23 thoughts on “Top 5 Fops in Historical Costume Movies

  1. Shame, shame, shame on you! Leslie Howard’s Lord Percy is the crème de la crème of film fops, and I will brook no argument with that. Andrews isn’t even close.

    And Drawlight in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a definite contender.

    However—thank you, thank you for the Blackadder the Third collection, which makes it all worthwhile.

    1. I got hooked on the Scarlet Pimpernel when I watched Leslie Howard. Then the next version, Richard Grant as Percy and Elizabeth McGovern as Margarite. So far my fave is Anthony Andrews as the foppish Sir Percy. For me at this moment, it’s Anthony Andrews who wins. B’cuz the French thought him to be just a rich English fop but in reality he is the illusion Scarlet Pimpernel. Love Anthony Andrews the best❤️❤️❤️

  2. Andrews is, hands down, my favorite Percy. Nobody else comes close. (Sorry, Howard fans! He was great! But Andrews made me and my mother laugh so hard the first time we saw it, we had to rewind portions of the dialogue, since we couldn’t hear it for our undignified chortling. I wanted to introduce the movie to a friend of mine recently, who looked at the cover and said, “That looks dull.” Oh, poor woman. She’ll learn, in time.)

    I’ve never seen the #1 but lawdy, the duc d’Orléans deserves the top spot on looks alone. I don’t know whether to laugh or be disturbed.

    Arthur Goring… mmmm! Love that movie. I admit, I watched it mostly the first time for Jeremy Northam — and came away a fan of everybody, especially Oscar Wilde.

    “Lord Goring, you are speaking QUITE seriously!”
    “Oh, I am sorry!”
    “No! I like you to be serious!”

    1. Sarah, I’ll be your second in the duel … Leslie Howard’s Percy is THE foppiest fop :-)

  3. I loved Antony Andrew’s Lord Percy. He was seriously foppy and intelligence behind the fop. Colour, too. So possibly for that reason the version beats the Leslie Howard one. ‘Is he in heaven…That demned elusive Pimpernel’

    My 2ND is Lord Goring played by Rupert Everett. With Wilde, you cannot loose. Also liked Importance of Being Ernest (Dame Judi one)

    My 3rd is Blackadder III, Hugh Laurie’s Prinny has me ROTFLI and rewinding.

    BTW. Stephen Fry did a nonfrock series called Kingdom. Very good.

  4. Can I put in a bid for Julian Orchard as the cousin in The Slipper and the Rose? Effortlessly breezy entrances, he dances beautifully in high heels, and is a main purveyor of witticisms. Much as I love Chamberlain as the prince, he does seem a bit staid next to the excellence of Lord Montague’s foppery.
    And though I totally agree on the odd costume choices for the 1999 Scarlet Pimpernel (it looks as if Elizabeth McGovern was simply allowed not to wear a corset, and she looks frumpy amid the bevy of correctly-undergarmented beauties), Richard E. Grant is fabulous. With a devastating smile, he puts Chauvelin (whose cravat looks as if he just rolled out of bed) in his place with the epigram, “Only a cravat? A cravat, sir, is the apotheosis of neckwear!”

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