'Pimpernel' Smith

Synopsis: It is mid-1939 and both Germany and England are preparing for an inevitable conflict. Professor Horatio Smith, an effete academic, asks his students to come with him to the continent to engage in an archaeological dig. When his students discover that the professor is the man responsible for smuggling a number of enemies of the Nazi state out of Germany, they enthusiastically join him in his fight. But things are complicated when one of his students brings a mysterious woman into their circle, a woman who is secretly working for the Gestapo.
Director(s): Leslie Howard
Production: Franco London Films
  1 win.
 
IMDB:
7.3
PASSED
Year:
1941
120 min
377 Views


1

- Have you got it?

- I think so, yes, I think so.

Weber, my notebook.

- What's the matter?

- I thought I heard someone outside.

- He's always hearing things

since he got that message.

- What message?

- A message I do not quite understand.

- From whom?

- That's just it, I don't know.

- But you think it's from this

mysterious rescuer, huh?

- I believe it came from him, yes.

I believe I shall be got safely away.

I wouldn't be the first, you know.

- And you'll go on with

your work somewhere else,

out of reach of the Nazis?

- Of course.

- You've always refused to

work for them, haven't you?

- I would sooner die.

My business is to cure, not to kill.

Weber, you say you gave the last

injection at 4 o'clock?

- Yes.

Greatly increased resistance.

They were definitely better.

Seems to be working.

There is a man outside.

He told me to give you this note.

- Let me read it.

- Thank you.

- The mind of man is bounded

only by the universe?

What's that mean?

- I knew it.

Weber, get my hat and coat, quickly.

And bring my suitcase.

Notebook.

- Please be careful, please be careful.

- What have I to lose?

- Good luck, my friend.

In my newspaper, Freedom,

I shall tell proudly

of a German whose brains

could not be bought.

- Thank you.

But I should not advise you to.

- Oh, I am quite safe, I am a Pole.

My country is not at war.

Yet.

- Goodbye.

- Goodbye.

- And Weber, see that they get better.

I am ready.

- Hurry, hurry.

- I think he will be all right.

- Dr. Benckendorf?

- He has gone away.

- That car that just left, follow it.

- You are wasting your time.

- Sidimir Koslowski, isn't it?

Our time isn't entirely wasted.

You saved us a journey.

Inside.

- Get this, it's hot, another big escape,

Justin Prolov.

- Now, hold it, now hold it--

- No, no nobody knows he who he is.

- Gentlemen, please, gentlemen.

The Minister of Propaganda instructs me

to inform all foreign correspondents

that rumors of a mysterious personage

helping enemies of the

state to escape from Germany

are without foundation.

We can assure you there

have been no such escapes.

And there is no such rescuer.

Furthermore, in Nazi

Germany, no one can hope

to be saved by anybody!

- Jordan!

Jordan.

- Yes, sir?

- Jordan, you are nothing

better than a vandal.

A Goth, a spiritual

descendant of the Huns,

whose primary object was

the desecration of beauty.

- I wouldn't know what you mean, sir.

Not without a dictionary.

- Yours is the unique privilege

of looking after the

fairest goddess of them all.

The one sublime woman.

But how do you treat her?

Look, man.

Look.

- Sorry, sir.

As a matter of fact, I'm very

fond of Aphrodite, very fond.

But there's so many of 'em.

- So many of 'em?

- Well, in a manner of

speaking, there are,

aren't there, sir?

- There's only one woman like this.

Look at the symmetry, look

at the grace, look at,

look at the dust, Jordan.

- Sorry, sir,

I'll go and get my feather

duster right away, sir.

- Fond of her?

- Look, girls, there's Juno.

- No, madam, not Juno.

Aphrodite Kallipygos.

- Are you sure?

- Well I ought to know, I discovered her.

- Really?

She's just come out of her bath.

And you see that towel

she's holding in her hand--

- That is not a towel,

madam, it is a heton,

a form of drapery.

- It looks like a towel.

- Very good.

It's a towel to you, it's a heton to me.

- She's the goddess of plenty--

- No, no, no, no, the goddess of love.

- Sh.

- Of lawful, wedded love.

- She's a respectable goddess, girls.

- She's practically

perfect, as you can see.

And in the languishing

eye and smiling lips,

there is a boundless

compassion for the folly

and ignorance of a blind world.

- Very jolly.

Yes, very jolly.

Come along girls.

- Professor, the college porter

just called for you, sir.

You're late.

- Late for what?

- Your lecture, sir.

- Oh, don't be ridiculous,

my lecture isn't till Friday.

- But today is Friday, sir.

- Good heavens, how extraordinary.

What happened to Thursday?

- We had it yesterday, sir.

- Did we?

Did we.

- Yes, sir.

- Morning.

- Good afternoon, sir.

- Where's teacher?

- If he doesn't hurry,

the lecture will be over

before it starts.

- Well I've sent the

porter to rout him out.

- Half an hour's nothing.

He didn't turn up at all last week.

- Hey, look at that, boy,

isn't that beautiful?

- I think it's insulting, being so late.

- Well, what do you expect, Bibbi,

archeologists are always a

thousand years behind the times.

- No, Mr. Maxwell, a mere

matter of 35 minutes.

Which compels me to omit

two thirds of my lecture,

for which, no doubt,

you'll be duly grateful.

I shall therefore content myself

with merely giving you

something to think about

till our next meeting.

The constitution of ancient Greece

bears witness to both practical

and spiritual influences.

For example, every line of the Parthenon,

either returns to mother Earth,

or slopes gently upwards to the heavens.

What is that?

- That, sir?

That's a dice.

- Dice?

What's it doing here?

- It, uh, showed

a regrettable tendency

to return to mother Earth.

- You'd better remove it.

- Yes, sir.

- Give it to me.

Mr. Maxwell, I often

wonder what persuaded you

to join this class.

- My old man figured that a

course of archeology'd sober me.

- He figured in vain.

- Anyhow, he was crazy,

my coming to England.

- That I can well understand.

But to continue.

- Uh, professor.

Could I have my dice, sir?

- To continue.

In the Parthenon, we see the working of

the spiritual influence,

while in the dwelling houses

of the Greeks we find the practical,

as emphasized by a strict division of

the women's quarters from the men's.

An arrangement which in my view

proves the vast superiority

of Greek civilization

over our own.

- He's always making cracks at us.

- Greek women, moreover, were condemned

to habitual seclusion.

An admirable practice,

which unfortunately is

not followed in this university.

- Do you object to our

presence here, professor?

- Oh, I can't object.

I can merely deplore it.

Now that we've succeeded,

somewhat elaborately,

in getting rid of the female students,

I'd like to have a word with you.

For some time past, I've

been making excavations

in Central Europe, for

the purpose of discovering

traces of an Aryan civilization.

Oh, I'm perfectly serious, gentlemen.

It may surprise you to

learn the German government

is most interested in the idea.

Next week, the term comes to an end.

Yes, Mr. Maxwell, it comes to an end.

And in the vacation, I've

decided that I might take

a few archeology students with me.

How does the idea appeal to you?

- It appeals enormously to me, sir.

- And me, sir.

- I'd like to come, sir.

- So would I, sir.

If the financial requirements can be kept

within reasonable limits.

- I think I can guarantee

that, Mr. Mclntyre.

That's four.

Four.

Not a very flattering response.

- Would I be allowed to

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Anatole de Grunwald

Anatole "Tolly" de Grunwald (25 December 1910 – 13 January 1967) was a Russian-born British film producer and screenwriter. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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