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 invalid wife and pretty daughter, they are transported towards Paris in a diligence with a seemingly weak guard.. however the other travellers in the stagecoach are really soldiers in disguise – ready to strike back should the Pimpernel and his gang attack. In May 1793, committed republicans the widow Leseur and her son Achille run a profitable business selling wine. Their maid-of-all-work Joséphine Palmier, who is pretty and dainty, has caught Achille's eye and having made up his mind that he is in love with her, he asks her to marry him. Joséphine refuses him categorically and firmly, telling him