The Scarecrow video

 The Scarecrow still


Scarecrow, The - 1982




Oasis Films - 88 min.
UPC #8432593001591

Cast: John Carradine, Tracy Mann, Daniel McLaren, Johnathan Smith, Bruce Allpress, Phillip Holder, Stephen Taylor, Des Kelly.
Crew: Screenplay: Michael Heath and Sam Pillsbury (based upon the Ronald Hugh Morrieson novel); Photography: James Bartle; Editor: Ian John; Original Music: Andrew Hagen, Morton Wilson; Producer: Rob Whitehouse; Director: Sam Pillsbury.
Adolescents growing up in a small North Island town ( Thames), in the 1950s, find strange things starting to occur around them: the murder of an usherette is followed by the arrival of a well-spoken, but gawky stranger (Carradine) who presents himself as a magician. As Sam Pillsbury, the director put it, "an hallucinatory mixture of Gothic melodrama, adventure story, psychological thriller, small town farce and pantomime." It was the first NZ feature selected for the Director's Fortnight at Cannes.

Censor Rating: PG - Review Rating: B-


AVAILABILITY OF VHS OR DVD COPIES

No known sources for new NTSC copies. Used NTSC can cost up to $10us. New PAL VHS copies will cost about $40nz or 50#. Expect used PAL copies to sell for at least 50% of new.
25 November 2007 - An R0 PAL DVD is available from Spanish sources, along with seven other New Zealand films that are available from no other country, including New Zealand. This dvd is presented with Spanish 5.1 and the original English 2.0. It also has Spanish subtitles and includes some Spanish text bios and still photos. It is usually selling for under 10eur.



SOUNDTRACK ON AUDIO CD

There are no known soundtrack CDs of this title, but

Link to soundtrack sample download


REVIEWS & MISC.

Time Out Review

Moria Review

New Zealand Film Archive Info and Reviews

The Scarecrow Committee - The attempt to save Morrieson's Hawera House

William Dart review in Art New Zealand

Peter Harcourt's Sequence Review

"In the part of Ned's sister, Prudence, Australian actress Tracey Mann takes advantage of what is the scripts most three dimensional character. She is a nubile adolescent whose tomboyish but womanly charms must, for the credibility of what ensues, have an unsettling effect on a fair cross- section of the town's male population, including randy youths, the aging lechers and especially the perverted Salter. Mann makes it all believable" - (Variety, April 28, 1982)


TRAILER & AWARDS

Official Trailer

Information at IMDB

1982 - Mystfest (Italy) - Best Artistic Contribution to the ensemble cast of: Bruce Allpress. John Carradine, Anne Flannery, Johathan Hardy, Desmond Kelly, Tracy Mann, Daniel McLaren, Denise O'Connell, Jonathan Smith, Stephen Taylor.


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