REEL RETRO CINEMA: New looks at old flicks and their comic-book connections…
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UPDATED 10/16/23. This first ran in October 2022 but you all dug it so much, I’ve decided to “reprint” it and make it an annual tradition. Right on. — Dan
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ROB KELLY is back! It’s been a minute but the erstwhile 13th Dimension REEL RETRO CINEMA columnist — best known for his stellar work at The Fire and Water Podcast Network — is paying us a visit to discuss a favorite with Halloween flavor. Dig it. — Dan
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By ROB KELLY
It’s Halloween season again! That means the streets will soon be flooded with little kids in their Dr. Syn costumes (homemade and store-bought), wandering the streets demanding candy. Store shelves will be filled with Romney Marsh merchandise (including the really nifty action figure line—the Curlew is always short-packed), and Disney + will be heavily promoting its exclusive Dr. Syn TV series.
Wait—I’m sorry. That was the opening paragraph from a REEL RETRO CINEMA column to an alternate universe, where Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow is one of Disney’s biggest original creations, a property they have been exploiting for decades since its original 1963 release. Let’s start over.
Never having been a huge Disney kid growing up in those Paleozoic, pre-internet days, I was only barely aware of a character called Dr. Syn and/or The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. I would see a photo in a book or magazine, maybe, and I would wonder who that was—he certainly looked pretty scary, with his janky, dead-eyed mask. Since I was a “monster kid,” the visual certainly appealed to me, but I could never learn anything more. Then, thanks to the internet, I finally did.
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, based on books by Russell Thorndike and William Buchanan, was a three-part series that aired on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color in February 1964, with Part One having the unfortunate luck to run directly up against the Beatles’ immortal debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Confusingly, the three segments were edited down to feature film length and released in England under the way-cooler title Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow, in late 1963.
Dr. Syn stars Patrick McGoohan as the title character, the vicar of Dymchurch parish in 18th century England. But by night he dons a terrifying mask and adopts a nightmarish growl as the Scarecrow, a Robin Hood-type who fights the tyranny of the British monarchy and its Navy. Like Robin Hood, the British government has put a price on the Scarecrow’s burlap-bagged head. But the people of Romney Marsh love the Scarecrow because he is fighting for them, with two of them—Mr. Mipps (George Cole) and John Banks (Sean Scully) – going so far as to donning their own masks and alternate identities as the awesomely named Hellspite and the Curlew, respectively.
Produced with the full force of Disney behind it, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh’s costuming, sets, and period details are, of course, all top notch. Unfortunately, with three segments, the show runs more than 2 1/2 hours, which is just too long. All the scenes with McGoohan as the Scarecrow—where he uses an extremely harsh, almost braying voice to disguise his true identity—are wonderfully executed and about as creepy as anything Disney would have produced in the 1960s.
The widescreen(ish) vistas of the countryside, dotted with off-kilter, looming shadows, are moody and effective, the action scenes move at a brisk clip, and the performances are all solid. But in between all that are lots and lots of scenes of the British nobility talking and talking, plus a romantic sub-plot between two ancillary characters that tests one’s patience. C’mon, let’s see the Scarecrow again!
Luckily, the aforementioned British theatrical version, Dr. Syn, is cut down to a little over 90 minutes and eliminates almost all the jibber-jabber (and the romantic subplot), leaving the film to focus where it should—namely, the Scarecrow and his two sidekicks outrunning, outthinking, and outshooting the government. This version, strangely available on DVD but not added to the subsequent Blu-ray release, is a total blast and highly recommended. Which leads me to my next point: Why is Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow not on Disney+?
When Disney+ was first announced in 2019, it was sold with ad copy something akin to “Get access to the entire Disney library.” Which to me, meant, you know, the entire Disney library. I figured there’d be a few titles probably left behind. But surely Dr. Syn, one of Disney’s most unique properties and starring the legendary Patrick “The Prisoner” McGoohan, would be there, ready to go. I was so sure of my unassailable logic that I didn’t even look the movie up before signing up for the service and naming my online profile Dr. Syn (hmm, no available avatar of the character—strange!). It was then that I searched the site’s admittedly deep bench of content and saw that Dr. Syn was nowhere to be found. As of this writing, three (Disney) plus years later, it’s still missing.
Which is a real shame. Since most kids don’t really engage with physical media anymore (that sound you hear is me, sobbing), relegating Dr. Syn to DVD/Blu-ray only basically ensures that no one below a certain age will ever see this movie. While Dr. Syn, even in its truncated form, is a little stodgy and talky for the average 21st century Disney viewer, the character is still inherently cool. Even with Disney’s stable of MCU characters, the Scarecrow is still probably the closest thing they have to Batman.
