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The Scarf
The Scarf
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ewald André Dupont
Screenplay by	Ewald André Dupont
Story by	Isadore Goldsmith; E.A. Rolfe
Produced by	Isadore Goldsmith
Starring	John Ireland; Mercedes McCambridge; James Barton; Emlyn Williams
Cinematography	Franz Planer
Edited by	Joseph Gluck
Music by	Herschel Burke Gilbert
Production; company	Gloria Productions Inc.
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	April 6, 1951 (United States);
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

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.^[1] 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

Reception

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."^[2]

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.” ^[3] 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.^[4]

References

^ The Scarf at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, April 23, 1951. Accessed: August 10, 2013.
^ Farber, 2009 p. 354
^ Farber, 2009 p. 354-355