Pitanje života i smrti

OPIS

In revolution-torn Paris of 1792, The Scarlet Pimpernel rescues aristocrats from the guillotine and smuggles them to safety across the English Channel. Citizen Chauvelin determines that he will capture and unmask this folk hero and travels to England, suspecting the Pimpernel to he Sir Percy Blakeney. He forces Sir Percys wife Marguerite, to help him by threatening to expose her brother Armand.

Marguerite despises her husband as a worthless fop, while Percy for his part mistrusts Marguerite, believing she betrayed a French family to the government. Chauvelin learns the Pimpernels identity and, realising the truth herself, Marguerite races to Mont St Michel, the rendezvous of the Pimpernel and his men, only to be captured by the Chauvelin. Percy offers his own life in exchange for Marguerites, but escapes the firing squad. As Chauvelins men surround the castle they realise too late that the advancing high tide has cut off the Mont. The Pimpernel escapes by boat, he and Marguerite at last confident of each others trust.

In this costume adventure set in France during the Reign of Terror, a mysterious man known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues noblemen from the guillotine and leads them to safety across the English Channel. Chauvelin (Cyril Cusack) is determined to unmask the Pimpernel and bring him to justice; when evidence begins to suggest that the hero is actually foppish Sir Percey Blakeney (David Niven), he blackmails Perceys wife Marguerite (Margaret Leighton) into cooperating on the threat that hell expose the criminal activities of her brother Armand (Edmond Audran). However, Marguerite doesnt much care for her husband, hardly believes he could be the heroic Pimpernel, and is startled when she finds out that he truly is the masked vigilante. The Elusive Pimpernel was originally shot in color as a musical, but the musical numbers were cut before the film was released, and the pictures American distributor chose to make only black and white prints (though the current home video release