* Leslie Howard's 1943 anti-Nazi film, " Pimpernel " Smith, features dialogue by the protagonist Horatio Smith, a professor of archaeology at Cambridge, endorsing the Oxfordian theory.

Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind ( 1939 ) and roles in Berkeley Square ( 1933 ), Of Human Bondage ( 1934 ), The Scarlet Pimpernel ( 1934 ), The Petrified Forest ( 1936 ), Pygmalion ( 1938 ), Intermezzo ( 1939 ), " Pimpernel " Smith ( 1941 ) and The First of the Few ( 1942 ).

He starred in a number of Second World War films including 49th Parallel ( 1941 ), " Pimpernel " Smith ( 1941 ), and The First of the Few ( 1942, known in the U. S. as Spitfire ), the latter two of which he also directed and co-produced.

The actress who appeared under the stage name of Suzanne Clair, in " Pimpernel " Smith and First of the Few in minor roles, acted as his secretary, but died in 1942 of pneumonia in her early 30s, six months before Howard's death.

He also played other bit parts, and minor unbilled roles in ten additional films produced between 1936 and 1940 ; the last of which, Pimpernel Smith, had a belated release in July 1941, when Rennie was already in uniform, serving in the Royal Air Force.

* ' Pimpernel ' Smith ( 1941 )

It has many notable former pupils, including the Labour Party politicians John Smith, George Robertson ( later head of NATO ), Brian Wilson and the Reverend Donald Caskie, also known as the Tartan Pimpernel.

At this time he had a part as an extra in Leslie Howard's film Pimpernel Smith, as Howard wanted more authentic actors playing the anarchists.

* Pimpernel Smith ( 1941 )

Other British films followed such as Love on the Dole ( 1941 ), Pimpernel Smith ( also 1941 ), Old Mother Riley Overseas and Old Mother Riley Detective ( both 1943 ) and They Made Me a Fugitive ( 1947 ).

It is ironic that some of the most successful propaganda films during the second world war, on opposing sides, were made by Hungarians: Münchhausen by Josef von Báky and " Pimpernel " Smith by Leslie Howard.

Mary Morris remembered that an intimate scene with Leslie Howard, for Pimpernel Smith was " interrupted 22 times by aircraft noise.

*' Pimpernel ' Smith ; ( 1941 ) aka Mister V ( USA: reissue title ) aka The Fighting Pimpernel ;

When Pimpernel Smith reached Sweden in November 1943, the Swedish Film Censorship Board decided to ban it from public viewing, as it was feared that such a critical portrayal of Nazi Germany could harm Sweden's relationship with Germany and thus jeopardise the country's neutrality in World War II.

*' Pimpernel ' Smith ( 1941 ) at screenonline. org. uk

* Pimpernel Smith stills from BlakeneyManor. com

eo: Pimpernel Smith

His first film was Freedom of the Seas in 1934, as a focus-puller, before working as camera operator on films for Leslie Howard and others, including Pygmalion, The Divorce of Lady X and Pimpernel Smith.

* Pimpernel Smith ( 1941 )

* Pimpernel Smith ( 1941 )

Despite having been shot in color, it was released in the United States in black and white and retitled The Fighting Pimpernel.

The Elusive Pimpernel was released in the U. K. in 1950, but because of the falling out between Korda and Goldwyn, didn't get an American distributor until July 1953 when Carroll Pictures acquired the rights.

After her success in The Scarlet Pimpernel ( 1934 ), she traveled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn.

In the United States, Andrews is best known for his portrayal of the titular character in Ivanhoe as well as that of Sir Percy Blakeney in the 1982 film, The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Niven later appeared in The Elusive Pimpernel ( 1950 ) The Toast of New Orleans ( 1950 ), Happy Go Lovely ( 1951 ), Happy Ever After ( 1954 ) and Carrington V. C.

