Doctor Syn 1937

On Romney Marsh, the quiet village of Dymchurch becomes the stage for a tense confrontation between law and smuggling. Led by Captain Collyer, Roy Emerton and his detachment of Royal Navy tax revenue collectors land among the salt-tangled lanes and wind-swept cottages, intent on tracing the culprits who profit from illicit liquor. The locals appear honest, devout, and unassuming, their everyday lives shaped by a kindly, philanthropic vicar they trust—the man known as Doctor Syn, George Arliss. He moves among parishioners with a practiced gentleness, providing relief and protection while quietly shouldering the heavy tax burden imposed by the Crown.

But Dr Syn is not what he seems. In truth he is The Scarecrow, the charismatic leader of a band of parish smugglers who use his public cloak to run a profitable ring. His profits are cunningly invested to ease the villagers’ financial strain and keep them loyal to his cause, masking a deeper criminal operation under the veneer of pious benevolence.

As Collyer closes in, suspicion grows. A cat-and-mouse chase unfolds across the marshes, with the smugglers slipping through dikes, tidal channels, and salt-worn creeks while the Navy struggles to keep up. The Scarecrow and his smugglers narrowly outwit their Royal Navy pursuers on the surrounding marshlands, turning the landscape itself into a treacherous maze.

Captain Collyer finally discovers that Syn is none other than the infamous pirate Captain Clegg, thought to have been hanged many years earlier and buried in the graveyard at Dymchurch. The revelation sparks a dramatic shift as the truth of the double life comes to light. Still one step ahead of Collyer and his men, Syn destroys all incriminating evidence, after which he and his smugglers disappear, making their escape from England by merchant ship, leaving the village to grapple with the consequences of their intertwined fates.