Dr. Syn
                                                                                                   
Director: Roy William Neill
Year: 1937
Rating: 6.0
If you are a Hammer fan, this might strike you as familiar. That is because Hammer's Captain Clegg aka Night Creatures was based on the same source and very much follows this film till the very end when it changes things up. The Hammer film was shot in color and is a little spookier but has the same basic plot and characters. Hammer changed the name though because Disney was putting out their version too. It starred Peter Cushing while this one is the final film of George Arliss, acting royalty at the time, Coincidentally, Arliss and Cushing have a similar facially thin face. The source is a series of seven Doctor Syn novels by Russell Thorndike - the first in 1915 and then six from 1935 on. Doctor Syn in both versions (called Parson Blyss in the Hammer film) is an ex-pirate, now smuggler of rum from France who has taken on the identity of a parson and done good for the village. A kindly man who abhors violence unless necessary. The Doctor Syn of the books though is a mass murderer and this is just one chapter in his life.




After "executing" Captain Clegg and taking on his role as the parson of the small village, he turned to smuggling in order to help the village get out of poverty and to keep the smugglers out of prison. They have a nice operation of hidden doors and connecting houses that has kept them one step ahead of the British government's Revenue men who are trying to crack down on smugglers. The penalty for smuggling is death - so you definitely want to avoid being caught. Only one other person in the village knows who Syn really is - and he was a pirate as well.  When a patrol of Revenue men show up headed by Captain Collyer (Roy Emerton) things get very dicey as he is no fool. Things begin to close in on Dr. Syn especially when a gigantic mute (Meinhart Maur) that Clegg thought he had executed shows up with the patrol. A well-done film that moves along nicely coming in at a sleek 78-minutes. Also starring John Loder and Margaret Lockwood as the two lovers. Directed by Roy William Neill who was to go on to helm many of the Universal Sherlock Holmes films.