His TV work included starring as Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel ( ITV, 1955 ), a series which he also co-wrote and produced ; Theodore Maxtible in the Doctor Who story The Evil of the Daleks ( BBC, 1967 ); title role in The Expert ( BBC, 1968 – 1976 ); George V in Edward and Mrs Simpson ( Thames, 1980 ); and The Old Men at the Zoo ( BBC, 1983 ).

The dandy cultivated skeptical reserve, yet to such extremes that the novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined " cynicism " as " intellectual dandyism "; nevertheless, the Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the great dandies of literature.

As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure ( The Prisoner of Zenda, 1894, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1905 ), the thriller ( such as the works of Edgar Wallace ) and the politico – military thriller ( The Schirmer Inheritance, 1953, The Quiet American, 1955 ).

When planning the revolution, Mike is described by Mannie as " our Scarlet Pimpernel, our John Galt, our Swamp Fox, our man of mystery ", referring to the works of the Baroness Orczy and Ayn Rand as well as to the history of the American Revolution.

* Louis XVII is one of many aristocrats rescued by the eponymous Scarlet Pimpernel in one of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's novels-Eldorado

Howard is reported to have had an affair with Tallulah Bankhead when they appeared on stage ( in the UK ) in Her Cardboard Lover ( 1927 ); Merle Oberon, while filming The Scarlet Pimpernel ( 1934 ) and Conchita Montenegro, with whom he had appeared in the film Never the Twain Shall Meet ( 1931 ).

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in 1792, during the early stages of the French Revolution.

Meanwhile, the " League of the Scarlet Pimpernel ", a secret society of twenty English aristocrats, " one to command, and nineteen to obey ", is engaged in rescuing their French counterparts from the daily executions ( see Reign of Terror ).

Chauvelin's agents have stolen a letter incriminating her beloved brother Armand, proving that he is in league with the Pimpernel.

After Percy unexpectedly leaves for France, Marguerite discovers to her horror that he is the Pimpernel.

Taking into account occasional discrepancies in the dates of events ( real and fictional ) referred to in the stories, the following is an approximate chronological listing of Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel novels and short stories:

However, the evidence for this is purely anecdotal, and indeed there is no written record of any BBC Television production of The Scarlet Pimpernel during the 1936 – 1939 period.

The RDB species Scarce Forester Adscita globulariae is present, and amongst many species of nationally scarce moths are the Cistus Forester Adscita geryon, Six-belted Clearwing Bembecia scopigera, Oblique Striped Phibalapteryx virgata, Pimpernel Pug Eupithecia pimpinellata, Shaded Pug Eupithecia subumbrata and Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth Hemaris tityus.

* Mont-Saint-Michel is featured in the 1950 Powell and Pressburger film The Elusive Pimpernel.

Sir Percy Blakeney of The Scarlet Pimpernel is a well known example of this tendency ; Sir Percy cultivates the image of being an overdressed and ineffectual social butterfly, the last person anyone would imagine being capable of dashing heroism.

It is most well known for being the emblem of the fictional hero The Scarlet Pimpernel.

There is a long list of swashbucklers who combine outstanding courage, swordfighting skill, resourcefulness, chivalry and a distinctive sense of honor and justice, as for example The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Robin Hood and Zorro.

* In the 2007 comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore, Gulliver is the leader of the second incarnation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the 18th century, which then consists of The Scarlet Pimpernel and his wife Lady Blakeney, Fanny Hill ( with whom Gulliver has been romantically involved ), Dr Syn aka The Scarecrow, Nathaniel Bumppo and Orlando.

The story is a version of plots such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro and Superman, where a hero adopts a mild-mannered disguise to keep his true identity a secret.

He is one of the first costumed heroes in literature and is clearly inspired by earlier characters such as the Scarlet Pimpernel and Robin Hood.

This story is set during the events of the French Revolution and part of the action has Syn rescuing people from the Reign of Terror in the style of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

It is available ( in mixed Irish / English with full English subtitles ) on a region free DVD titled ' The Pimpernel of the Vatican-The Amazing Story of Monsignor Hugh O ' Flaherty '.