‘Pimpernel’ Smith (1941)

So much more than actual battle films, I enjoy espionage films set during World War II. In this modernized version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Leslie Howard is a professor and archaeologist, almost an Indiana Jones prototype, who takes a group of students on a dig in Germany. His research is funded by the Nazis, but his trip is actually a cover in his attempts to free prisoners in a nearby concentration camp. An enjoyable film that really picks up the pace once the narrative moves from England to Germany, I imagine it was particularly effective as a morale booster during the war years, portraying the British as intelligent and cunning and the Germans as bungling buffoons.