The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Hollywood took to the Pimpernel early and often, although most of the Pimpernel movies have been based on a melange of the original book and another Orczy novel, Eldorado. The best known of the Pimpernel movies is the 1934 The Scarlet Pimpernel starring Leslie Howard, which is often considered the definitive portrayal and adaptation.[15]

Films

In 1923, Fred Terry and Julia Nelson bought the sole performance right to a stageplay based on The Scarlet Pimpernel. Orczy sued the two in an attempt to claim a separate right of performance for films, but was unsuccessful. As a result of the case, people who controlled a stage performance right under the English Copyright Act were entitled to create films with the same right.[16]

• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1917; silent) starring Dustin Farnum, Winifred Kingston and William Burress
• The Elusive Pimpernel (1919; silent) starring Cecil Humphreys, Maire Blanche and Norman Page
• I Will Repay (1923; silent) starring Holmes Herbert
• The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1928) starring Matheson Lang
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey
• The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937) starring Barry K. Barnes, Sophie Stewart and Francis Lister
• The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), a.k.a. The Fighting Pimpernel in the US, starring David Niven, Margaret Leighton and Cyril Cusack

Stage

• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1903), a play co-written by Baroness Orczy and Montague Barstow; produced in England, opening in Nottingham in 1903, then moving to London; revived ten times between 1905 and 1985[17]
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1910), Broadway production of the Orczy/Barstow play; ran for only 40 performances[18]
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1997), a Broadway musical composed by Frank Wildhorn and written by Nan Knighton; the production starred Douglas Sills as Sir Percy, Christine Andreas as Marguerite and Terrence Mann as Chauvelin
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (2008), a Broadway-style Japanese adaptation, performed by the popular all-women's Takarazuka Revue in Hyogo and Tokyo, Japan
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (2011), Cawthra Park High School of the Performing Arts, Mississauga, Ontario.
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (2016), the Broadway 1997 version translated into Japanese, performed by Umeda Art's Theatre[19] in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan

Television

• BBC Sunday Night Theatre – three performances, in 1951, 1952 and 1953, based on the stage play co-written by Baroness Orczy and Montague Barstow
  • Season 1 episode 6, 5 February 1950[20] starring James Carney as Sir Percy, Sydney Tafler as Chauvelin and Margaretta Scott as Marguerite[21]
  • Season 2 episode, 2 14 January 1951[22] starring James Carney as Sir Percy, Terence de Marney as Chauvelin and Margaretta Scott as Marguerite[23]
  • Season 6 episode 38, 18 September 1955[24] starring Tony Britton as Sir Percy, Douglas Wilmer as Chauvelin and Harriette Johns as Marguerite[25]
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1955–1956 British ITV television series) starring Marius Goring as Sir Percy, Stanley Van Beers as Chauvelin and Patrick Troughton as Sir Andrew
• DuPont Show of the Month Season 4 episode 4 ("The Scarlet Pimpernel"), 18 December 1960[26] starring Michael Rennie as Sir Percy, Maureen O'Hara as Marguerite and Reginald Denny as Chauvelin[27]
• Den Røde Pimpernell (1968), Norwegian television series, broadcast by NRK[28]
• The Elusive Pimpernel (1969), a ten-part BBC One serial starring Anton Rodgers as Sir Percy, Diane Fletcher as Marguerite and Bernard Hepton as Chauvelin[29]
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), starring Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy, Jane Seymour as Marguerite, and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin.[30]
• The Scarlet Pimpernel, two TV series of three episodes each (1999, 2000).[31] starring Richard E. Grant as Sir Percy and Martin Shaw as Chauvelin. Elizabeth McGovern starred as Marguerite in the first series; the character did not appear in the second.

Radio

• An adaptation of the 1934 film, featuring Leslie Howard in his original role and Olivia de Havilland as Marguerite, was produced in 1938 as part of the Lux Radio Theatre series.
• A radio series based on the novels starring Marius Goring as Blakeney was produced and syndicated 1952–53 on NBC under the direction of Harry Alan Towers through his Towers of London production company.[32] This series did not include the character of Marguerite and promoted the character of Lord Antony "Tony" Dewhurst to Blakeney's second-in-command, while the novels' second-in-command, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, became a lesser character.
• A two-part adaptation for BBC Radio 4 with James Purefoy as Sir Percy Blakeney was broadcast in December 2017.[33]