Doctor Syn - The Movies!

One of my all-time favorite movies is Dr. Syn alias the Scarecrow.  The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh is the title given to the production when was aired three one-hour episodes on American television. This movie starring Patrick McGoohan in the days after he was a secret agent but before he became a prisoner is a rousing adventure yarn which delighted me as a youngster on The Wonderful World of Disney. The Scarecrow as portrayed by McGoohan actually frightened me and still gives me goosebumps. 

Before the days of VHS and DVD, the way to "own" a film was to buy the novel adaptation and I snapped up the one by Vic Crume for the Disney story. It goes to show how much they changed from Russell Thorndyke's novel that there even needed to be a novel adaptation. The original source for the story wasn't in fact a later Thorndyke novel but a variation of it by William Buchannan. I've never read this version. The gem pictured above is hidden somewhere in the many boxes of books in this house. I despair finding it really, save by accident. 

The story was also adapted into comic book form by Gold Key Comics. They also produced two additional issues with fresh stories. The Scarecrow is given more of a role similar to the novel in this movie and is more of the dashing rogue in the Robin Hood tradition. 

Hammer's 1962 Night Creatures (alternately title Captain Clegg) adapts Thorndyke's original novel (or possibly an earlier film I'll discuss in a moment). 

Hammer was beat out by Disney for rights to the name, but they did a pretty decent job of translating the events of the first novel to the screen. I was underwhelmed by this one when I first saw it, as it's a weaker effort than the classic Disney adaptation, but it is truer to the source material, even though Doctor Syn cannot be called that but is referred to as "Doctor Bliss". He is played rather energetically if more sanely by Peter Cushing. 

The very first adaptation called simply Dr. Syn starring George Arliss from 1937.  It's possible this film served as the inspiration for the later Hammer effort because there are scenes the two share which are not in the novel. Syn is played in this movie by George Arliss, a beloved actor who was approaching seventy. His relative fragility does hurt the movie at times, but overall, he's a worthy if somewhat stiff Syn. The movie underplays Syn's seeming madness and gives the viewer a typically more upbeat ending than does the novel. 

 NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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