The Scarf is a 1951 American film noir written and directed by Ewald André Dupont and starring John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, James Barton and Emlyn Williams. 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.
John Barrington, an escapee from an institution for the criminally insane, 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, a turkey farmer who hides him from the authorities. A singing waitress named Cash-and-Carry Connie unwittingly provides the clue that will prove Barrington's innocence.
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "For a picture so heavily loaded with lengthy and tedious talk, talk, talk, 'The Scarf' ... has depressingly little to say. As a matter of fact, it expresses, in several thousand words of dialogueâÂÂand in a running-time that amounts to just four minutes short of an hour and a halfâÂÂperhaps the least measure of intelligence or dramatic continuity that you are likely to find in any picture, current or recent, that takes itself seriously."
Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Although 'The Scarf' ... begins in the Mojave Desert and moves to Los Angeles, it seems to be taking place in a never-never land all its own. Its characters are a strange lot, given to a kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo in their speechâÂÂthough once in a while a thought comes through with striking pertinenceâÂÂand they are involved in an adventure which, like the hero, is more than a little off-base."