Unmasking the Revolution

Richard E. Grant felt like a kid again playing the swashbuckling hero “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” in three action-adventure movies for A&E.;

“It’s like ‘Boy’s Own Adventure,’ ” enthuses Grant (“Spice World,” “Hudson Hawk”).

“You get to play with swords, ride horses and save women. Then there is this other side of playing an effete, sophisticated courtroom wit. So those things are an attractive combination to do.”

Produced by A&E; and the BBC, the three movies are based on Baroness Orczy’s classic stories. The first “Scarlet Pimpernel” tale premieres Sunday on the cable network; the other two are scheduled for later this year.

Set during the French Revolution, the “Scarlet Pimpernel” explores the double life of an English nobleman. By day, Sir Percy Blakeney is a foppish aristocrat. But by night he becomes the daring, dashing Pimpernel. Through intelligence, panache and various deeds of derring-do, he and his secret league of followers fight against the tyrants of the revolution and save the innocent from losing their heads to the guillotine.

Elizabeth McGovern also stars as his strong-willed French wife, Marguerite, and Martin Shaw is Chauvelin, the vile leader of the revolution.

Grant follows in the footsteps of such actors as Leslie Howard, David Niven, Marius Goring and Anthony Andrews, all of whom played the Pimpernel in movies and television.

Delia Fine, the A&E; executive in charge of the productions, explains that the “Scarlet Pimpernel” was the first “masked man” story.

“In a sense it prefigures all of those action figures in the comic books and even James Bond--one facade by day and some other by night,” she says. “That is just a great bit that’s endlessly appealing and fascinating.”

Grant really wasn’t nervous playing a role that is so identified with the 1935 Leslie Howard version of the character. He believes stories like the Pimpernel are actor proof.

“It seems that the character and the narrative drive these stories,” he says. “The sort of old-fashioned storytelling seems more powerful than whomever plays the parts. So I took courage from that.”

Grant initially was disappointed when he learned he wouldn’t be transforming himself into a gallery of colorful characters. “It was one of those things I raised right up front why they chose not to do that.”

“[The producers] thought for it to be even vaguely believable or convincing that this man should be somebody who lives by his wits,” explains Grant. “To seriously pull off those kind of disguises without using fancy makeup would be even more unbelievable. So they thought he should be somebody who goes in there with great confidence, sadly without all the old hag and warts routine that [fans] are probably longing for.”

Grant’s Percy is also less foppish than his predecessors.

“We pinpointed his verbal witticism, rather than trying to be camp,” says Patrick Lau, who directed the first two movies.

“I think one of the reasons why these things get made over and over again,” adds Fine, “is because you can do them different ways for each generation.”

Grant says an added bonus to the stories’ appeal is the often-turbulent relationship between Percy and Marguerite. “The fact that she is French and he is English, gives it a kind of tension or something to bounce off it,” he says. “It’s not just a straightforward ‘Oh, she’s kind of a soppy, gorgeous love interest.”’

Lau acknowledges it was difficult to find an actor who could handle the verbal swordplay, as well as the action sequences. “Among the British actors [today], there are very few who have that very British delivery,” Lau says.

“The young actors, like Ewan MacGregor, have a different style. So I thought, ‘Where am I going to find an actor like that?’ ”

Lau remembered he always admired what he describes as a “recklessness” in Grant’s acting. “Richard is the sort of actor who had gone through elocution lessons and training,” he says. “He is the right Pimpernel.”

Grant says doing an action film exercises different acting muscles than a straight drama or romantic comedy. “You can’t think when you do action stuff,” he says. “It’s not like you worry about if this line is this way or that way. You have no time to think about those things because it is just instinctive. You just do what you do.”

The three films just finished airing in England, where Grant reports, they were a big hit. “I know from the ratings and the response and certainly the letters I’ve had from such a short space in time indicate that all of that stuff works for people.”

Fine says there’s already discussions of doing more “Pimpernel” movies. “There are a lot more adventures that can stand on their own,” she says. “Clearly there are millions of stories in the [French] Revolution--a million rescues to be had.”

“The Scarlet Pimpernel” airs Sunday at 6 and 10 p.m. on A&E.; It is rated TV-PG.