The Elusive Pimpernel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Elusive Pimpernel | |
|---|---|
 The Elusive Pimpernel Video Cover |
|
| Directed by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Produced by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Written by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Starring | David Niven Margaret Leighton Cyril Cusack Jack Hawkins |
| Music by | Brian Easdale |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Editing by | Reginald Mills |
| Distributed by | British Lion Films Ltd. |
| Release date(s) | February 6, 1950 UK |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger, based on The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, and its sequel The Elusive Pimpernel. It was released in the USA as The Fighting Pimpernel.
It stars David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney (aka The Scarlet Pimpernel), Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney and Cyril Cusack as Chauvelin.
Originally planned as a musical, it was re-worked as a light-hearted drama, not entirely successfully. The movie is widely regarded as the weakest of the various film treatments of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
[edit] Literature
- Ian Christie (1994). Arrows of Desire: the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. London: Faber & Faber, 163pp (illus. filmog. bibliog. index). ISBN 0-571-16271-1.
[edit] Original Story
The Elusive Pimpernel, written by Baroness Orczy and first published in 1908, is the sequel to the Scarlet Pimpernel.
French Agent and chief spy-catcher Chauvelin is as crafty as ever. He travels to England with the sole purpose of tricking Sir Percy Blakeney into agreeing to a duel in France.
Percy and his wife Marguerite soon fall into his carefully staged trap and before long Marguerite has been captured after attempting to enter France on a false passport given to her as part of the plot.
Chauvelin appears to have an air-tight plan to discredit Sir Percy and end the meddling of the Scarlet Pimpernel for good, but as always Percy is more than a match for his arch-enemy.
[edit] External links
- The Elusive Pimpernel reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
- Elusive Pimpernel at the Internet Movie Database
- The Elusive Pimpernel at the BFI's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
 |
Powell and Pressburger The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
|---|---|
| 1930s | The Spy in Black | The Lion Has Wings |
| 1940s | Contraband | An Airman's Letter to His Mother | Forty-Ninth Parallel | One of Our Aircraft is Missing | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | The Volunteer | A Canterbury Tale | I Know Where I'm Going! | A Matter of Life and Death | Black Narcissus | The Red Shoes | The Small Back Room |
| 1950s | The Elusive Pimpernel | Gone to Earth | The Tales of Hoffmann | Oh... Rosalinda!! | The Battle of the River Plate | Ill Met by Moonlight |
| 1960s | Peeping Tom (not Pressburger) | They're a Weird Mob | Age of Consent |
| 1970s | The Boy Who Turned Yellow |
