Pimpernel Smith
Date: 1941
Director: Leslie Howard
Production Company: British National Films
Stars: Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Morris
Location(s): Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, South Tyrol (Italy), Var (France), West Berlin (West Germany)
Region(s): France, Germany, Italy, South East M-Q
Storyline:
An unassuming professor rescues victims of persecution.
Additional Information:
Screen captures uploaded by Phil Wilkinson
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Most of the story is set in pre-war Germany as established by a stock shot of the Victory Column on Großer Stern in West Berlin, West Germany.
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Back in Britain, we are treated to some second unit scenes from Cambridge. This is Clare College Bridge on the River Cam.
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Another Cambridge location, the Great Court Of Trinity College with fountain to the left and King's Gate in the centre.
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Manuel Gurtner advises that this is stock or second unit footage, reversed, which shows the main line of the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) as it runs along the French Riviera to the east of Anthéor (Cap Roux) in the Var department. The Marseilles bound express is hauled by one of the mighty Mountain 4-8-2 type tender locos of PLM, Class 241.A, built between 1925 and 1931. The Estérel mountain range with the peaks of the Rocher Saint-Barthélémy is visible in the background. The shot was already used for 1938's 'The Lady Vanishes' and again for 'The Saint's Vacation' from 1941.
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Somewhere in Germany, maybe?
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Rescuing Koslowski, Professor Horatio Smith (Leslie Howard) and his disguised associates leave the prison camp. Richard Farmer recognised the stables of the Fishery Estate at Denham Green in Buckinghamshire, used for a time as Denham Studios' cutting rooms.
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A train carrying the Professor and his artifacts pulls into a German border station. Manuel Gurtner explains that this is archive footage featuring a local train of the Italian State Railways (FS), hauled by a 2-8-2 tank loco of FS-class 940, pulling into Toblach/Dobbiaco station on the Puster Valley Railway between Franzensfeste (Fortezza) and Innichen (San Candido), South Tyrol, Italy. The same shot, albeit mirrored, was also used for 'The Saint's Vacation' from the same year.
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A stock or second unit shot of a train speeding through a different German station . . . . not quite! The coaches and the platform waiting shelter give this away as somewhere on the Great Western Railway's network.