The Unmutual
Reviews:
Dr Syn DVD
Review by Tom Mayer.
In
1963, Patrick McGoohan starred in an elaborate, full-color adventure for Disney
filmed on location in the south of England. The result aired in the USA in
February 1964 on Disney's Wonderful World of Color for three episodes as The
Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. (This initial screening had the misfortune of losing
most of the younger viewing audience on those nights to the Beatles' first
three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show!) Later, a theatrical version combining
the three episodes was released in the UK as Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow.
The story is a grand adventure, set in 1775, that taps into the spirit of
Zorro and Robin Hood, along with the imagery of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
McGoohan portrays Dr. Christopher Syn, the kind-hearted vicar of Dymchurch
by day, who disguises himself as the fiendish Scarecrow by night. The rousing
theme song, a great heroic ballad, describes him "with his clothes all
torn and tattered" as he rides on horseback "from the marsh to the
coast like a demon ghost." In reality, the Scarecrow is not as fearsome
as his legend makes him out to be. Like Robin Hood, he steals from the King
to help the heavily-taxed citizens of the parish. Throughout their adventures,
the Scarecrow and his team, Hellspite (George Cole) and Curlew (Sean Scully),
manage to keep one step ahead of the perpetually frustrated General Pugh (Geoffrey
Keen) who is intent on capturing the rogues. One of the series' highlights
comes in the third episode. It contains a wonderfully suspenseful sequence
in which the Scarecrow (unmasked) and his crew attempt to free prisoners from
the local general's garrison.
Despite being a well-made production fondly remembered by fans, Dr. Syn/The
Scarecrow has had a checkered history on TV and home video. For over four
decades, it has never been easily available to viewers. Disney released the
theatrical version on VHS in 1986. By the early-2000s, out-of-print copies
of this tape were selling for $100-200 on eBay. Meanwhile, the three episodes
of the American version were periodically rerun throughout the seventies and
eighties, eventually showing up on the Disney Channel itself by the nineties.
The picture quality of these broadcast copies was somewhat dark and grainy.
One would think that with all the financial resources Disney has, they would
have shown better quality prints. Regardless, the inferior picture quality
did not stop bootleggers from manufacturing homemade DVD's and selling them
online by the mid-2000s.
In 2004, Disney announced that Dr. Syn/The Scarecrow would be released on
DVD that year. Fans rejoiced. The title immediately shot to the top of Amazon's
pre-order list, proving that interest was still very high for McGoohan's series.
However, the release was not to be. Disney quickly cancelled the DVD before
it went into production, leaving fans wondering what happened. Upon seeing
the surge of anticipation for the release, Disney must have realized that
more effort should go into the presentation of the set. Apparently, they wanted
to do it right the first time.
It would take them four years. Finally, on November 11, 2008, the Region 1
DVD came out. The series is now called Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
(neatly combining the British and American titles), and no expense was spared
to make this one of the best DVD releases of the year. The set is comprised
of two discs in a plastic double case that comes in a nice silver tin. Extras
include a sepia-tinted lobby card of McGoohan as Dr. Syn, a numbered certificate-of-authenticity,
and two booklets: one discussing Dr. Syn/The Scarecrow, and the other listing
various Disney DVD/Blu-Ray titles.
Disc One contains the three TV episodes exactly as they aired in 1964, but
with one welcome change -- the show has been digitally remastered in widescreen.
It looks stunning. This letterbox presentation is a nice bonus, since the
series only aired in full-screen during the original broadcast and subsequent
reruns. We're actually seeing more screen image now than what viewers saw
in 1964. Also included, are the original episode previews, the Wonderful World
of Color title sequence, and introductions and closing comments by Walt Disney.
Each of these segments is marked with a chapter-stop, allowing the viewer
to skip past them if they wish. (Of note: the episode previews and Walt's
intros are "windowboxed" in 4:3 within the widescreen ratio). The
total running time for the three uncut episodes is two hours, thirty minutes.
Extras on Disc One include an introduction by film critic Leonard Maltin;
a 16-minute documentary, "Dr. Syn: History of The Legend" (which
contains new interview segments with Patrick McGoohan); an option between
the original monaural audio track or a new 5.1 remastered version (which sounds
fantastic); and, finally, widescreen versions of Walt's episode introductions.
This last addition is a strange one. Why bother including these segments as
an extra, when they could have easily replaced the windowboxed versions at
the beginning and endings of the episodes themselves?
Disc Two contains the
UK theatrical cut that runs 97 minutes. This version is comprised of the first
few scenes of Episode One, most of Episode Two, and just about all of Episode
Three. Interestingly, there are a few shots in the UK title sequence that
do not appear in the US opening. And strangely, during the theme song, the
Scarecrow's laughter is missing from this version! In addition, the ending
of the film cuts immediately to standard closing credits with instrumental
music. Thus, viewers who are familiar with the US episodes, will find it jarring
not to experience the reprise of the familiar Scarecrow title theme/montage
at the end. While the theatrical cut is nice to have to compare with the episodes,
the three-part televised version is definitely the better of the two. It contains
the most footage, along with richer storylines and subplots. The lone extra
on the second disc is an 11-minute documentary, "From Burbank to London"
that recounts how Walt Disney built a "satellite" studio in England
in the 1960s.
Now, to address the one aspect that mars an otherwise perfect DVD: Disney
(perhaps wanting to make an instant collectible) only manufactured 39,500
copies of the tin. Since the buyer demand was so high, the initial run sold
out within two weeks. As of this writing (February 2009), copies are now going
for $60-100 on eBay. Sadly, the "never-easily-available" label still
hangs over Dr. Syn/The Scarecrow. If Disney has any sense, they will eventually
reissue the set, perhaps without the tin, to make it available to the many
fans that missed out on the initial release.
Finally, Patrick McGoohan's interview in the documentary is now especially
poignant, as it is his last appearance on camera. It is somewhat ironic that,
for a man who avoided interviews, the one appearance he would make in his
later years would be for a series that had been exceedingly rare itself. Regardless,
it's heartening to be able to see him one last time...
So, despite a criminally low production run, Disney did justice to this fondly
remembered series. The DVD set is highly recommended, and well worth searching
out.