THE SCARECROW (1972) – Gene Wilder, Blythe Danner, Nina Foch, Pete Duel and Will Geer starred in this Hollywood Television Theatre production that first aired January 10th, 1972. Long time readers of Balladeer’s Blog may recall my remarks on previous Halloweens about how underused I feel scarecrows still are in Halloween movies.
The Scarecrow, from the 1908 play by Percy MacKaye, was based on Feathertop aka Lord Feathertop, the 1852 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tale deals with a witch who brings a scarecrow to life to do her bidding. In the past I’ve reviewed silent film versions of Feathertop and pointed to it as an overlooked scarecrow tale.
Percy MacKaye stretched the story out and altered some of the themes, so The Scarecrow is an adaptation of Feathertop, not a faithful dramatization of it. Gene Wilder portrays the scarecrow.
Nina Foch plays the witch Goody Rickby (Mother Rigby in the short story). She despises Will Geer’s character, the supposedly “respectable” Justice Gilead Merton (Hawthorne’s Judge Gookin).
Twenty years earlier, Goody Rickby had a fling with Justice Merton and even bore his son, who died as an infant. (In Feathertop the affair and child outside of marriage are hinted at rather than stated outright.) Continue reading
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