“The Scarlet Pimpernel” Stars Leslie Howard

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 196, 21 August 1935, Page 11

“The Scarlet Pimpernel” Stars Leslie Howard

BARONESS ORCZY’S STORY BROUGHT TO SILVERSHEET (Regent: Screening To-day.) It lias been claimed for ‘-The Scarlet Pimpernel,” the picturisation of the best-loved and most widely J known of the Baroness Orczy’s popular romances, that it is the finest film yet to have issued from a British studio. The longfilm is an Alexander Korda production, and as such has the stamp ot excellence, surpassing even “The Private Life of Henry VIII” and •‘Catherine the Great.”

“Tlu Scarier Pimpernel” also is a period film, the tliemo and scenes being set in the time of the French Revolution, and the costumes, with their oldworld charm, hark back to tho days of the snuff-box and silken hose, when fashion produced dandies who still were men at heart, and English gentlemen at that. As Sir Percy Blakeney and his unsuspected counterpart, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Leslie Howard gives a masterly portrayal of foppishness, gallantry, charm and elusiveness. Meric Oberon, whose unusual type ot' beauty could almost be termed exotic, and who also had the feminine lead in tho “Polies Bergere, ” makes a winsome Lady Blakeney, Nigel Bruce plays the roie of the Prince Regent, while the fiendish Chauvelin is impersonated by Raymond Massey. The settings of the absorbing story have been lavishly staged without theatrical “ improvements,’ ’ the photograph}- is flawless, and no effort has been spared to produce scenes remarkable for their liveliness, and even more remarkable for their tense reality, as when the guillotines of Paris and Boulogne are seen, reminiscent of the dark days when annihilations were episodes and so many unoffending aristocrats fell victims of mob rule.

“The Scarlet Pimpernel” teems with adventure, romance, beauty, tragedy, and humour, and it is irresistible in its general appeal. A series of excellent supports include a Walt Disney Silly Symphony entitled “The Goddess of: Spring.”