Happy Halloween from Dr. Syn

Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow, adapted by “Vic Crume,” aka Victoria Crume (Pyramid, 1975). Cover illustration by Paul Wenzel.

In those long-gone days of my childhood, it seems that every Halloween was accompanied by a showing of the 1960s TV production The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. It is likely those broadcasts were not nearly so regular, and weren’t consistently tied to All Hallows Eve. My memory, nonetheless, associates Scarecrow with this holiday. And with the delightful frights it engendered in my brother and me.

Adapted from a 1915 adventure novel titled Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh, by English author Russell Thorndike, this small-screen spine-chiller was first aired in three parts on NBC-TV’s Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, beginning on Sunday, February 9, 1964. (Not even on Halloween!) It starred ex-Danger Man headliner Patrick McGoohan as the Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn, a pirate turned country vicar in 18th-century England. Although he’d hoped to enjoy a quiet life in the southeastern village of Dymchurch, beside Romney Marsh, Syn turns swashbuckler once more in order to help his parishioners escape persecution by government authorities who, in order to enforce onerous customs tariffs, are intent on curtailing the illegal smuggling of goods from France, just across the English Channel. Attired in the shambles of a field scarecrow, riding his great black steed Gehenna, and assisted by lieutenants including a former Royal Navy carpenter called Mr. Mipps (played by George Cole), Syn wages a tireless campaign to support Dymchurch’s contraband operations—all to the benefit of his flock.

So popular was Thorndike’s original Syn yarn, that he penned half a dozen more, finishing with Shadow of Dr. Syn in 1944.

“The hero of all the Thorndike stories,” explained American animation pioneer and film producer Walt Disney in his 1964 introduction of Scarecrow, “is one of the strangest characters who ever lived, a real-life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He lived in England nearly 200 years ago. By day he was a respected member of his community, and by night he was the greatest smuggler in the whole country. But, like Robin Hood, although he was a thorn in the side of law and order, he was a hero to the ordinary folk of his time. Because whatever he made as a smuggler, he gave away to the poor and the needy.”

Syn’s mission, challenges, and reputation were well elucidated in the song that accompanied the opening of each episode:



My brother and I were apparently not the only viewers mesmerized by the Scarecrow’s escapades. That Disney film spawned a series of comic books. And the protagonist’s continuing story led to three multi-part radio dramas in the early 2000s, all starring Rufus Sewell.

However, it’s Patrick McGoohan’s Scarecrow that still sticks most strongly in my mind. Which is why I shall be screening that vintage Disney picture tonight, between knocks at my front door from costumed children anxious to call out “trick or treat.” Is it too much to hope that one of those young’uns might come attired in the ragged raiments of Thorndike’s famous hero?

WATCH IT NOW: For the time being, all three parts of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh can be enjoyed on YouTube—here, here, and here.