The Scarf (film)

The Scarf is a 1951 American film noir written and directed by Ewald André Dupont starring John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, James Barton, and Emlyn Williams. The screenplay concerns a man who escapes from an insane asylum and tries to convince a crusty hermit, a drifting saloon singer, and himself that he is not a murderer.

Plot
John Ireland stars as John Barrington, an escapee from an institution for the criminally insane. Actually, Barrington is not insane, but the victim of a plot orchestrated by a clever murderer. The only person who believes Barrington's story is Ezra Thompson (James Barton) a turkey farmer who hides him from the authorities. Then a singing waitress named Cash-and-Carry Connie (Mercedes McCambridge) unwittingly provides the clue that will prove Barrington's innocence. Emlyn Williams co-stars as a psychiatrist.

Cast

 * John Ireland as John Howard Barrington
 * Mercedes McCambridge as Connie Carter
 * James Barton as Ezra Thompson
 * Emlyn Williams as Dr. David Dunbar
 * Lloyd Gough as Asylum Dr. Gordon
 * Basil Ruysdael as Cyrus Barrington
 * David Bauer as Level Louie (as David Wolfe)
 * Harry Shannon as Asylum Warden Anderson
 * Celia Lovsky as Mrs. Cyrus Barrington
 * David McMahon as State Trooper
 * Chubby Johnson as Feed Store Manager
 * Frank Jenks as Tom - Drunk cowboy
 * Emmett Lynn as Jack the Waiter
 * Dick Wessel as Sid - Drunk cowboy
 * Frank Jaquet as Town Sheriff
 * Iris Adrian as the floozy at Level Louie's Place

Critical response
Film critic Bosley Crowther panned the film, "For a picture so heavily loaded with lengthy and tedious talk, talk, talk, The Scarf, the new tenant at the Park Avenue, has depressingly little to say. As a matter of fact, it expresses, in several thousand words of dialogue—and in a running-time that amounts to just four minutes short of an hour and a half—perhaps the least measure of intelligence or dramatic continuity that you are likely to find in any picture, current or recent, that takes itself seriously."

Film critic Manny Farber writing in the May 26, 1951 issue of The Nation characterizes The Scarf as “a disjointed, monstrously affected psycho-mystery freak show.” Farber adds:

"Producer-directors Ewald André Dupont and Isadore Goldsmith glamorize a singing waitress, a turkey-raising hermit, a jaundiced metaphysical barkeep, and a morose amnesiac fugitive from a desert asylum...Dupont and Goldsmith turn their tinny proletarians into sententious talkers, dubbing them with names like “Level Louie” and “Cash-and-carry Connie' and having them oscillate their eyeballs in a sophisticated version of Griffith’s pantomime. It sounds awful but it’s kind of interesting."