Both Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon, along with Raymond Massey have moved on to other things, passing their roles of Percy, Marguerite and Chauvelin on two factors that are not known today outside connoisseurs of British Cinema. Barry K. Barnes is well cast as Sir Percy Blakeney, now married to Sophie Stewart's Marguerite and living in England.
The continued evil of Robespierre is still going on in the revolutionary torn France, and in order to get Percy back so they can execute him for his abducting intended victims, they kidnapped Marguerite and intend to have her guillotined to get the pimpernel out in the open. When Marguerite is in court, it's obvious that Percy is there, disguised as a peasant, hysterically looking like Harpo Marx. there's also a French national who wants to take down Robespierre, played by a young James Mason, and he is the only familiar name in the movie.
For those who have studied French Revolution history, they will see several bits of truth in the continuing story, leading up to the downfall of Robespierre and the end of the reign of terror. But for most of this film, there is a lot of repeating of what happened in the first film including the "they seek him here, they seek him there" (memorably adapted for the stage musical), and a few other little bits are repeats of poetic humor from the film.
This time, Chauvelin gets in on the humor with Francis Lister playing the park as if he was auditioning for the role of Caligula in producer Alexander Korda's "I Claudius". Henry Oscar is a memorable Robespierre, a man so vile you long to see him become a victim of his own evils. This is a handsome film that I wouldn't call a great one, and had I watched both the 1934 original and this together, I might have had a different point of view as it would be difficult other than the casting to tell much of it apart.
The continued evil of Robespierre is still going on in the revolutionary torn France, and in order to get Percy back so they can execute him for his abducting intended victims, they kidnapped Marguerite and intend to have her guillotined to get the pimpernel out in the open. When Marguerite is in court, it's obvious that Percy is there, disguised as a peasant, hysterically looking like Harpo Marx. there's also a French national who wants to take down Robespierre, played by a young James Mason, and he is the only familiar name in the movie.
For those who have studied French Revolution history, they will see several bits of truth in the continuing story, leading up to the downfall of Robespierre and the end of the reign of terror. But for most of this film, there is a lot of repeating of what happened in the first film including the "they seek him here, they seek him there" (memorably adapted for the stage musical), and a few other little bits are repeats of poetic humor from the film.
This time, Chauvelin gets in on the humor with Francis Lister playing the park as if he was auditioning for the role of Caligula in producer Alexander Korda's "I Claudius". Henry Oscar is a memorable Robespierre, a man so vile you long to see him become a victim of his own evils. This is a handsome film that I wouldn't call a great one, and had I watched both the 1934 original and this together, I might have had a different point of view as it would be difficult other than the casting to tell much of it apart.