The Elusive Pimpernel The Elusive Pimpernel The Elusive Pimpernel is a 1950 British period adventure film by the British-based director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. It was released in the United States under the title The Fighting Pimpernel. The film stars David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney (a.k.a. The Scarlet Pimpernel), Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney and features Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack and Robert Coote. Originally intended to be a musical, the film was re-worked as a light-hearted drama. During the French Revolution, the Scarlet Pimpernel (David Niven), who
Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel he sends his soldiers to capture them. It soon becomes obvious that the situation has been planned by the Pimpernel as a way to distract the guard while he attempts to rescue a group of priests being held at the nearby Duchess Anne tower. However, as soon as Sir Percy climbs up the tower and through the window where the priests are being held, he realises that he has fallen into a trap – for waiting for him in the room are a dozen members of the Committee of Public Safety and his arch enemy Chauvelin. After a brief fight