Don’t believe me? Check out all the similarities: Dr. Syn is a wealthy, respected member of the community, whose somewhat foppish demeanor hides his dual identity. Apart from his role as the Scarecrow, during one sequence near the end of the film, he dons another disguise to break into the local jail and free someone. He operates from a loft that works as a sort of CrowCave. As the Scarecrow, he puts one member of the community who seems to have ratted him out to the authorities on trial, recalling the scene from The Dark Knight Rises, where that Scarecrow does the very same thing (if for completely different reasons). One of his sidekicks, the overly-eager-for-adventure teenager John Banks, even dresses like, and is named after, a bird!
One final connection: Dr. Syn was directed by James Neilson, who helmed numerous other Disney movies like The Moon Spinners, Bon Voyage and Summer Magic. He also directed a lot of TV, including two episodes of Batman. In the alternate universe I mentioned earlier, the Jonathan Crane Scarecrow did make it onto the show, and he looked just like Dr. Syn, making those episodes (“The Bat Flies Out The Window”/”The Professor Eats Crow”) hands down the scariest two-parter the show ever did. Since the appetite for Batman content is seemingly inexhaustible, having a character like this just collecting metaphorical dust in the Disney vault is a baffling commercial decision.
Luckily, Dr. Syn has fared a little better as a comic book character. In 1964 Gold Key published a three-issue adaptation called The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh featuring beautifully lush painted covers by Sam Savitt. The writer is uncredited, but the interior art is by the late, great Dan Spiegle. The comic book, although truncated, decides to follow the beats of the TV version, so it too is too talky and slow, but still fun here and there. It also features some promo material on the movie, which, by the time the third issue came out in 1965, would have been impossible to see.
But unlike the movie version, this initial burst wasn’t it for the Scarecrow. He returned more than 40 years later for an all-new four-part adventure in the Disney Adventures digest magazine, as well as cameoing in two issues of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! (Supposedly he’s pictured on a wall in the film version, but I’m not sitting through that movie again.) In 1967, Britain’s weekly Solo magazine reprinted the Gold Key comics, complete with crazy quilt covers, somehow making the Scarecrow look even weirder.
Add in the 1960s record and the 1970s novelization, it’s clear that the Scarecrow has never been completely forgotten by Disney. But, like Condorman (which we discussed a few years ago in this very column), the Scarecrow is a character ripe with potential and overdue for a reboot. Who knows? Maybe if we let Disney hear from us in sufficient numbers, by next Halloween, we’ll hear his terrifying laughter fill the air once again, in pursuit of justice. Or, at the very least, some yummy holiday candy.
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MORE
— When Disney Failed Superheroes: 1981’s CONDORMAN. Click here.
— WES CRAVEN’s SWAMP THING AT 40: A Flawed Gem That Still Entertains. Click here.
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ROB KELLY is a podcaster and pop-culture historian. He is the host/co-host of several shows on The Fire and Water Podcast Network, including Fade Out, TreasuryCast, For All Mankind and Pod Dylan.
October 20, 2022
My favorite Disney TV-movie! Thanks for posting.
October 20, 2022
Always reminded me of Zorro!
October 20, 2022
For years I wondered if my memory had failed me ’cause I always remembered the Scarecrow running oppsite the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Thanks for verifying this.
October 20, 2022
My dad loved this one.
October 20, 2022
Great article! I’m a big fan of Dr. Syn and have always wondered why Disney has left the tv shows/movies gathering dust in the vault. There was also a U.S. theatrical release (or re-release) in the mid-70s at the same time as the novelization.
October 20, 2022
Anyone who saw the opening sequence of the Scarecrow programs as a child will never forget him. Powerful stuff!
October 17, 2023
Somehow I know the words to the theme song. I dressed up like the Scarecrow all day on the Sunday he appeared on Disney. Great show.
March 11, 2024
On the Southern coast of England, there’s a legend known quite well. For there they know, the great Scare Crow … . Ah, I can still hear the hideous Scare Crow laugh. What a memory, to have survived all these years! Great entertainment Disney. Wish you could do that today, instead of the Woke nonsense I’m seeing on the screens.
October 20, 2022
Was that book a novelization or a rebranding of the original novel. Dr. Syn was a series of Noel’s running from 1915 to 1945.
Maybe the lack of more Dr. Syn stories relates to not having the rights anymore? I don’t know.
Like you all, I loved this mini-series and movie when I saw it in the 1960s and 1970s. And what a theme song!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Syn
October 21, 2022
The mid-70s children’s book by Vic Crume was a novelization of the Disney screen adaptation. The Disney/Crume story is based on, but different from, the R. Thorndike Scarecrow novels.
