 |
| BAD |
I hate, Hate, HATE,
the 1934 film version of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL starring
Leslie Howard. It is very stagey and profoundly boring. My sister,
for some unfathomable reason, loves it, which is the only reason I ever agreed
to watch the wretched thing.
She also loves
the 1905 novel by Baroness Orczy, so much so that her paperback copy had been
read over and over to the point of disintegration. In 2011, I stumbled upon a majestic hardcover edition in
the discount section of Half Price Books in Omaha, NE. Being a fantastically thoughtful brother, I purchased it to
replace her well-read paperback.
 |
| GOOD |
After finishing
the exciting novel, I figured I really should watch the film again. I
did, and found it even more heinously boring. It was a literary crime to
turn such a thrilling novel into the equivalent of a cinematic sleeping pill.
Though by comparing and contrasting the novel and film, I was able to
pinpoint an overall problem. The film, much like most versions of Dracula,
failed to utilize the title character as a peripheral figure. In the
novel, the story is predominately seen through the eyes of Percy Blakeney's
wife, who is ignorant of her husband's secret life as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
The film, on the other hand, is all about Percy, and thus played by
Leslie Howard, sucks all the mesmerizing intrigue from the plot.
 |
| ALSO GOOD |
Now it is 2014
and, thanks to my sister, I've seen various versions of The Scarlet
Pimpernel, none of which have lived up to the novel, but have generally
been better than the 1934 version! I've also been able to read e-books
for the first time, which lead me to look for Baroness Orczy's other Pimpernel
books. I actually thought of searching before my sister suggested it,
because, as previously stated, I am fantastically thoughtful. So it came
to pass that my sister and I read THE LAUGHING CAVALIER from
1913, which is a prequel detailing "the story of the ancestor of the
Scarlet Pimpernel.”
The Laughing Cavalier is a surprising entertaining book, full of
everything I enjoyed about The Scarlet Pimpernel. Here
is the brief review I wrote for it on iTunes...."An entertaining prequel
to The Scarlet Pimpernel with equal amounts adventure,
romance and intrigue! Not to be missed!”
If there is a
lesson to be found in these laughing scarlet ramblings, it must be to never say
never. I truly assumed I would hate the novel of The Scarlet
Pimpernel, and even figured The Laughing Cavalier would
be a lackluster prequel, but I was proven so very wrong.
“Dreams and
memories are stronger than reality” - from The Laughing
Cavalier by Baroness Orczy
Be Well,
Readers, & Freak Out,
JLH
