second a window cleaner with bulbous nose, and in the third a deaf old colonel with bushy eyebrows and a hawklike nose. I am disguised now in lieutenant's clothes, although I am allowed to have my natural features."

The only original member of Mr. Korda's "Pimpernel" of three years ago is Antony Bu shell who again plays Sir Percy Ffoulkes. He, also, is interested in the technique of picture-making and hopes one day to be a director. "1 picked up a lot of technical details when I was in Hollywood," he said, "and I should like to return there for a year or so to etudy the methods of famous directors." The new Lady Blakenev is Sophie Stewart, recently presented at one of the Scottish Courts, and the Chanvelin is Francis Lister.