Pimpernel Smith

Infobox Film
name = Pimpernel Smith


image_size =
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director = Leslie Howard
producer = Leslie Howard
Harold Huth (assoc.)
writer = Baroness Orczy (novel)
Anatole de Grunwald
narrator =
starring = Leslie Howard
Francis L. Sullivan
Mary Morris
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = July 26 1941 (UK)
February 12 1942 (US)
runtime = 120 minutes
country = UK
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
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amg_id =
imdb_id = 34027

"Pimpernel Smith" is a 1941 adventure film, directed by and starring Leslie Howard, which updates "The Scarlet Pimpernel" story from Revolutionary France to pre-World War II Europe.

The film features an early screen appearance by David Tomlinson.

This movie is notable for helping to inspire Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to mount a real-life rescue operation in Budapest that, conservatively estimated, saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi concentration camps during the last months of World War II. [Linnéa, Sharon, Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death, Jewish Publication Society of America, copyright 1993.]

Plot

A seemingly absent-minded archeology professor, Horatio Smith (Howard) helps refugees escape from the Gestapo. During one daring rescue, he is wounded, which reveals his secret to his admiring students. They enthusiastically join him in his fight.

But things are complicated when one of his students brings him a mysterious woman in distress, Ludmilla Koslowski (Morris). When her father's life is threatened by the Gestapo, she is forced to secretly work for the enemy. Smith engages in a game of cat-and-mouse with his ruthless adversary, General von Graum (Sullivan), who has been assigned to track him down.

Cast

*Leslie Howard as Professor Horatio Smith
*Francis L. Sullivan as General von Graum
*Mary Morris as Ludmilla Koslowski
*Hugh McDermott as David Maxwell
*Raymond Huntley as Marx
*Manning Whiley as Bertie Gregson
*Peter Gawthorne as Sidimir Koslowski
*Allan Jeayes as Dr. Beckendorf
*Dennis Arundell as Hoffman

References

External links

* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/476656/ 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941) at screenonline.org.uk]
* [http://www.blakeneymanor.com/spimages8.html Pimpernel Smith stills from BlakeneyManor.com]
* [http://www.PimpernelSmith.com PimpernelSmith.com]