Scarlet Pimpernel Set

"They seek him here, they seek him there, they seek that scoundrel everywhere." Baroness Orczy's oft-filmed adventure gets a shot of theatrical verve in the form of Richard E. Grant, who delivers a 17th-century superhero of dashing gallantry under the cover of a tart-tongued wit and court clown. British aristocrat Percy Blakeney (a.k.a. the Scarlet Pimpernel) and his loyal network of British comrades and French spies rescue the condemned from the guillotine. Elizabeth McGovern costars as his French-born wife, Marguerite, who becomes his most valued ally, and Martin Shaw is Republican agent Chauvelin, Percy's deadly enemy and Marguerite's former lover. This handsome British-American coproduction, filmed in the picturesque Czech Republic, re-creates the madness of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror with the elegance of British period productions and the energy of a classic swashbuckling adventure. In Book 1, the Pimpernel walks into a trap to rescue Marguerite's brother while she risks her life to warn him. Book 2 is shaded in an altogether darker vein as they attempt to rescue a nobleman's daughter and become caught between a bloodthirsty Republican guerrilla and a rebel army led by a reckless young soldier. Book 3 has Percy and Marguerite racing the Republican government in the search for the dauphin, who has been kidnapped from Republican "safekeeping." Each episode stands on its own, but taken together they become like a modern serial, and the open-ended conclusion of Book 3 leaves the door open for more sequels. --Sean Axmaker