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Huckleberry Finn (1931 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Huckleberry Finn' (1931) is an American pre-Code comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Jackie Coogan as Tom Sawyer and Junior Durkin as Huckleberry Finn. The picture was based upon the 1884 novel 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain.
Cast
* Jackie Coogan as Tom Sawyer
* Junior Durkin as Huckleberry Finn
* Mitzi Green as Becky Thatcher
* Jackie Searl as Sid Sawyer
* Clarence Muse as Jim
* Eugene Pallette as Duke of Bridgewater
* Oscar Apfel as The King
* Clara Blandick as Aunt Polly
* Jane Darwell as Widow Douglas
* Warner Richmond as Pap Finn
* Charlotte Henry as Mary Jane
* Lillian Harmer as Miss Watson
* Guy Oliver as Judge Thatcher
* Edward LeSaint as Doc Robinson (uncredited)
* Frank McGlynn Sr. as Teacher (uncredited)
Production
This is an adaptation of the classic novel 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain and is a follow-up to 'Tom Sawyer' (1930). Omitting the entire issue of whether or not Huck ought to turn the slave Jim back in after Jim escapes his owners, it concentrated mostly on the comedy in the novel, and turned Jim into the typical comic "darkie" stereotype of that era.
The film was made as a follow-up to Paramount's 'Tom Sawyer', which had been released a year earlier with substantially the same cast and became the top-grossing film of 1930.
However, as happened with 'Tom Sawyer', the 1931 'Huckleberry Finn' was superseded only eight years later by MGM's far more faithful 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn', starring Mickey Rooney as Huck, Rex Ingram as Jim, Walter Connolly as the King, and William Frawley as the Duke.
Reception
According to Leonard Maltin, the film is "charming, but very, very dated".
See also
*'The House That Shadows Built' (1931 Paramount promotional film)
References
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