December 11 movie: The Scarlet Pimpernel. Now this was fun. _ The Scarlet Pimpernel (played by Leslie Howard) is a British aristocrat rescuing French aristocrats from execution during the French Revolution. It was indeed very much like Zorro, except that unlike loner Zorro, the Pimpernel has a bunch of good guy lackeys helping him. They do act like dandies to conceal their heroic daring-do, just like Zorro. Howard's foppish routine is a blast: prancing around saying "Sink me!" and critiquing everyone's neckwear. Howard even makes up a poem about himself:
They seek him here, they seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven, or is he in hell?
That damned elusive Pimpernel!
"Think you that I, foppish though I am, might be the Thhhcarlet Pumpernickel?"
The Duck's greatest role.
The really cool thing is that yesterday I received a seed catalog which sells scarlet pimpernel! I have no idea what it looks like (no photo in the catalog) but I think I have to buy it, just because.