Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow **** (1962, Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Tony Britton, Geoffrey Keen, Kay Walsh, Patrick Wymark, Michael Hordern, Eric Pohlmann) – Classic Movie Review 6625

Director James Neilson’s rousing 1962 adventure movie stars Patrick McGoohan, who has great fun as the innocent-looking minister Dr Christopher Syn, the 18th-century vicar of Dymchurch, Kent, by day who turns by night into the notorious naughty-but-nice bootlegger pirate Captain Clegg, alias the Scarecrow, the masked leader of a smuggling ring.

Walt Disney Productions’ remake of the old Dr Syn story is convincing, well acted and beautifully filmed in Technicolor by cinematographer Paul Beeson on the Kent-Sussex marshes. It was made for US TV and shown in three parts as The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, but exhibited to enthusiastic audiences in cinemas in Britain.

Also in the exciting cast are George Cole as Mr Sexton Mipps / Hellspite, Tony Britton as Simon Bates, Geoffrey Keen as General Pugh, Kay Walsh as Mrs Waggett, Patrick Wymark as Joseph Ransley, Michael Hordern as Squire Thomas Banks, Eric Pohlmann as King George III, Alan Dobie, David Buck, Percy Herbert, Sean Scully, Eric Flynn, Robert Brown, Jill Curzon, Mark Dignam, Bruce Seton, Richard O’Sullivan, Simon Lack and Elsie Wagstaff.

Robert Westerby’s screenplay is based on two novels, one by Russell Thorndike and the other William Buchanan’s Christopher Syn.

Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow is produced by Walt Disney and Bill Anderson and scored by Gerard Schurmann, with Art Direction by Michael Stringer.

There are two previous versions: Dr Syn (1937), with George Arliss, and Captain Clegg [Night Creatures] (1962) with Peter Cushing.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6625

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