This is an entry in Simply_Crispy’s ‘Expunged from their CV’ Write-Off. The idea of the write-off is to review a movie that has an actor, who went on to bigger and better things, before they were famous. Or, a movie that has an actor after they’d ‘lost it’. Something, in any case, that the actor probably didn’t brag about a lot. I, being the lout I am, sort of mashed this idea around to suit my own purposes, and reviewed three (this being the third) movies, all Disney, from earlier days. These movies feature actors before they were popular (though this one doesn’t exactly fit even that criteria), but aren’t actually things these people probably want ‘expunged from their CV’.

I was going to do ‘The Boy With Green Hair’, which would have broken off my whole Disney theme, but had the double benefit of being a very early Dean Stockwell role, and being a Losey film. Alas, I couldn’t manage a viewing.

At any rate, having seen many of the entries in this write-off (I’m late at this point, but I was also early, so I’m sort of on time in the big picture), I can tell you that they are a wonderful collection of movie reviews, and cannot recommend highly enough that you seek them out. I believe you can find your way to all of them through Simply_Crispy’s profile page, and I will also list the contributors at the end.

Cheers!







Back in the days when swashbucklers were on the way out, and people began to be interested in the ‘secret hero’ to drive the derring-do (think ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ and ‘Zorro’ as predecessors to ‘Batman’ and otherwise dark and secret-identitied super-heroes, and all that sort of thing), moviemakers dared to explore a variety of literary works for their material. Disney even went to work (as did others) on Russell Thorndike’s ‘Dr. Syn’.

The story is that of Dr. Christopher Syn, mild-mannered (aren’t they all) country priest by day, stuff of legends ‘The Scarecrow’ by night. It’s 18th century England, and King George has impressment squads going about the countryside bashing people over the head until they politely volunteer for service in the Royal Navy (among other nogoodnik-like activities...bloody King). Dr. Syn’s alter-ego, in rather classic Robin Hood style, redistributes some wealth and hangs (or threatens to hang) several of the ‘baddies’. He leads, in rather classic Robin Hood style, a band of misfit smugglers who occasionally wear nifty animal masks that bear little resemblance to any known animals, though they have proper animal names. You’re Eagle huh? Umm...okay.

It's very 'Zorro' in its story, with a bit of the 'Robin Hood' redistribution thing thrown in.

The movie progresses in just the sort of manner you would expect from such an adventure. We see Syn at his many priestly duties during the day, trying to be the voice of reason (or reasonish) and work toward a bit of justice using proper channels. And then we see him galloping about with an outlandishly wicked mask (or sack with paint) on, swashing buckles and otherwise being rather sneaky.

In the original books, the backstory is that Dr. Syn is actually a pirate who retired to this double-life, it being a bit slicker and generally less risky than being an open and notorious criminal. That bit is left out entirely in this movie version of the story. While we don’t, quite frankly, get all that much in the way of a seriously cohesive story (the American Revolution gets thrown in, and there is a young lad that discovers Dr. Syn is The Scarecrow, and we’ve now got to get him out of the country, and basically lots of bits thrown in to make it look like an awful lot is going on), we do get the idea that Dr. Syn is a little ‘nicer’ guy than in the original stories. Well, it’s Disney after all.

Even so, this is another of those Family Disney movies of bygone years that really makes you raise your eyebrows at that ‘Family’ part. Lots of pretty serious ideas are covered in a somewhat more serious way than your standard Robin Hood telling, and there is no end of people getting killed, about to be killed, or plotting to kill others. There’s a lot of swordplay and scheming and this is a movie where you could very easily scare the bejeezus out of the wrong aged child. They might not ever be able to watch ‘The Wizard of Oz’ again.


The true beauty of the film, that is otherwise a somewhat ramshackle if wondrously fun adventure in the Disney style, is the portrayal of the main character/s by Patrick McGoohan. Though he was already fairly well-known, and had amassed a slew of credits, this film is probably the first thing that led McGoohan down the road of cult icon. The film has an incredible cult status (try a Google search), as do many of McGoohan’s later roles and/or movies he’s appeared in (‘The Prisoner’, ‘Danger Man’, ‘Silver Streak’, ‘Brass Target’, ‘Escape from Alcatraz’). Curiously, he came full circle (sort of) to play Longshanks in ‘Braveheart’.

