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The term "alter ego" is a Latin phrase that translates to the beautiful oxymoron of "alternate self." In ancient literature, alternate selves were typically presented as dark omens; doppelgängers and the like. The idea of hiding one's identity and surreptitiously committing acts of heroism perhaps originated in pop literature with the publication of Baroness Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel" in 1905, and was further codified by the publication of Johnston McCulley's "The Curse of Capistrano," the 1919 pulp novel starring Zorro. 

I bring up these literary antecedents as the model on which all modern superheroes have been explicitly based. The distance between the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Scarlet Spider is not so great. The appeal of an alter ego, or a secret identity, should be self-evident. Not only does it allow a superhero character to appear as a free agent, outside of the law and free from being identified, but it...

How could England have won the war without him? Horatio Smith sneaks about in Nazi Germany, liberating concentration camp inmates right under the noses of the Gestapo. Leslie Howard directed and stars in this wartime escapist spy thriller, as a witty professor too passive to be suspected as the mystery spy.

‘Pimpernel’ Smith

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 121 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Morris, Allan Jeayes, Peter Gawthorne, Hugh McDermott, David Tomlinson, Raymond Huntley, Sebastian Cabot, Irene Handl, Ronald Howard, Michael Rennie.

Cinematography Mutz Greenbaum

Camera Operators Guy Green, Jack Hildyard

Film Editor Douglas Myers

Original Music John Greenwood

Written by Anatole de Grunwald, Roland Pertwee, A.G. Macdonell, Wolfgang Wilhelm based on a character by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Produced by Leslie Howard, Harold Huth

Directed by Leslie Howard

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I like movies...

Raymond Massey ca. 1940. Raymond Massey movies: From Lincoln to Boris Karloff Though hardly remembered today, the Toronto-born Raymond Massey was a top supporting player – and sometime lead – in both British and American movies from the early '30s all the way to the early '60s. During that period, Massey was featured in nearly 50 films. Turner Classic Movies generally selects the same old MGM / Rko / Warner Bros. stars for its annual “Summer Under the Stars” series. For that reason, it's great to see someone like Raymond Massey – who was with Warners in the '40s – be the focus of a whole day: Sat., Aug. 8, '15. (See TCM's Raymond Massey movie schedule further below.) Admittedly, despite his prestige – his stage credits included the title role in the short-lived 1931 Broadway production of Hamlet – the quality of Massey's performances varied wildly. Sometimes he could be quite effective; most of the time, however, he was an unabashed scenery chewer,...

Timothy Spall in The Syndicate. BBC

Kieran Kinsella

The Syndicate Series 1

The Syndicate, Series One is the pick of Acorn Media’s late April DVD releases. The show is a fascinating character study involving the mundane staff members of a humdrum low-end British supermarket. In the normal course of events, there is nothing particularly intriguing about this group but that all changes when they win the national lottery. When millions of pounds are involved, personal relationships, work rivalries and previously undetected misdeeds suddenly become a lot more important. While the show doesn’t exactly portray the lottery as a bad thing, let’s just say that Kay Mellor’s scripts show us that every silver lining has a massive dark cloud attached to it.

The cast for The Syndicate is top notch and the biggest star among the talented ensemble is Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall. He plays the store manager Bob.

DVD Release Date: April 30, 2013

Price: DVD $29.99

Studio: Acorn Media

Jane Seymour and Anthony Andrews star in The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The 1982 British romantic adventure TV miniseries The Scarlet Pimpernel is based on the novel of the same name and Eldorado by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the French Revolution.

In 1792 during the Reign of Terror, “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (Anthony Andrews, TV’s Brideshead Revisited) rescues French aristocrats while posing as the wealthy but foppish and seemingly empty-headed Sir Percival Blakeney. Percy marries the beautiful French actress Marguerite St. Just (Jane Seymour, Wedding Crashers), but her previous relationship with the evil Robespierre’s (Richard Morant) agent Paul Chauvelin (Ian McKellen, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) may endanger the Pimpernel’s plans to save the young Dauphin (Richard Charles), eldest son of the former King of France.

Directed by Clive Donner, this version of The Scarlet Pimpernel was a fan favorite that premiered...

Feature Aliya Whiteley Feb 12, 2013

Aliya celebrates the life and work of a Hollywood great - Leslie Howard, star of Gone With The Wind, Pygmalion and many, many more...

Leslie Howard is best known for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, noble and yet ineffectual against the machinations of Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett. It was a great role, but not one of his best performances; he could be funny, charming, wise, driven, intense, comedic, tragic – take your pick. He had a pale, thin face with a high forehead and a pointed jaw, giving him an intelligent look over which directors loved to throw shadows.

