It's amazing how well this 1964 serial holds up today.
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Scarecrow, Scarecro-oh,
the soldiers of the king feared his name.
Scarecrow, Scarecrow,
the country folks all loved him just the same.
Walt Disney was a romantic with the core of a wholesome idealist. Even a smuggler by the name of Dr. Syn gets a facelift when Disney gets a hold of him--and I'm not talking about the memorable Scarecrow burlap mask that both fascinated and terrified so many children back in 1964, when he rode across our television screens in three episodes of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color." I'm talking about the romantic whitewash that the character got. In the 1915 Russell Thorndike novel, this fellow was far more incorrigible than the Disney character, more Jekyll and Hyde than hero in disguise. Disney's Dr. Syn is an American Revolution sympathizer who wages a "Swamp Fox"-like campaign in England's Romney Marsh, helping an American revolutionary and fighting a parallel fight against King George III's unfair taxation and press gang policies. As such, he's probably the scariest Disney hero ever.
Disney and film historian Leonard Maltin, who, we're told, personally selects the material for the Walt Disney Treasures limited edition tin-box series, really did a number on fans of "The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" and "The Swamp Fox." Instead of giving us the complete series, they cut them up and included a random sampling of each in one tin. That was a heinous crime and an insult to the principles driving this Vault Disney series, but Disney must have heard the outcry. This time they erred on the side of caution, including both the complete three-episode series that aired on American television, and also the edited feature-length version that was shown in Great Britain and the rest of Europe as "Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow." So whichever Scarecrow is driving (haunting?) your memories of the show, Disney has it covered this time.
For youngsters growing up in the Fifties and Sixties, the most popular adventure heroes were Robin Hood types. "The Scarecrow" is another variation of the "Zorro" and "Swamp Fox" heroes that had kids everywhere slashing Zs into things and putting feathers in their hats. And those catchy theme songs? The Scarecrow theme by Terry Gilkyson was one that, as Maltin reminds us, really stuck in your head during the week while you waited for the next installment. Then there was that bone-chilling Scarecrow laugh, which sounded an awful lot like the one we remembered from the headless horsemen, another Disney night rider.
"The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" starred "Danger Man" Patrick McGoohan as Dr. Syn, parson of Dymchurch by day but the notorious Scarecrow smuggler by night. At his side is his sexton, Mr. Mipps (who at night dons the Hellspite mask) and young son of the squire who appointed him to his position, a lad named John (Sean Scully). And John wears The Curlew mask when he's riding with the Scarecrow. Only those two know The Scarecrow's true identity. Not even Squire Banks (Michael Hordern) knows, or John's sister, Katharine (Jill Curzon). You get the feeling that the local villagers are a little afraid of The Scarecrow, but they get behind him because the money he earns through the sale of smuggled goods off the southeastern coast of England is turned over to the farmers so they can pay their outrageous taxes.
The plot is a simple one, but the drama is sustained because of strong characters, strong visuals, location filming, and the same basic plotlines that sustained "Pirates of the Caribbean." King George thinks that this Scarecrow fellow has been getting away with murder, and so he sends an arrogant and determined General Pugh (Geoffrey Keen) to do what Lt. Philip Brackenbury (Eric Flynn) was unable: to capture this scoundrel at all costs. There's a forbidden love sideplot, too, with Brackenbury and Kate Banks attracted to each other. And, as with "Pirates," there's a rescue or three, with Kate's missing brother Harry (David Buck) and an American named Simon Bates (Tony Britton) thrown into the mix. Yet another plotline involves a press gang after all the young men in the village, and if you weren't already inclined to hate these guys, you're ready to bob them on the head when they beat and shanghai a man whose wife just had a baby. Come on!
It's those sorts of things that make "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" an adventure with heart, and McGoohan's intense performance, with or without the mask, helps to elevate this otherwise by-the-numbers made-for-TV movie. It's one of the reasons why the series holds up considerably better than "The Swamp Fox." Dialogue is another. The screenplay was written by Robert Westerby, who probably came to Disney's attention because he wrote for the short-lived "Sword of Freedom" 1957 TV swashbuckler (which was set two centuries earlier), and Westerby was already familiar with the Disney touch, having penned "Greyfriars Bobb: The True Story of a Dog" (1961). While it wasn't a marvel, Westerby's script was just good enough for us to buy into the characters and their dilemmas. And really, that's all that Disney ever seemed to want: to entertain while subtly reinforcing a value system that's formed the infrastructure of all-things-Disney since the very beginning.
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[release]25127[/release]