Yes, it’s McGoohan’s performance that pushes this movie beyond the rather stale, early 60's, made-for-television (even if it is Disney) movie that it might have been. The period work is above average, the story is pretty interesting, and in general, there is a fair amount going for this movie, but without McGoohan, it wouldn’t have been very memorable. The scenes in which he (as Dr. Syn, of course) ‘hobnobs’ with the authorities, as the local religious leader and thus community icon naturally would, and so learns what plans are in operation to catch The Scarecrow, are priceless in themselves.

McGoohan’s ‘work’ as Dr. Syn is, in fact, about the best alter-ego acting you’ll ever see. The Scarecrow is not simply ‘the other person that Dr. Syn pretends to be’, or vice versa. There is much more sense of a true dichotomy going on, and both characters are really given an ‘existence’. Of course, like Batman and Zorro, The Scarecrow is always ‘in there somewhere’, but Dr. Syn is much more of a character unto himself. He doesn’t betray his ‘Batmanness’ with his every move, yet neither is he so grandiose (and laughable) a change from his ‘Zorroness’. In other words, Bruce Wayne is simply Batman less his cowl. There is only, in some sense, the one character. Don Diego de la Vega, on the other hand, is more caricature than character. He is as much ‘mask’ as Superman’s Clark Kent, and the real... whoever, only comes through in moments of contemplation with his sounding board... I mean servant, Bernardo.

Though Dr. Syn is partly ‘mask’ for The Scarecrow, there is much more to him, and there is definitely a good deal of the real man in Dr. Syn, or vice versa. McGoohan displays this exceptionally well.


The film also features a wonderful cast of British actors in supporting roles, most of whom you will simply either know or not. George Cole, Tony Britton, Michael Hordern, and Patrick Wymark, just to name a few. Michael Hordern, Sir Michael Hordern in fact, gives us a nice look at himself here, and if an actor can be quite well-respected and at the same time grossly underrated, that actor would be Hordern.

We also have Geoffrey Keen in a medium-sized ‘spotlight’ role as General Pugh. Keen, of course, was already an established character actor, but he was a few years away from the role that made his face one that everyone recognizes. Keen was, from ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (㣱) through ‘The Living Daylights’ (㣻), ‘M’ in the James Bond pictures.


One could get a pretty good idea of the ‘feel’ of the movie (apart from just saying that it ‘feels’ a lot like other Disney movies of the period... which it does) by calling it something along the lines of a mixing of ‘Bonanza’, ‘The Virginian’, and ‘Batman’ (TV series all). That’s with good reason, as James Neilson directed those shows (as well as ‘The Rifleman’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Adam-12', and others), and directed this movie.


It’s seriously adventurous, packed with action and intense drama. A family movie that pushes the envelope on that particular label, but it plays with the limits of what you might want to let children watch in the best possible way. It’s the sort of thing you might not want your younger children to experience, not because (as with most things of today) if you had your druthers they’d never experience it, but simply because you don’t want them to experience it yet.

‘Dr Syn: Alias the Scarecrow’ which was originally aired as a television mini-series as ‘The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh’, has been getting a lot of play recently on several cable channels, including The Disney Channel of course, so even though you’ll never find the video, it’s not outrageously hard to catch.

It also, oddly enough, features a really catchy tune about The Scarecrow.



Like most write-offs, this was really a lot of fun, and a chance to review/ponder some movies that I probably never would have gotten around to otherwise. Thanks to all who contributed, and thanks especially to Simply_Crispy, not only for having the thing, but also for inviting me.

Here is a list of the participants, all of whom have put forward great reviews for the write-off.


lemon_lime, artbyjude, BigJack, brodieman, d_fienberg, jankp, Lynus, Macresarf1, mfunk75, MrsNormanMaine, Simply_Crispy, skbreese, susidee34, tjmackey, Weirdo_87 and xxxxer


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS