PIMPERNEL SMITH

UK, 1941, 120 minutes, Black-and-white.
Leslie Howard, Francis L.Sullivan, Mary Morris, Hugh Mc Dermott, David Tomlinson, Raymond Huntley, A.E.Matthews.
Directed by Leslie Howard.

Leslie Howard appeared as The Scarlet Pimpernel of the classic adventure of 1934. Here he plays a World War II variation on the character and theme. (Gregory Peck was to play another World War II variation in The Scarlet and the Black, an Irish Vatican official saving Jews.)

This is an entertaining war propaganda film, important in its time, especially a final prophetic speech given by Leslie Howard looking straight to camera. Howard was not to see the end of the war because he was killed in a plane crash in 1943.

He plays a Cambridge Professor of archaeology, seemingly absent-minded, anti-women. He takes a group of his students to Germany with him, effecting the rescue of prisoners in concentration camps (hiding as a scarecrow in the fields and wounded when the commanding officer shoots at the scarecrow). The students see the bleeding, read the papers and draw their conclusions, very surprised at the change of perspective on the Professor.

The final action takes place in Berlin, at an archaeology site, with an invitation to a reception at the British Embassy, dismissed as a possible spy by the head of the Gestapo (an interesting performance by Frances L.Sullivan who believes that Shakespeare was German!), But under suspicion by a German agent who is later revealed as the daughter of a Polish newspaper editor who has been interned and she has been commissioned to find out who effected his escape. She has an intuition that it is the Professor. She is played by Mary Morris.

There is some tension between the two, the Professor investigating her, finding she is genuine, promising to rescue her father – which happens in a quite spectacular way, with the Professor, first of all, posing as an arrogant American journalist and dominating the Gestapo office, going with his students as journalist to have a tour of the concentration camp, overcoming the officials and their all escaping. The Professor, however, returns to Berlin to rescue the daughter – and, despite his commitment to the statue of Venus that he discovered and his infatuation with the statue, his falling in love.

There is a dramatic escape from Berlin, a train journey, the Polish border, the Gestapo head confronting the Professor but, as was the Scarlet Pimpernel whom they had been seeking everywhere, he is elusive and escapes.

This is a film that Howard made immediately after his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. He also directed the film.

1. World War II propaganda film? Impact in its time? Interest in its historical role? As an entertainment?

2. Leslie Howard, director, star, his reputation, screen presence, particular delivery? His role as The Scarlet Pimpernel and its memories?

3. The settings, Berlin and smuggling prisoners, the Cambridge settings and the University, the travel to Germany, to Switzerland, the concentration camps, the Berlin reception, the Gestapo officers, the trains, the excavations, the Swiss and Polish borders? The musical score? Blue Danube, There is a Tavern in the town…?

4. The initial mission, the scientist and the guinea pigs, his friends, the newspaper editor – Freedom? The work of Pimpernel Smith? The shadow on the wall? The Gestapo, the pursuit, the arrest of the editor? His being interned? Not giving information about the rescue?

5. Horatio Smith, the long sequence of his admiring the statue of Aphrodite, the school teacher and the children? His absentmindedness? The comments of the students? The dice? Pocketing it? His denouncing of the women – and their leaving the classroom? His inviting the young men to accompany him to the continent? The volunteers, Maxwell and his change of mind? His capacity for organisation?

6. The journey, the camaraderie, Smith and his seeming lackadaisical approach, the drinking, the hotels, timetables, trains?

7. The mission, the men working in the fields, the brutal overseer, the scarecrow, the wounding of his arm? The escape? The newspaper reports? Smith and his arm bleeding? The reaction of the young men? His confiding in them?

8. The excavations, contact with the University? The search for an Aryan civilisation?

9. The German authorities, General Von Graum, the reports about the escape, his underlings, Marx, the general and the Gestapo, his size, eating the chocolates? Suspicions?

10. The reception at the British Embassy, the British authorities, the guests, the tearing of the invitation with the time on it, Smith and his nonchalant presence, the invitation, tearing the other invitations, putting them in Marx’s pocket, his conversation with Von Graum, Shakespeare as a German, the quotation from Romeo and Juliet, Von Graum and the discussion about the British sense of humour and its lack, the examples, his not seeing the joke, the quotation from Lewis Carroll, and Smith later talking with Von Graum and bringing him the book? Von Gruam suspicious of the man who said “absolutely nothing�? Dismissing the professor?

11. The presence of Ludmila, the editor’s daughter, in the US, the return to Germany, her father in prison, her being asked to spy, at the reception, suspicious, her intuition about the professor, Maxwell and his intruding, getting information from him? Going to the bar, her talking with the professor, his reactions, her later visiting his room, the purse, the powder? The spies following her?

12. The lunch, the professor buying the powder from the French shop, his getting someone to check on her identity, verified? His sympathy, his promise?

13. Von Graum, his suspicions, letting them go free? The information about the transfer of the editor, knowing that his daughter had seen the information? The setup?

14. The elaborate organisation of the escape, the other journalists? The false phone calls? Smith and his elaborate make up, his manner, barging in and taking control, manipulating
the officials, getting the permits, the umbrella, the muddy shoes and his authoritarian manner? The drive to the camp, the young men as American journalists, the tour?

15. The escape, their being held under ground, with the artefacts from the excavation?

16. The professor, turning up, Von Graum and the discussions about Lewis Carroll? His letting them go?

17. The packing of the artefacts, Von Graum’s men coming to examine the artefacts? The train journey, the plane, supervising the boxes, the professor asleep, his substitute, at the border, everybody getting through? The examination of the artefacts?

18. Ludmila, anxiety, interrogated, Smith’s return, the escape, the fire escape, getting to the station, in the carriage? At the border? Ludmila let through? Von Graum and his confrontation with Smith, the importance of Leslie Howard speaking the prophetic words, straight to camera, about the future of Nazism and its defeat?

19. The plan for Smith to try to cross the border and be shot? The distraction – and his disappearance?

20. An old-fashioned British adventure story? Hero? Heroics? And the propaganda for World War II?