This is a relatively obscure film that occasionally appeared on A&E, and the print was in abysmally awful condition. We ordered a video and discovered the print quality on that was still pretty poor. Nevertheless, we still watch it. And we love it. Pimpernel Smith is a wonderful film, the brainchild of the great English actor Leslie Howard who was, ironically, the son of Hungarian immigrants. In film, he became the quintessential Englishman, and in real life, he loved his country as passionately as a man could love anything. His untimely death over the Bay of Biscayne while on a flyby mission for England bore that out.
Pimpernel Smith was written, produced and directed by Howard, who also starred in it and no doubt hand-picked its cast. It retells the older story of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but is in some ways a stronger movie than its more lavishly produced predecessor. The setting is more modern and accessible to most viewers; it has a film noir flavor that is appealing; and the enemy is not the mindless tyranny of the French Revolution but the carefully planned and mechanized tyranny of the Third Reich. Its obvious propaganda message is compelling and moving when one recalls the plight of England at the time. Howard made this film to bolster his countrymen and offer hope, which it must have done, and yet Pimpernel Smith retains a sense of timelessness in its message that tyranny must always be resisted, no matter what the cost.
As the movie opens, the viewer is thrust into a Europe shadowed by Nazi threat, where people are routinely rounded up if the state deems them a danger. A medical researcher is arrested, but then whisked out from under his captors' noses by a mysterious rescuer who slips the doctor to safety. The Nazis are livid, for this unknown savior is their bane, and they want him caught as soon as possible.
From the European mainland, the scene shifts to an English college campus, where works Horatio Smith, an archeology professor who fusses over his prized statue of Aphrodite, is absent-minded and late for everything, and eschews social engagements. The only woman in his life is the aforementioned statue. His students think he's a few bricks shy of a full load, he keeps his superior in a state of confusion, and Horace exasperates his well-meaning brother. Smith is tolerated as a harmless eccentric and resident laughingstock; though brilliant, he's also borderline dysfunctional.
It is, naturally, an act, one carefully cultivated to disarm people so Smith can go about his real business of rescuing those endangered by the Nazis. As an archaeologist, he's free to travel Europe, and he comes up with a plan to take his students with him on a hunt for traces of a lost Aryan civilization. The young men sniff and sneer, but a trip to the continent is irresistible and off they go. The Nazis, meanwhile, have a secret weapon of their own: a seductive and beautiful young woman named Ludmilla Koslowski who spies for them. She does this because her beloved father is a Nazi prisoner and she hopes to secure his release.
Ludmilla meets Smith and finds him oddly compelling, though he for his part does his best to keep his distance from her. She concludes that he must be the elusive rescuer. The Nazi general for whom she works laughs at her suggestion, for Smith has already ingratiated himself to the general as an annoying little English pest. Ludmilla, however, knows she's right and comes to Smith's room to plead with him to help her father. Apparently unmoved by her plight, the professor falls in love with her and later communicates to her that he will rescue her imprisoned father. How he does so is ingenious, employing his students as erstwhile journalists and parlaying the Nazis into unwitting assistants. The rest of the film concerns a trap laid for Smith, using poor Ludmilla as bait.
Pimpernel Smith was Leslie Howard's last film and somehow that seems in keeping with the way he died. The final scene, in which he says from the shadows that he will always be back, is haunting, for he wouldn't be able to return in the flesh. It is Mr. Howard's spirit that returns, time and again, when this deeply personal movie of his is played. This film remains an important reminder that tyranny under any guise must be constantly fought, no matter what it takes.
Pimpernel Smith was written, produced and directed by Howard, who also starred in it and no doubt hand-picked its cast. It retells the older story of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but is in some ways a stronger movie than its more lavishly produced predecessor. The setting is more modern and accessible to most viewers; it has a film noir flavor that is appealing; and the enemy is not the mindless tyranny of the French Revolution but the carefully planned and mechanized tyranny of the Third Reich. Its obvious propaganda message is compelling and moving when one recalls the plight of England at the time. Howard made this film to bolster his countrymen and offer hope, which it must have done, and yet Pimpernel Smith retains a sense of timelessness in its message that tyranny must always be resisted, no matter what the cost.
As the movie opens, the viewer is thrust into a Europe shadowed by Nazi threat, where people are routinely rounded up if the state deems them a danger. A medical researcher is arrested, but then whisked out from under his captors' noses by a mysterious rescuer who slips the doctor to safety. The Nazis are livid, for this unknown savior is their bane, and they want him caught as soon as possible.
From the European mainland, the scene shifts to an English college campus, where works Horatio Smith, an archeology professor who fusses over his prized statue of Aphrodite, is absent-minded and late for everything, and eschews social engagements. The only woman in his life is the aforementioned statue. His students think he's a few bricks shy of a full load, he keeps his superior in a state of confusion, and Horace exasperates his well-meaning brother. Smith is tolerated as a harmless eccentric and resident laughingstock; though brilliant, he's also borderline dysfunctional.
It is, naturally, an act, one carefully cultivated to disarm people so Smith can go about his real business of rescuing those endangered by the Nazis. As an archaeologist, he's free to travel Europe, and he comes up with a plan to take his students with him on a hunt for traces of a lost Aryan civilization. The young men sniff and sneer, but a trip to the continent is irresistible and off they go. The Nazis, meanwhile, have a secret weapon of their own: a seductive and beautiful young woman named Ludmilla Koslowski who spies for them. She does this because her beloved father is a Nazi prisoner and she hopes to secure his release.
Ludmilla meets Smith and finds him oddly compelling, though he for his part does his best to keep his distance from her. She concludes that he must be the elusive rescuer. The Nazi general for whom she works laughs at her suggestion, for Smith has already ingratiated himself to the general as an annoying little English pest. Ludmilla, however, knows she's right and comes to Smith's room to plead with him to help her father. Apparently unmoved by her plight, the professor falls in love with her and later communicates to her that he will rescue her imprisoned father. How he does so is ingenious, employing his students as erstwhile journalists and parlaying the Nazis into unwitting assistants. The rest of the film concerns a trap laid for Smith, using poor Ludmilla as bait.
Pimpernel Smith was Leslie Howard's last film and somehow that seems in keeping with the way he died. The final scene, in which he says from the shadows that he will always be back, is haunting, for he wouldn't be able to return in the flesh. It is Mr. Howard's spirit that returns, time and again, when this deeply personal movie of his is played. This film remains an important reminder that tyranny under any guise must be constantly fought, no matter what it takes.