In this segment, Chensvold examines the Dandy as he appeared in 20th Century film and literature. In Hollywood's glorious heyday, numerous dandies shone upon the silver screen. Fred Astaire brought elegance and an air of nonchalance to nearly every role he played. In real life Astaire practiced the same sartorial fastidiousness and was a complete perfectionist when it came to dancing.
Dandies are just as often villains as heroes.
A wealthy man of the highest taste, Lidecker is a middle-aged man of distinction and possessed of an acerbic wit. When his infatuation with Laura breaks his emotional self-mastery, Lidecker is driven to murder. As historical films generally say as much about the times in which they're made as the times in which they' re set, the Depression-era taste for extravagant escapism made Hollywood bring several historical dandies to life. Based on the novel by the Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel argues that those who appear vain and frivolous on the outside may be concealing a heroic side underneath. Indeed, even the most superficial dandies are deeper than they seem.