I always thought he was one of those actors that black and white suited better than colour; he looked more handsome, more interesting that way. I was mesmerised by the old movies of his that appeared on television on a Sunday afternoon, where he would...

Ben Affleck's latest film as a director is a memorable dramatisation of the CIA's rescue of six diplomats from Iran

In the early 20th century Baroness Orczy created Sir Percy Blakeney, the British aristocrat who, as that intrepid master of disguise the Scarlet Pimpernel, whisked noble folk away from the guillotine during the French revolution. The 1934 film version was a big success for Leslie Howard, who seven years later updated the story to the outbreak of the second world war as Pimpernel Smith, with himself as a mild-mannered Cambridge archaeologist rescuing anti-Nazi intellectuals from Hitler's Germany.

The film made him a personal target of Joseph Goebbels, and shortly thereafter the young diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saw the film at the British embassy in Stockholm and was inspired to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from Adolf Eichmann by issuing them with Swedish documents. In 1945 he was arrested by the Soviet army...

It’s beginning to appear as though we’re moving away from one of the pillars of superherodom, the secret identity. Even though this movement started back in the early 1960s with The Fantastic Four, it’s moved slowly up to the breakthrough moment in the first Iron Man movie.

Of course, that was telegraphed a few years before by my pal Mike Grell during his run on the comic book, but Marvel squeezed that back in the tubes where it sat until the movie people showed them Mike was right in the first place.

Such pettiness aside, I welcome the departure from tradition. The secret identity was almost always a stupid idea. Clark Kent became Superman to protect his friends and loved ones from harm? Okay, fine. I can appreciate that even the Man of Steel can not keep an eye on Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris, Lex Luthor (well,...

Fairbanks Productions has shelved plans to shoot a £75 million new take on "The Scarlet Pimpernel" in favour of a £50 million new adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's classic 1820 adventure "Ivanhoe" says The Hollywood Reporter.

With a change in European Union copyright laws extending them from 50 to 70 years, film adaptation rights to Baroness Orczy's classic Scarlet Pimpernel are no longer in the public domain in the U.K., which means the company's plans have been put on hold for around five years until the rights become freely available again.

Brit actor Neil Jackson ("Upstairs, Downstairs," "Quantum of Solace") is producing and currently writing a draft of "Ivanhoe", which is in the public domain, and the family adventure-focused Fairbanks Productions is fast tracking it to shoot at Twickenham Studios in London late next year.

Set in 1194 after the failure of the Third Crusade, the story follows Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a Saxon...

They seek him here, they seek him there, those damned Frenchmen seek him everywhere.

UK Production Company, Fairbanks Productions are seeking to kick start a franchise by adapting the classic novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel into a modern day big screen adventure. The £75 million production based on Baroness Orczy’s classic is set to begin shooting next year in Eastern Europe and will star up and coming Brit actor, Neil Jackson.

Fairbanks Productions is a pretty new company on the block, headed by Dominick Fairbanks, the great grandson and grandson of Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., the company is expected to announce a full slate early next year with the updated Scarlet Pimpernel leading the charge.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer James Black said of the project:

“We want to try and do to the story of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” what Guy Ritchie did to ‘Sherlock Holmes...

Fairbanks Productions is planning a feature film remake of the classic Baroness Emmuska Orczy's classic tale "The Scarlet Pimpernel" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The book followed 18th century English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney, a highly intelligent and noble baron who played up his wimpish and foppish personality by day. At night he became a dashing masked vigilante who leads a secret society whose mission is to help French nobility escape from the guillotine during the year known as 'The Reign of Terror' which followed the start of the French Revolution.

Neil Jackson ("Push," "Blade: The Series," "Stargate: Sg-1") will play the titular masked vigilante, while a host of "high profile cameos" are expected to appear in the movie. The aim is to do something akin to Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" - a contemporary feeling but period-set blockbuster take on the literary tale.

Cult British writer/director Michael Armstrong...

There have been a dozen or so adaptations of The Scarlet Pimpernel, the classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, but none that have earned nearly the recognition that a story of this stature could sensibly attain. A studio in the UK is intent on changing that though, as they plan to "do to the story of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' what Guy Ritchie did to 'Sherlock Holmes'." The quote comes from executive producer James Black, mentioned in a piece by The Hollywood Reporter about Fairbanks Productions, the budding UK production company behind the film. Black is part of the team headed by Dominick Fairbanks, the great grandson of Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks (who was nicknamed "The King of Hollywood"). It seems like this film may be a way for Dominick to pay tribute to his heritage, as The Scarlet Pimpernel was a precursor to...

Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel – first released as a play but quickly published as a novel to considerable commercial success – has been remade, adapted and spoofed a great number of times throughout the years.

Though a precursor to fellow masked-men such as Zorro – the property’s fame has not endured in quite the same way. Nevertheless, new production banner Fairbanks Productions has announced plans for a £75 million retelling.

