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Dr. / Doctor Syn Doctor Syn is a character portrayed in a series of books by Russell Thorndike. A DVD of the 1963 movie, Doctor Syn the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, starring Patrick McGoohan, has at long last been released by Disney in November 2008 See below to order a copy
Photo by Peter Tanner The Story When the infamous pirate Captain Clegg (also known as Christopher Syn), decided that piracy was getting a little too risky, he settled down to a rather more respectable life as the vicar of Dymchurch (a coastal village on Romney Marsh in the county of Kent, Southern England). It would seem that this tame existence was a little too much to take after the heady days of making adversaries 'walk the plank'. With his faithful church sexton and ex pirate colleague Mr. Mipps, he formed a band of smugglers made up of 'The men of the Marsh'. By day Dr. Syn was a respectable vicar, by night he was the 'Scarecrow', the much feared and admired head of the smugglers. In those days a lot of money was to be made from smuggling French brandy into England. Brandy entering England by official routes was heavily taxed. Throughout the stories Dr. Syn is no hero (nowadays you could equate him to a heroin smuggler), but we find ourselves routing for him. This is because like Robin Hood (a common thief), he uses his ill gotten gains to help the poor of his parish. Also like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars he is against the Empire, in this case personified by England's King George III. His adventures require him to, outride the King's excise men, avoid recognition as Captain Clegg, rescue members of his band who get caught, avoid being unmasked (as the Scarecrow), escape from prison and generally to be a swash buckling hero with two personas (like the Scarlet Pimpernel, Superman and Batman). Books The book 'Doctor Syn' was first published in 1915. Unfortunately Russell Thorndike killed off the good / bad Doctor, before the final chapter. Such was his popularity however, that rather like Sherlock Holmes, he had to be resurrected. Some twenty years after the original publication, he then became the subject of a further six books by Russell Thorndike. The full set was made up of:-
Having lost my copies long ago, the good news is that they often come up for sale on eBay and some can even be downloaded from the internet as eBooks. If looking for eBook versions a good place to start is Google Books. Both printed and eBook versions can also often be found on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk
These Arrow paperback versions of Doctor Syn were printed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Intriguingly this copy of Doctor Syn on the High Seas contains the dedication "In the memory of JOHN BUCHAN under whose auspices Doctor Syn was first published. I respectfully dedicate this volume, which completes the Doctor's history". One of my favourite Buchan books is John Macnab, which is an adventure where three aristocrats use the pseudonym John Macnab to issue challenges to land owners. Clearly I find stories about people with multiple personas, very appealing.
Festivals A bi-annual day of Syn is held in Dymchurch on August Bank holiday Monday. Films To the best of my knowledge he first appeared on film in the black and white 1937 production 'Dr. Syn' directed by Roy William Neill, starring George Arliss and featuring Margaret Lockwood. In 1997 this film was being distributed on VHS tape by 'Timeless Video Inc', P.O.Box 16354, North Hollywood, CA 91515-6354, USA. (ISBN 1-55784-771-2).
Dr. Syn - 1937 Hammer also released a film circa 1962 called 'Night Creatures' which was also titled 'Captain Clegg", which featured the same character, this time played by Peter Cushing. For copyright reasons, Syn was renamed to Blyss for this movie version of the story.
There is more info at http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056277/ In 1964 there was a colour Disney production 'Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow' starring Patrick McGoohan (Danger Man, The Prisoner) as Dr. Syn and George Cole (St. Trinians, Minder) as Mr. Mipps. This film has also been released on VHS and there has been a 2008 DVD release. I have noticed that some people claim that the movie version was created some 6 years after the 1963 television version. This is certainly incorrect since I saw it at a cinema in Lewis, Sussex, England at a time, which would have been early 1966 at the latest, but I believe it was before then. There is a poster at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055929/posters
Photo by Peter Tanner Many thanks to Giles Eyre-Tanner for the photographs, which were taken by his father Peter Tanner, while directing the second unit filming Dr. Syn the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Peter Tanner was involved in the making of over 80 movies and was film editor of the 1960s television series "The Avengers".
Photo by Peter Tanner
Spanish Dr. Syn (Patrick McGoohan signed) lobby card
Recently I have been reading the Doctor Syn books again. The novel "Doctor Syn Returns", which although a work of fiction, relates how a sailing ship (on which Doctor Syn is a passenger) called "The City of London" crashes into the sea wall at Dymchurch during a storm. The pub called "The Sea Wall Tavern" is badly damaged and is rebuilt using timber from the ship which inflicted it. The Tavern is subsequently renamed in remembrance of the ship from which it was rebuilt. I see from a search of the internet that there is still a pub called "The City of London" by Dymchurch Sea Wall. David Ovenden has created a Dr. Syn site at http://homepages.tesco.net/~davyo/drsyn.htm Charles R.L. Power has some interesting Dr. Syn material his email is karlpov@worldnet.att.net Jules Jones has created a page http://www.drsyn.com Paul Draper has a Dr. Syn Art page http://synart.8k.com/ Related Topics The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway in Southern England runs a locomotive named Dr. Syn. I used to have links to relevant pages, but they kept disappearing, so for more information it is probably best to search Google for something like Doctor Syn Locomotive. |
