The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937)

Sir Percy Blakeney (in the guise of the masked Scarlet Pimpernel), an Englishman who with the aid of a band of his friends, is engaged in spiriting French aristocrats across the English Channel to escape the guillotine. Robespierre, the ruthless revolutionary, informs the chief of the police he must capture the Scarlet Pimpernel or lose his own head to the blade. Blakeney's wife is abducted and taken to France forcing him to follow her in a rescue attempt.