Talk:Doctor Syn

Untitled
This information was found on the Dr. Syn page of Wikipedia (I will re-direct that page to this page). Some (not all) of this information needs to be incorporated into the article.

Character created by Russell Thorndike, in a series of swashbuckling historical novels, set on the Kentish coast in the late 1700s.

Dr. Syn is an intriguing anti-hero: a paragon of virtue in his public guise as the minister to the village of Dimchurch-Under-the-Wall, and the leader of a criminal society of smugglers in his guise as the Scarcrow.

He was featured in a series of novels:

Novels by Russell Thorndike Doctor Syn on the High Seas Doctor Syn Returns The Further Adventures of Doctor Syn The Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn The Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn The Shadow of Doctor Syn Doctor Syn The Slype  Novel by William Buchanan Christopher Syn  Novel by Vic Crume Dr Syn, Alias The Scarecrow

The same character has been features in movies and on television:

* Doctor Syn (1937)

* Dr Syn, Alias The Scarecrow (1962) Also known as "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh"

* Captain Clegg (1962) Also known as "Night Creatures"

This second movie was editied together from a series that appeared on American television, featuring Patrick McGoohan as the protagonist.

Merge?

 * Strong Agree. Clegg has no separate existence apart from the Syn novels and adaptations, except as the Peter Cushing character in the Hammer production, and that should be a footnote to the main Syn article. 12.22.250.4 22:05, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Disney film section
I am afraid I must take exception to much of the sub-section on the Disney adaptation, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Let me start out by explaining what the situation was for some time. Every book of capsule movie and/or video reviews that contained a listing for this dated it to 1962, yet included a statement to the precise effect of that in Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide: "...originally shown in three parts on the Disney TV show...." They say that the telecast happened first, but as the article points out, it happened in early 1964, which is the year in the film's on-screen copyright notice. No doubt whoever got into print first confused Disney's version with Hammer's, put the earlier date down, and all the others copied him/her/them. So much for the urban legend of a 1962 release. As for the claim of Dr. Syn... being seen on a double bill with The Sword in the Stone "during the Christmas 1963 season," Sword was a then brand new, major cinema film for Disney, and they didn't double bill those with any other features—a short subject of perhaps 45 minutes in length, yes, but not another full-length feature. Between that and the aforementioned 1964 copyright notice this did not happen, the alleged ad in Photoplay (presumably the British version that the Wikipedia article informed me of but which was news to me; you learn something new every day!) notwithstanding. Note that none of that section is sourced, unless you count the mention of the Photoplay issue, which falls short of qualifying. Can anybody find a history of the Disney company or something to straighten this out with good cites? --Tbrittreid (talk) 21:54, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Also, in the Disney TV show version, the three segments are introduced by Walt himself. In the first of these introductions, he states that Dr. Syn was a real person, and that the books are based on that person. I can find no mention of this elsewhere, so was Walt engaging in a little hyperbole? Or perhaps just a little lie to highten the enjoyment of his viewers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.164.47.2 (talk) 07:34, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I've always wondered why Disney mistakenly thought Dr. Syn was a real person, going so far as to say they still talk about him today in taverns he frequented. My guess is he was simply misinformed. 96.237.184.133 (talk) 02:14, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

The Scarecrow Rides
"An expanded version of Doctor Syn Returns titled The Scarecrow Rides was published by The Dial Press in 1935."
 * But the table above says Doctor Syn Returns was published in 1936. So can an "expanded version" be published before the original? Rojomoke (talk) 15:47, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

The book is definitely an expanded version of Doctor Syn Returns. There's some mystery about it, I'd say, as the dustjacket (here: http://www.facsimiledustjackets.com/cgi-bin/fdj455/3184 ) misspells Thorndike's name (as Thorndyke). This same error is found on the first edition (1914) of the original Doctor Syn - I have a copy. That website lists The Scarecrow Returns as 1935. So the US "expanded version" (but why bother telling a US audience how much Dymchurch has changed in 200 years?) does seem to be dated 1935: however Abebooks currently has a first edition of Doctor Syn Returns showing a publication date that is also 1935. I'll change the unexpanded version to the same date.Thomas Peardew (talk) 11:44, 18 March 2014 (UTC)