October 25, 2022
The original novels are all in the public domain, so that shouldn’t be a problem for Disney. Their original limited series/movie was based on a modern updating of the original Thorndyke novel that they licensed the rights to. Even then, Disney made extensive changes to the narrative.
October 20, 2022
Good stuff! The streamlined movie is available on YouTube. It doesn’t pack the same punch as when I was a kid, but I still have fond memories of it.
October 20, 2022
I love this movie. It can be found on the high seas, wink wink nudge nudge.
October 20, 2022
Great article! I don’t mind the padding of the TV episodes, but I haven’t seen the movie versions since I was a kid. Maybe if I could compare the two, the talky-talky would bother me.
Dr. Syn and crew are ripe for a comeback for sure and certain. And at the very least, get the show AND the movie on Disney Plus, Chapek!
As much as I love my Hammer films (and I definitely do), I prefer the Disney adaptation over Hammer’s Captain Clegg/Night Creatures, despite it starring my man Peter Cushing!
October 20, 2022
Picture quality isn’t great, but Disney’s Scarecrow can be found on YouTube…
July 6, 2023
YouTube has the blue ray version which is not bad at all. Even the audio has been cleaned up. I watched it 07/04/23 for the first time since I was a kid and enjoyed the hell out of it.
October 20, 2022
Hi Folks, I believe that Chuck Williams of Williams Studio 2 has made a mask of “The Scarecrow” from the Disney films. I loved the shows when I was a kid. Mom and Dad even bought me the comic books and I checked the novels out from the local library. Cheers!
October 20, 2022
I agree. Omitting The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh from Disney+ is an absolute crime. And while they’re at it, the Disney+ programmers need to add The Hardy Boys & the Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, Donald in Mathmagic Land, The Swamp Fox, The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, and the entire Zorro TV series (in Color), just for starters.
October 22, 2022
Now THAT is spot on!
October 23, 2022
They’ll probably never add The Swamp Fox to Disney+ because he owned slaves.
October 23, 2022
And every year I check to see if they’ve added JOHNNY TREMAIN for the 4th of July, and the answer is always no.
October 23, 2022
So what do you know, the entire Zorro series was just added to Disney+.
October 23, 2022
This is my main gripe about Disney+. It’s loaded with new stuff, but is severely lacking in things created and approved by, you know, Disney – the man himself. The reason I got Disney+ is because they added The Mickey Mouse Club, and it was my understanding that they were going to add more episodes as they went along, but they still have just the first week’s episodes, from 1955 I think it was. There needs to be much more Disney on Disney+.
October 20, 2022
I can still sing the theme song.
October 20, 2022
I frickin’ love The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh! I have the Walt Disney Treasures DVD with both versions and the Blu-ray from the Disney Movie Club. I have had the comic books on my wish list for years.
October 21, 2022
I too had vague memories of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh from magazines, but have never seen it. Disney+ makes some pretty arbitrary decisions about what they do and don’t include. I’ve also been looking for Guns in the Heather starring Kurt Russell. I haven’t seen it since the early 90s. I thought maybe a story associating children with guns would be too touchy, but there are other old films on Disney+ that are problematic for different reasons, but are available.
October 22, 2022
I like the Hammer Films version of the same story NIGHT CREATURES.
October 22, 2022
“The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” trilogy had the misfortune of airing in February 1964 opposite the Beatles’ three-week debut on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, the worst possible timeslots it could have had!
October 23, 2022
I have Walt Disney Showcase #53 which is a reprint of #1 (movie adaptation) but never knew about the 3 issue comic book series. Issues 2 & 3 must be original stories.
October 23, 2022
I have all three but I haven’t read them yet. I’ll have to do that and also rewatch the DVD.
October 25, 2022
The original Thorndyke novels painted an even darker character than is on display in the Disney series/movie. The people of his village love the Scarecrow because he organized the men of the village into a highly profitable band of smugglers. The reason the government is after him is because he’s clearly a criminal. In his backstory, we also find out that he was once a pirate who murdered many, many people before returning to England & his double life as Dr. Syn and the Scarecrow.
The notion that the Scarecrow failed because it was on opposite the Beatles history-making appearance on “Ed Sullivan” is misleading. I know because I was just reaching my teen years in 1964. The Scarecrow was re-broadcast during summer re-runs and racked up a sizeable audience the second time around.
Over the years Disney has treated the property much like Swamp Fox and El Fago Baca. It was released to home video during the VHS era and then again on DVD as one of the Walt Disney Treasures edition. But it doesn’t receive much attention when it comes to merchandizing.
I presume at some time, it will be available on Disney+ as they seem to be rotating their inventory (nice to see “Zorro” become available recently).
