For those who have seen both, which is your favourite?
Personally, I prefer Pimpernel Smith with its scholarly, bumbling hero (endearingly hesitant with women!) to The Scarlet Pimpernel, where the hero plays a frivilous aristocratic fop.
That may be true, but you have to admit that the tense drama between Marguerite and Sir Percy is beautiful... in the novel, anyway, I've actually yet to find the movies anywhere. lol. ^.^ le sigh.
shareI must confess to not having read the novel, but am pleased to get a response here. The book is in my bookshelf but collecting dust. I picked up both movies cheaply years ago on VHS. I've also seen the more recent version of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Jane Seymour on TV, and think I might actually prefer it to the original.
shareI'm watching 'Pimpernel Smith' again as I type, and I can appreciate the neat transferral of Leslie Howard's character from revolutionary France to Nazi Germany - his 'League' of students, unassuming persona, and the vanishing act he performs at the end! I think Howard suits the Professor better, but I will always prefer Sir Percy (and Marguerite).
"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy
I too am in the midst of watching Pimpernel Smith and I must say that the original Pimpernel aged better! The writing, the misdirection, the satisfaction of the stuffy-nosed aristocrat is much better developed and utilized in the Scarlet Pimpernel.
I find the chauvinistic pettiness of Horatio to be bad acting and bad writing, not a masquerade of the character. Thus, it has, for me, utterly failed. That's not to say there wasn't something important being done here. I understand the symmetry they were seeking and it was in some way noble of them to try.
I prefer The Scarlet Pimpernel. The Professor's early dismissal of the female students did not endear him to me at all.
shareIsn't this along the lines of 'good manners' rather than chauvinism and misogyny?
"Women and children first" etc.
At the time, it just wasn't done to put women in danger.
My first thought was to say both, but I'll give Pimpernel Smith a slight edge. The dialogue was witty and funny.
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