Following the thirteen sequels, two prequels, innumerable TV adaptations and Daffy Duck parody, Fairbank Productions will reboot the character with star Neil Jackson (Quantum of Solace), a number of “high profile cameos” and Eastern European locale. According to executive producer James Black:

“We want to try and do to the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel what Guy Ritchie did to Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros.”

The production banner, the brainchild of one Dominick Fairbanks, is committed to nurturing new talent...

Another adaptation of Baroness Orczy's classic novel The Scarlet Pimpernel is currently in the works at UK's Fairbanks Productions, from Dominick Fairbanks, the great grandson and grandson of Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The film has a budget of $120 million dollars. Executive producer on the film, James Black, had this to say in a statement,

We want to try and do to the story of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' what Guy Ritchie did to 'Sherlock Holmes' [for Warner Bros].

The film is being developed by cult British writer and director Michael Armstrong, and it will star British actor Neil Jackson (Quantum of Solace).

They are planning on shooting the film late next year, "somewhere in Eastern Europe," according to Black, with a host of "high profile cameos" in the movie.

Here's a description of the story:

During the French Revolution in late 18th century France, fifteen to forty thousand people...

Fairbanks Productions, a UK production banner, is planning a remake of the classic play and action novel from Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s, The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring British actor Neil Jackson, with a budget of $120 million. American readers may remember Jackson as one the Division “pushers” from the Chris Evans’ film Push.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new production company was started by Dominick Fairbanks, the great grandson and grandson of Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.,

Cult British writer and director Michael Armstrong will act as head of creative development. The Scarlet Pimpernel will go into production sometime in the latter half of next year, in Eastern Europe, with a host of “high profile cameos” in the movie.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the “disguised superhero” tales such as Zorro,...

Fairbanks Productions is to make a new adaptation of literary classic The Scarlet Pimpernel. Baroness Emmuska Orczy's original series of novels began in 1905 and followed the character Sir Percy Blakeney through his double life as both a member of the aristocracy and a masked superhero. Empire reports that Fairbanks hopes to do for the series what Guy Ritchie did last year (more)...

The next generation from Hollywood royals Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr is continuing his family's legacy in entertainment with a new production banner across the Atlantic in the UK. Dominick Fairbanks (above) is kicking things off in a big way as THR says the company is working on a $120 million adaptation of Baroness Orczy's classic novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Doesn't sound like the makings of a successful big budget film? Well, executive producer James Black says, "We want to try and do to the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel what Guy Ritchie did to Sherlock Holmes" at Warner Bros. Yeah, that explains it. The classic story is set during the French Revolution, when a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel (which is also a humble wayside flower), snatches French aristocrats from the jaws of the guillotine, while otherwise posing as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney...

There have been many versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel over the years, but now a new UK company called Fairbanks Productions is looking to jump on the current bandwagon for literary properties dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century by launching a new take on the character.Based on Baroness Orczy’s novel, the Pimpernel lives a double life: by day, he’s wimpy Sir Percy Blakeney, an English aristo-prat in the 18th Century. But by night he becomes a dashing masked rogue who helps French nobles escape from Robespierre’s men.Fairbanks has recruited Neil Jackson, seen in Quantum of Solace as Mr Slate and who appears in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, to star in the film. We’re also promised a lot of “high profile cameos” when the film kicks off shooting later next year in budget friendly Eastern Europe, which...

The Hollywood Reporter says that a $120 million movie based on Baroness Orczy's classic "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is in the works at UK's Fairbanks Productions, from Dominick Fairbanks, the great grandson and grandson of Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. British actor Neil Jackson ( Quantum of Solace ) would star in the production. "We want to try and do to the story of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' what Guy Ritchie did to 'Sherlock Holmes' [for Warner Bros]," said Fairbanks Productions executive producer James Black. The trade adds that they are planning on shooting the film late next year, "somewhere in Eastern Europe," according to Black, with a host of "high profile cameos" in the movie.

Walt Disney had a gift, an ability to take someone else’s property and recraft it for a modern audience. Just about every time he touched a fairy tale or legend, he struck paydirt. Look what he did with Grimm’s fairy tales or A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. Largely overlooked these days is the incredibly popular 1950s television series based on Johnston McCulley’s pulp hero, Zorro.

The black and white series, starring Guy Williams, ran a mere two seasons but spawned over 500 licensed merchandise items in addition to enjoying a long syndicated run in the 1960s and again after the birth of the Disney Channel. Back in the ‘50s, the season ran 39 weeks and a half-hour show actually had 25 minutes of story so there was plenty of material to recycle.

Fortunately, Walt Disney Home Entertainment noted the enduring appeal of the character and has this week released...