Word: blakeney
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CAPITALIZING on the new wave of interest in The Scarlet Pimpernel evoked by a Hollywood adaptation of Baroness Orczy's novel, Mr. Blakeney presents what is supposed to be the accurate story of his life and exploits. Mr. Blakeney's Scarlet Pimpernel is so much like the novelized personage that the book is hardly worth the trouble he took in filling in missing gaps and adding all sorts of anecdotes. It is not stated that the author is a descendant of the illustrious Blakeney's; indeed, his extreme adulation of them all would prove a bit nauseating if one knew...
...pedigree of "that demmed elusive Pimpernel" is traced back five generations to the "Laughing Cavalier" whom Franz Hals painted, a Dutch vagabond and swaggerer, son of the merchant John Blake of Blakeney and a young Haarlem girl, Philippina. Percy's early life is described, and later the important part which he played in heckling the French Revolutionists. The first indication that the author's Percy Blakeney is going to turn out to be just what movie-goers of today think him, comes in the narrative during Percy's first day at Harrow, in his twelfth year...
...scarlet pimpernel is not, as U. S. cinemaddicts may suppose, either a childhood disease or a disgraceful occupation. It is a little wildflower which Sir Percy Blakeney (Leslie Howard), head of a gang of altruistic milords who consider it their duty to rescue French aristocrats imperilled by the Revolution, uses as his signature. Versatile, altruistic, Sir Percy kidnaps deserving members of nobility on their way from dungeon to execution block. On business trips to France he disguises himself with a putty nose and the long skirts of a peasant crone. In London, visiting his tailor or attending prizefights, he behaves...
...Lady Blakeney is actually guiltless when her husband first suspects her but circumstances force her into a misplay. Her French brother is in danger. The bad Ambassador of the French Republic (Raymond Massey) promises to spare his life if Lady Blakeney will help him unmask the Scarlet Pimpernel. Lady Blakeney does so, but when she learns that the Pimpernel is Sir Percy, she has a fever of remorse. She follows Sir Percy to France, gets there in time to see him neatly foil a firing squad...
...James players proved once more that they are at their best in melodrama. Mr. Collier was given first class support, particularly by Mr. Nedell, Mr. Richards, and Miss Blakeney. Mr. Richards paid the penalty of being known as a comedian, and the audience persisted in tittering in anticipation of the laughs that did not come...