Sink Me!

Back in the halcyon days of 1982, the Barger family had been on the VCR bandwagon for a while because Dad worked for RCA and when VCR’s first came out in the mid-to late-70’s, he was able to get one and pay for it through payroll deduction.   Consequently, when the “Made for TV” movie of the book, The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour was advertised, we set said VCR to record the movie.  I’m guessing that we were away from the house for some reason the night it was on because I don’t know why else we would have recorded it – I doubt we had a premonition of the vital importance the movie would play in our lives – and it wasn’t like now where I record everything just in case I’m not going to be able to watch it live. 

Now, some of you out there may know the story.  We recorded this movie, mostly because at the time I had a thing for Anthony Andrews similar to the thing I currently have for Gerard Butler.  We watched it - it’s a really enjoyable movie!  And we watched it again.  And again.  When I say “we,” I’m pretty much referring to me and Holly, who was, even though she was “away” at UE, she was close enough to be home every so often, and you have to remember, kids, this was back in the days before cable.  There were literally the three networks and PBS.  So if there was nothing on, “Hey, let’s watch the Scarlet Pimpernel!”

For those of you who either a) know that I have another sister; or b) are savvy enough to have read my Cast of Characters on the right of this page, yes, there is another sister - Haley.  But she went “away” to school at DePauw in Greencastle and I know from my own painful, personal experience, having attended DPU for a couple of years myself, it was too far for casual visits home (or vice versa – humpf!).  I’m sure we shared this Masterpiece-of-Made-for-TV-Moviedom with Haley, but I don’t recall that she quite appreciated it (at least not at the time) for the work of art that it truly is.  I am sure that she has since drunk the Kool-Aid and adores the movie like the rest of the family, but…  My point is, I’m not purposefully excluding her from this story.  Back to the main plot.  

Now, for a little background, as it were, regarding The Scarlet Pimpernel:

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a piece of “classical literature.”  As we’ve discussed previously, I’m shallow, so I don’t really like “deep” thoughts or the type of literature that inspires them.  But this is my kind of “literature” with “the odd death-defying leap and a modest amount of dental torture” along with beheadings and such.  Written by the Baroness Emma Orczy.  It takes place during the French Revolution.  Oddly enough, another of my favorite pieces of “literature” takes place during this time period – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – so I’m thinking that makes me a blood-thirsty thing.  Hmm.. another topic for therapy?  Or, maybe I should just start a list of words that describe me.  I’ve got two so far:  “shallow” and “blood-thirsty.”   

Anyway, the hero is Sir Percy, an Englishman, who disguises himself and his band of merry men and traipses into Revolutionary France and rescues some of the French aristocrats from getting their noggins knocked off on the guillotine.  Meanwhile he meets and falls in love with a French actress, marries her, thinks she had someone sent to the chopper, so he has to hide his true (?) identity from her lest she send him to the chopper.  Misunderstandings ensue until it all comes out in the end.  (NOTE: I do NOT like books/stories/movies, etc that do not end happily.)

Enough background, back to the future!  Or, 1982.  Holly and I, and probably some varying combo of the ‘Rents proceed to watch this movie time and time again.  I can’t really say how many times we watched it through completely, I’d guess about 20 times, knowing that it was probably more like between 5 and 10.  At some point, Dad said that enough was enough and decreed that we were going to tape over this movie.  Now, keep in mind, it was a three hour movie (with commercials).  At first, we might have taped over the first hour (say, for example, an episode of Magnum PI).  Later, we would watch that episode of Magnum, and when it was over, the movie would pick up an hour into it, and we’d watch it to the end!  I have no clue how long this went on or how many times we proceeded to watch the continuously shortened.   I do know that at one point, there was only 15 minutes of the movie left.  The thing was, after enough time went by, it got to the point where we didn't realize which tape it was, so whenever we came across those precious 15 minutes, there was joy and happy laughter, and we’d plop down immediately and finish the movie.  Ultimately, the whole movie was taped over or the tape shredded or whatever.  Obviously I now own it on DVD.

I’m not the type of person who can quote movies or television shows.  I’ve always been sort of in awe of people who can.  I have a lot of esoterica in my brain, but there's no room for memorizing stuff like that.  However, this is one movie that I can quote – one of my favorite quotes being, “..the north country in the middle of the night?  How bizarre.”  (I realize that probably meant nothing to most of you, but certain members of my family were chuckling as they read that.)

One other cool aspect of the movie is that it stars an incredibly young looking Ian McKellen.  To many, he may be Gandalf and/or Magneto.  To me he's the baddie who gets outwitted by the Scarlet Pimpernel!

There is more to my epic tale of the Scarlet Pimpernel, but I'm thinking this may be better as a two-parter, so I'll just end it here with a final quote from the movie:

They seek him here.   

They seek him there. 

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.  

Is he in Heaven? Or is he in Hell?  

 That damned, elusive Pimpernel!