Saturday, August 8, 2015

1950 - THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL, a not very good Powell and Pressburger film to put it mildly.

A stinker is a stinker even from Powell and Pressburger.  The producers Alexander Korda and Samuel Goldwyn persuaded The Archers to remake The Scarlet Pimpernel.  However Powell and Pressburger seemed very uninspired considering the end result.

The film has pretty color photography and enough foppish behavior from the cast to completely distract the viewer from the story which is about rescuing French aristocrats during the French Revolution.  Frankly the sight of David Niven with curls in his hair is not one easily forgotten.

As usual the film is drenched in technicolor as is the way with Powell and Pressburger, it is a gorgeous film to look at. However the film is just about dramatically inert with the climax involving the chief villain sneezing after inhaling a bunch of pepper up his nose!

The Elusive Pimpernel shows the further decline of the Powell and Pressburger team, good looking films but eccentric and off putting entertainments.


109 minutes.

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