Synopsis
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) is a British TV film directed by Clive Donner that you can watch online on iFILM. The French Revolution is at its bloodiest: aristocrats are sent to the guillotine by the cartload, but a masked English hero keeps pulling them out of the queue. In London society, the same man presents himself as Sir Percy Blakeney (Anthony Andrews) — a wealthy fop with a gift for boredom and a talent for the wrong opinion at the wrong moment.
The film adapts Baroness Orczy's 1905 novel, and the Andrews–Jane Seymour–Ian McKellen triangle drives it cleanly. Seymour plays Percy's wife Marguerite, an actress with dangerous ties to the revolutionary leadership; McKellen is the relentless agent Chauvelin, who suspects the truth about Blakeney long before he can prove it. The disguise works precisely because the villain cannot bring himself to believe the fool is real — and McKellen plays that dawning realisation with a patience that makes him genuinely threatening.
It's an adventure with a brain, and Andrews finds the right balance between the two Percys without letting either one tip into parody. Watch The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) online on iFILM.
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