It would have been nice to see further adventures from Disney, but as I said, the character in the novels is very much an anti-hero and not in the Disney mold at all.
October 27, 2022
Years ago, my mother somehow found me a bootleg copy of the Disney Treasury’s version with commentary by Leonard Matlin. Retail price was around $300. I just re-watched the three part TV series. Disney had a bit of an editing problem. In part one, Simon Bates (Tony Britton) comes through the window of the vicarage, wounded in the arm, seeking help from Dr. Syn. At the end of part one, he is looking pretty good and helping with the ruse on the beach. He does not appear in part two. In part three, he once again comes through the window (looking banged up) and is sent off to Mrs. Waggett (the footage is identical). Later on he meets up with Harry Banks in the crypt looking well-rested. We’ll call this a continuity goof.
March 10, 2023
I was the only kid in my high school who missed the Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan, because I was watching the Scarecrow. I was already a McGoohan fan and this just sealed the deal. 60 years later–really? has it really been 60 years?–I’m still a huge fan of the man and the character. Spent years in those pre-internet days looking for the book and was thrilled beyond words when a lovely British lady told me there were multiple books. I have them all now, God bless amazon and eBay. Thanks for a lovely article.
October 16, 2023
I’m old enough to remember The Beatles’ Sullivan performance, and being totally awed by Scarecrow the next Sunday on Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (on our black and white set). The tone of Scarecrow was dark and ominous without an ounce of camp.
To think that just four years later, ABC decided to portray Batman substituting the darkness for camp because it didn’t believe it could have been played straight. How impactful was Scarecrow? Fifty eight years later I can still recall the theme song from a TV show I saw only twice.
October 16, 2023
Correction: To think that just two years later, ABC decided to portray Batman substituting the darkness for camp because it didn’t believe it could have been played straight. How impactful was Scarecrow? Fifty nine years later I can still recall the theme song from a TV show I saw only twice. (I shouldn’t do mental math befre I’ve had my coffee.)
October 17, 2023
Ummm …..The Scarecrow on Batman 1966…???
October 17, 2023
I LOVED this article and thank you so much for writing it. In my opinion, the very best version of a scary hero. Even when you know how gentle and kind Dr. Syn actually is, his Scarecrow persona is really intimidating. I wanted to add that two of the Director’s other films for Disney were also departures for the studio. THE MOON SPINNERS is a Hitchcock style thriller and BON VOYAGE is a comedy featuring mature themes such as Fred MacMurry getting high on absinthe and an attempt to blackmail the vacationing family by claiming that Tommy Kirk got a girl pregnant. The film also uses the word damnation multiple times.
Walt Disney was a visionary and I believe he was moving towards changes in audience tastes in the early 60’s that the other studio heads famously never saw coming. Disney’s BABES IN TOYLAND was a bomb (that I personally love) but clearly influenced Joseph Pap’s production of PIRATES OF PENZANCE even to the point of casting current pop stars as the leads in an operetta.
October 17, 2023
Here are all the episodes remastered! I recommend getting an ad blocker for a better experience.
October 17, 2023
Hey Dan,Great article. I wanted to point out to you that this has been released to dvd as part of The Disney Treasure Collection and it was released to blu-ray as an exclusive through Disney Movie Club. Thought you would want to know.
October 17, 2023
Thanks!
October 17, 2023
i’m still waiting for The Fighting a Prince of Donegal and Swamp Fox also.
October 18, 2023
“The Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, hiding in the Glen!”
October 18, 2023
I have THE FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEGAL on DVD from the Disney Movie Club. I also got the Swamp Fox and Elfego Baca DVD set that was released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures line.
November 22, 2023
The Bob Iger promise of the “entire library” was so unbelievable at the time but I continue to be disappointed that the company largely turns its back on the Walt-era live action catalog. They’re fine with re-releasing the princess movies but too much is absent from Disney+. We knew that Song of the South wasn’t going to make the cut so that made the promise look like a marketing lie as soon as it was uttered.
Yet, up to 2002 we used to be able to watch this sort of thing on the Disney Channel in the late-night “Vault Disney” programming block before the Disney Channel became positively juvenile and unwatchable.
The Dr. Syn novels were by Russell Thorndyke. The Buchanan was an adaptation of the first book for younger readers. THIS was the book that is cited as the source material for the Disney show. It is a difficult book to find.
Since the 1990s I’ve been building a collection of books that inspired Disney films and TV shows. The differences are very interesting. In some cases the film is better than the source book (Candleshoe and Island at the Top of the World are just two examples).
Saying that Scarecrow is Disney’s closest thing to Batman ignores Zorro and that is quite an oversight. I see that some others have mentioned Zorro as well.