Wonderful character development!

That was an excellent one.

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Leslie Howard was an actor's actor, the highest form of praise, a man whose skill at his craft would allow him to blend into almost any character, any role. While he left behind for fans of the future many fine performances, it is generally thought that one of his best was the original Scarlet Pimpernel in which he had to play what was arguably one of the screen's first "superheros" complete with a secret identity. In the iconic original he manages to effectively portray the mild-mannered fop (more interested in clothing than fighting); the warrior and man of action known as the Pimpernel; and even the romantic counter-part to his wife (who, in a brilliant sub-plot, was also not what she seemed, but for entirely different reasons). It was an astonishing portrayal. Hollywood being what it is (was?) Howard was given a second chance to play the same character in a modern setting, as an underground agent working against the Nazis on their own soil. The script, direction, and acting are all superb. The only negative is that this film TAKEN ON ITS OWN might seem contrived and over-written. Unless - THIS IS THE KEY -- you see the original first. Remember that this was the era before 500 cable channels and streaming video. It is a 'given' that the audience for this film was familiar with the first. So if you you follow their footsteps and see the films in proper order, the sheer bravado and outrage within this script will pop, and you will enjoy a tremendously entertaining film by a master at the top of his craft.In particular, the exchanges between Howard and his nemesis, played by Francis L. Sullivan, and are the stuff of legend.And the scene where Howard, playing a die-hard bachelor, shows a photo of his lifelong love (the statue Aphrodite) to the character played by Mary Morris and then tears it up in front of her ... remains one of the most romantic scenes ever films. A declaration of love with no words spoken.The pity is that being B&W this film will have a smaller and smaller audience in years to come. Pity.

Pimpernel Smith is – together with Chaplin's The Great Dictator – one of the most effective anti-Nazi films ever made. OK, the concentration camp seems rather idyllic compared to what we now know about those places, but the unique mix of comedy and suspense is masterful (it reminds me somewhat of the now forgotten thrillers by Manning Coles, light-years from the nitty-gritty tone of today's blockbusters. Just to set the record straight: Howard's last lines, spoken from the mist at the frontier railway station are first "I'll be back." Sullivan fires a couple of shots into the dark before the voice comes back: "We'll ALL be back." Spoken in 1941, at the height of the Battle of Britain and years before the invasion, those word are nicely prophetic...

Good wartime propaganda film, with Leslie Howard updating his Scarlet Pimpernel role to Germany just pre-war, and playing it just about perfectly - less foppish than Sir Percy and the better for it; why did the Pimpernel have to behave as quite such a pratt in normal society?The Nazis are not treated as a bunch of baby-spearing psychopaths here, partly because they're played by a group of gentle English character actors, and partly because Francis L. Sullivan as General von Graum is too rounded and too amusing a personality. Before the elusive Pimpernel starts to obsess him, he spends most of his time reading PG Wodehouse, Lewis Carroll et el to get British Humour, which he vainly dismisses a myth – and indeed will forbid its mention when he takes charge of London. Only at the end does he play more to type, delivering a paean to the glory of violence, which I don't think was an explicit part of the Nazi's ideology, but I don't think they'll sue.I thought the Professor / Pimpernel's group of archaeology students too tally-ho, too old, too boring, but Mary Morris as a novice, but intuitive, Gestapo agent was beautiful in a very Ingrid Bergman way; the passing of the Professor's love for a statue of Aphrodite was believable under her watery gaze.**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**Look out for the old `they've gone out by the fire escape' trick, when in fact they've stayed in the room. The script-writer shame-facedly apologises for this ancient ruse by having Howard saying `It's an old trick, but it often seems to work'. And the 3 metre escape at the end, in a puff of smoke, is hilarious. Forget Bond villains – General von Graum's `Why don't you stand there by that two-foot high gate, yes, it is the Swiss border, and have a cigarette' takes the all-time biscuit.

Like many, I very much liked this version of the Scarlet Pimpernel, brought to modern day times. Most importantly, it exposes the lack of freedom in Germany and the Concentration Camps when everyone else said they did not know about them. Equally pleasing was Francis Sullivan's role as General Von Graum. You could hate him in a second, especially when he ran Wagner, the poor clerk out of his office as an introduction. This movie should be seen more than it has been seen.