Leslie Howard starred during his younger years in the original 1934 version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, the story of an Englishman named Sir Percival Blakeney, who rescues aristocrats during the French Revolution. However, I actually preferred this World War II version, Pimpernel Smith, to both the original Scarlet Pimpernel and its 1982 remake, starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour.
This movie, set in pre war 1939, tells the story of the unassuming British Professor Horatio Smith, who takes a group of his students on an archaeological dig in Nazi Germany. These students, much to their amazement, discover that this dig is merely a front for their professor's true purpose, which is to rescue intellectuals, artists, & other enemies of the Third Reich and arrange for their safe passage out of Germany.
Howard is perfect as the absent minded, socially inept, and rather eccentric professor. Also, while in Germany, the group encounters a beautiful woman, Ludmilla, who is being forced to act as a Gestapo agent, hoping to obtain the release of her father whom the Nazis are holding as prisoner. This enhances Professor Smith's character development and adds romance & some tender moments to the tale. Hitherto the only woman in the professor's life has been a statue of Aphrodite in his college campus back in England!
The Nazis in this movie are portrayed essentially as idiots, totally lacking any sense of humour. Professor Smith, on the other hand, is constantly witty. The very purpose of his archaeological dig, to determine whether or not an Ayran civilization actually existed in Germany, of course totally mocks the entire Master Race nonsense of the Third Reich, though the Nazis here are far too dumb to perceive the ridicule. In fact, the apparently bumbling (but actually very clever) Smith is able to snatch his intellectuals right out from under these Nazis' noses! By the way, you'll always think of this movie whenever you chance to hear the tune 'Tavern in the Town'.
The movie has less swashbuckling derring do than The Scarlet Pimpernel, but does boast an engrossing and suspenseful plot, a cat & mouse game with some tense moments. However, the film's main asset, in my opinion, is its message that quiet, unassuming people can make unlikely heroes, not just the obvious tough guy superheroes, and can accomplish great if unheralded deeds. Also, people may sometimes be other than what they appear!
It's always interesting to watch these old war movies. The original British audience back in 1941 would have been in the darkest wartime months and of course not have realized the eventual outcome of World War II. This hopeful & uplifting tale must have cheered them up. I was also interested to note that Howard himself was killed when his plane was shot down by Germans, during a flight returning home from what may have been a spy mission to Lisbon.
This movie, set in pre war 1939, tells the story of the unassuming British Professor Horatio Smith, who takes a group of his students on an archaeological dig in Nazi Germany. These students, much to their amazement, discover that this dig is merely a front for their professor's true purpose, which is to rescue intellectuals, artists, & other enemies of the Third Reich and arrange for their safe passage out of Germany.
Howard is perfect as the absent minded, socially inept, and rather eccentric professor. Also, while in Germany, the group encounters a beautiful woman, Ludmilla, who is being forced to act as a Gestapo agent, hoping to obtain the release of her father whom the Nazis are holding as prisoner. This enhances Professor Smith's character development and adds romance & some tender moments to the tale. Hitherto the only woman in the professor's life has been a statue of Aphrodite in his college campus back in England!
The Nazis in this movie are portrayed essentially as idiots, totally lacking any sense of humour. Professor Smith, on the other hand, is constantly witty. The very purpose of his archaeological dig, to determine whether or not an Ayran civilization actually existed in Germany, of course totally mocks the entire Master Race nonsense of the Third Reich, though the Nazis here are far too dumb to perceive the ridicule. In fact, the apparently bumbling (but actually very clever) Smith is able to snatch his intellectuals right out from under these Nazis' noses! By the way, you'll always think of this movie whenever you chance to hear the tune 'Tavern in the Town'.
The movie has less swashbuckling derring do than The Scarlet Pimpernel, but does boast an engrossing and suspenseful plot, a cat & mouse game with some tense moments. However, the film's main asset, in my opinion, is its message that quiet, unassuming people can make unlikely heroes, not just the obvious tough guy superheroes, and can accomplish great if unheralded deeds. Also, people may sometimes be other than what they appear!
It's always interesting to watch these old war movies. The original British audience back in 1941 would have been in the darkest wartime months and of course not have realized the eventual outcome of World War II. This hopeful & uplifting tale must have cheered them up. I was also interested to note that Howard himself was killed when his plane was shot down by Germans, during a flight returning home from what may have been a spy mission to Lisbon.