Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Strong and Moving!

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

During the 1920s and 30s, George Arliss made some magnificent movies (such as "The Millionaire" and "The Working Man")...and earned an Oscar for playing the lead in "Disraeli". Because his career was so distinguished, it's sad that it ended with a rather dull film...one that SHOULD have been so much better. But sadly, "Dr. Syn" just isn't all that interesting.The film begins briefly in 1780 and you see a pirate crew member called 'the Mulatto' left for dead by pirates. Twenty years pass and Captain Clegg the pirate has faked his own death and is now the parson, Dr. Syn. So, he's a preacher by day and the leader of a band of smugglers by night. However, the Mulatto is back...and so are men intent on capturing Clegg and putting Dr. Syn out of business.While all this sounds VERY exciting, the direction is sluggish and uninspiring. And, it lacks the energy and scope to make it a memorable film worth your time.

As has already been pointed out Arliss was pushing 70 when he made this film and he is about 20 years too old to realistically play this role.It was also the penultimate year of Gaumont British as a viable production company.In 1936 they made 12 films,in 1937 when this film was made,8 and the following and last year 2.The company would close down Lime Grove studios and become involved in the financial disaster that happened in 1938.There was even a Board of Trade inquiry which was inconclusive.As a result Rank purchased the assets and that was the end of Gaumont British.This film creaks along.In fact the makers seemed to forget one little fact.Clegg had not been ordained as a preacher,merely swapped identities with the original preacher.So at the end he conducts the marriage of Loder and Lockwood,but of course they aren't in the circumstances legally married.Rather a better film is "Ask a Policeman" the Will Hay comedy based on smuggling.

Most people are acquainted with the story of Captain Clegg and Dr. Syn from the Walt Disney series with Patrick McGoohan entitled, THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH. Basically it is about an area of the coast of 18th Century England which is a haven for successful smuggling. The British government is seeking to stop this, and they keep failing to catch the leader and his followers. The reason is that the leader (McGoohan in the Walt Disney series, and George Arliss here) is not such a bad guy, and the laws being enforced are ruinous and unjust to the local populace.This version was Arliss' final film, and it is amazing to me that this movie and DISRAELI are the only two Arliss performances that are on video (I'm not sure if they are on DVD). Like DISRAELI it is a period piece, but his Dr. Syn is not a real historical figure. Still he keeps to most of Arliss's normal role characteristics. Syn is actually the ex-pirate Captain Clegg, who was supposed to have been hanged for piracy a decade earlier at Dymchurch. Clegg and his crew settled in the area, continuing careers as smugglers. But the smuggling laws are broken here because of the unfair effect on the population (they raise revenues for a tyrannical government, and don't take local expenses into consideration). The government sends a leading pirate hunter (Roy Emerton) to the area with a mulatto (Meinhart Maur) who knows what Clegg looks like. Maur was mutilated and abandoned on an island by Clegg years before. What we don't learn until later is that the mulatto had attacked Clegg's wife and daughter (the attack must have shortened Mrs. Clegg's life), so that Clegg was justified in what he did.The film shows how Emerton slowly figures out that Clegg is Syn, and how Syn and his crew do manage to escape again at the conclusion. But the film is a fun one for all that, and a fitting conclusion to Arliss's curious and worthy film career. Brief as it was he did raise the level of acting by his subtleties - and erased some of the bombast that plagued Victorian and Edwardian theater.

This version of the old legend of "Dr. Syn" is good entertainment, with some effective old-fashioned atmosphere and a story that includes plenty of action. Most of the acting is pretty good, with George Arliss giving a good performance in the lead, a young-looking Margaret Lockwood providing the charm, and Roy Emerton in an energetic if somewhat exaggerated role. Not all of the characters come across as well as theirs do, but more than enough of it is good to make the movie worth watching.The story starts with a government ship coming to a seacoast town where there have been rumors of smuggling, and where secrets abound. It soon leads to an entertaining cat-and-mouse game that takes some interesting, if sometimes implausible, turns. It's a little uneven at times, but it holds your attention, and the way it all comes out still works. Overall, it's a good adventure story that deserves a look.