Why The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) Still Has Some Kick

Is it worth your time?

If you like old-school swashbuckling where people talk in full sentences and the stakes are mostly about looking good while outsmarting the bad guys, sure. Watch it. If you need your action movies to move faster than a brisk stroll or you can’t handle guys wearing silk breeches without rolling your eyes, stay away. This is pure costume drama theater, and it knows it.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) through its definitive frames.

Leslie Howard is the whole show here. He plays Sir Percy with this weird, glassy-eyed detachment that somehow works. He looks bored out of his mind most of the time, which is exactly what his character is supposed to be doing to fool everyone. It’s a trick that would fall apart in any modern movie, but here, it’s just charming.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) through its definitive frames.

There is a specific scene in a tavern where he’s pretending to be a complete idiot, and I swear, he’s barely trying. It’s like he’s bored of his own disguise. That kind of lazy brilliance is rare.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) through its definitive frames.

The pacing is a bit of a mess, honestly. It drags for long stretches where people just stand in fancy rooms and whisper about the French Revolution. Then, suddenly, there’s a carriage chase or a narrow escape. It feels like the director remembered he was making an adventure movie and had to jam some excitement in before the tea break.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) through its definitive frames.

Raymond Massey as the villain is just pure, unadulterated snarl. He’s clearly having a blast being the guy everyone loves to hate. He’s got this one stare that could probably curdle milk from across the room. Compared to the lighthearted stuff in something like The Last of the Duanes, this feels much more rigid, like everyone is performing for a stage audience that’s sitting fifty feet away.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) through its definitive frames.

Random thoughts from the back row:

• The wigs. Seriously, how did they walk through doorways without knocking them off?
• Every time someone mentions the guillotine, the music gets so melodramatic it’s almost funny.
• The way they do the "secret identity" reveal is so obvious that you wonder why the bad guys didn't figure it out on day one.
• Merle Oberon looks like she’s constantly trying to remember if she left the oven on at home.
• That one guy in the background of the ball scene who is just eating a grape for three straight minutes. He really committed to that grape.

It’s not a masterpiece, and it doesn't try to be. It’s a relic of a time when movies were basically filmed plays with bigger budgets. Sometimes that’s enough. Just don't go looking for deep psychological layers or anything. It’s just a man in a cape having a very long, very polite argument with history. 🎩✨