Heroes with Secret Identities
In 1905 an adventure novel was published, written by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the start of the French Revolution. The Scarlet Pimpernel is over 100 years old. How many movies have been enjoyed with the theme of the hero hiding in plain sight.
So here's a short list of those apparently regular people, not necessary recognized by those around them.
So here's a short list of those apparently regular people, not necessary recognized by those around them.
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- DirectorRichard StantonStarsDustin FarnumWinifred KingstonWilliam BurressDuring the French Revolution, Englishman Sir Percy Blakeney is considered to be a terrible fop, completely unaware of the seriousness of the political situation abroad. In reality, Sir Percy is a hero to the French aristocrats and is known as "The Scarlet Pimpernel." His wife, Lady Marguerite, shares the opinion of most that Sir Percy is useless, until his heroism is proven when she discovers his secret identity. In Calais, Sir Percy is able to elude Chauvelin, a member of the new French government, even though Chauvelin threatens the safety of Lady Marguerite's brother, Armand St. Just. Lady Marguerite goes to Calais to aid her husband, and they finally are able to escape on a ship bound for England, assured of their love for each other.
- DirectorFred NibloStarsDouglas FairbanksMarguerite De La MotteNoah BeeryA seemingly idiotic fop is really the courageous vigilante Zorro, who seeks to protect the oppressed.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMiriam HopkinsKay FrancisHerbert MarshallA gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.
- DirectorHarold YoungStarsLeslie HowardMerle OberonRaymond MasseyA noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxA veterinarian posing as a doctor teams with a singer and his friends as they struggle to save an upstate New York sanitarium with the help of a misfit racehorse.
- DirectorHanns SchwarzStarsBarry K. BarnesSophie StewartMargaretta ScottParis is Burning. Under the iron fist of Robespierre, hundreds are executed, by the swift and bloodstained guillotine. Through these acts of injustice a new heroism is born - the League of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsTyrone PowerLinda DarnellBasil RathboneA young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsBob HopeJane RussellRobert ArmstrongCalamity Jane is dispatched to find out who's smuggling rifles to the Indians, and winds up married to a hapless correspondence-school dentist as part of her cover.
- DirectorEdward SedgwickS. Sylvan SimonStarsRed SkeltonBrian DonlevyArlene DahlA hapless bellboy in a St. Louis hotel near the end of the Civil War is recruited by the Union secret service to impersonate a notorious Confederate spy.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsBob HopeHedy LamarrFrancis L. SullivanA burlesque comic, who resembles an international spy, is recruited by the government and sent to Tangier to retrieve a sensitive microfilm before it's captured by hostile foreign agents.
- DirectorMelvin FrankNorman PanamaStarsDanny KayeGlynis JohnsBasil RathboneA hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsFred AstaireLeslie CaronTerry MooreA wealthy American has a chance encounter with a joyful young French woman, and anonymously pays for her education. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor, nicknaming him from the description given by some of her fellow orphans.
- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsHumphrey BogartGene TierneyLee J. CobbAt a Catholic mission in China, long-awaited "Father O'Shea" proves to be a tough guy, disturbingly attractive to mission nurse Anne.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsBob HopeAnita EkbergEdie AdamsA returning moon capsule with vital information goes off-course and lands in Africa, where the little-known Ekele tribesmen find it. Washington orders African expert, Matthew Merriwether - an utter fraud and authority only on feminine pulchritude - to go find it.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonShirley MacLaineLou JacobiWhen a policeman falls in love with a prostitute, he doesn't want her to see other men, so he creates an alter-ego who will be her only customer.
- DirectorJerry LewisStarsJerry LewisStella StevensDel MooreA timid chemistry teacher discovers a magical potion that can transform him into a suave and handsome womanizer.
- DirectorLeslie H. MartinsonStarsAdam WestBurt WardLee MeriwetherThe Dynamic Duo faces four supervillains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.
- DirectorJerry LewisStarsJerry LewisHarold J. StoneSusan Bay NimoyOn a San Diego beach, Gerald Clamson fishes out of the water a look-alike frog man who gives him a map to a stash of stolen-diamonds coveted by several crime syndicates.
- DirectorDelbert MannStarsDick Van DykeBarbara FeldonJohn McGiverA butler and the staff of an eccentric aged philanthropist whose family wealth is exhausted engage in larceny and crimes to maintain her lifestyle and provide funds for her charitable activities.
- DirectorAlan RafkinStarsDon KnottsBarbara RhoadesJackie CooganA pardoned stagecoach robber, becomes government agent and marries a naive unsuspecting east-coast dentist in order to join a wagon train and catch the smugglers who have been selling guns to the Indians.
- DirectorBrian G. HuttonStarsRichard BurtonClint EastwoodMary UreAllied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
- DirectorRichard DonnerStarsChristopher ReeveMargot KidderGene HackmanAn alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.
- DirectorCarroll BallardStarsKelly RenoMickey RooneyTeri GarrAfter being shipwrecked with a magnificent horse off the coast of Africa in the 1940s, a boy bonds with the stallion, and trains him to race after their rescue.
- DirectorRichard LesterStarsGene HackmanChristopher ReeveMargot KidderSuperman agrees to sacrifice his powers to start a relationship with Lois Lane, unaware that three Kryptonian criminals he inadvertently released are conquering Earth.
- DirectorClive DonnerStarsAnthony AndrewsJane SeymourIan McKellenParis, 1792: After France becomes a republic, aristocrats are guillotined. The English Sir Percy tries to save as many as he can as The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguises.