WIth the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh Disney brings a European touch its weirdest production...

Walt Disney has always been a uniquely American company, almost to a fault. Recently, however, one of the companies most interesting properties, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh was re-released on DVD. The production was part of the Wonderful World of Disney television series in 1964 and was also released at about the same time as a feature film in Europe.


The character of Dr Syn/Scarecrow was created by Russell Thorndyke and has a fascinating back story as the character was in his past an 18th century pirate named Captain Clegg and ends up a vicar in southern England who by night is a smuggler named The Scarecrow. There is an element of superhero split personality in this character as the vicar is a man of peace and The Scarecrow is an individual not only of action, but of terror.

The Scarecrow is a US production, but it has a real European flavor. It was filmed in and around the actual areas that Thorndyke set his tale and many of the performers were well-respected character actors familiar to UK audiences from their work on stage and screen.

Heading the cast was the very fine Patrick McGoohan who was recognizable from his work in the series Secret Agent Man (called Danger Man in Europe) was about to be launched into cult stardom for his landmark series The Prisoner. His performance here is very effective and the sense of a split personality is much more obvious than say the Bruce Wayne/Batman dynamic in the contemporary Batman films. When The Scarecrow doffs his very effective and frightening mask and in his place is an elegant man of the cloth the effect is jarring.

The odd and interesting thing about the film's history is that Disney's ownership of the property caused Hammer productions to alter the script for their own take on Thorndyke's story which was released as Night Creatures (also as Captain Clegg). The Dr. Syn character was played by Peter Cushing and was known as Dr. Bliss.


The DVD has both the US Television version and the European theatrical version as well as a nice documentary on the character's history with some nice, recent interview footage from McGoohan who looks well in his 70's.

There is no real explanation as to why Disney might be interested in this kind of story. The director, James Neilson, was a journeyman television director known for working in Westerns. This influence is seen in The Scarecrow galloping through the English countryside in the moonlight.



This DVD release has been anticipated for years by fans of the production and it is something of a surprise that the property has not been tapped for a remake. Perhaps this release will be the first step in this process.