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.

The only person who believes Barrington's story is Ezra Thompson (James Barton) a turkey farmer who hides him from the authorities.

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.