The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| Original title | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1939 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Thorpe |
| script |
Hugo Butler , Waldo Salt |
| production | Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| music | Franz Waxman |
| camera | John F. Seitz |
| cut | Frank E. Hull |
| occupation | |
| |
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American film adaptation by Richard Thorpe from 1939. It was based on the novel of the same name by Mark Twain . Mickey Rooney plays the title role of the film .
action
Mid-19th century on the Mississippi River : Huckleberry Finn lives in the house of the kind widow Douglas and her sister, the strict Miss Watson, because his mother has died and his father 'Pap' is a mad drunkard. Huck actually values the widow Douglas very much, but not her constant efforts to raise him to be a gentleman . Instead, he prefers to skip school and walk barefoot around the area. One day, Huck is kidnapped by his father, who locks him in a hut on the other side of the river and then leaves him. Huck manages to break free from the hut, making it appear as if he was murdered and thrown into the river so that his father would not follow him any further.
Huck happens to meet Jim, the escaped slave of widow Douglas, and both travel on together. Jim wants to travel to the northern states , where he would be free and where his wife is already staying. However, Jim is soon hunted by the authorities because he is believed to be Huck's murderer because of his escape and the simultaneous disappearance of Huck. Huck and Jim soon meet the "Duke" and "King", two con artists who join them. To make money, the group performs Romeo and Juliet in a small town with the King as Romeo and Huck as Juliet. Because of the unsuccessful performance, however, they will soon be chased out of town. In another city, the king and the duke pretend to be the long-lost brothers of a deceased man in order to steal his inheritance. Since Huck feels sorry for Mary Jane and Susan, the deceased man's daughters, Captain Brady reports the attempted fraud. The plans of the duke and the king can be thwarted.
However Meanwhile shapes itself because of the murder abgeblichen a lynch mob against Jim, and he hide together with Huck needs. When a snake bites Huck and he passes out, Jim carries him into town, but is arrested himself. When Huck awakes a few days later, he learns from Captain Brady that Jim has been sent to his hometown to be tried for the murder of him. Together with the captain, Huck takes the ship back to his hometown, where he can just prevent Jim from being lynched. Huck returns to the widow Douglas, whom Jim releases so that he can move to his wife in the Northern States.
background
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the film rights to Mark Twain's literary classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1933 from Paramount Pictures . The last film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn , directed by Norman Taurog, was filmed at Paramount in 1931 . Hugo Butler wrote the script for the film, which is generally considered to be not very faithful to the work and, for example, completely omits the character of Tom Sawyer . The criticism of racism and slavery in the southern states is rather lax compared to Twain's novel, since one did not want to annoy the theater owners and cinema viewers in the southern states of the 1930s. Nevertheless, the relationship between Jim and Huck is also central to the plot in the film.
The main role was taken on by Mickey Rooney, who had become a great movie star in the years before through the Andy Hardy film series and his role in The Devil's Guys . For many Americans and MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer , Rooney was the embodiment of youthful cheek. The director was Richard Thorpe , who had just been fired from his work as director of the later classic film The Wizard of Oz . Cedric Gibbons and Edwin B. Willis were responsible for the production design, the costumes came from Arlington Valles , Douglas Shearer was responsible for the sound and Charles Dorian and Tom Andre acted as assistant directors.
At the US box office, the film became a hit in 1939. The film never ran in German cinemas, and was first broadcast on television The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on February 18, 1991 on ARD .
Reviews
Most of the reviews were mixed, although Thorpe's film was mostly rated as good entertainment, but at the same time it was accused of a lack of accuracy. The lexicon of international films was positive: “Well-staged, to date probably the most successful film adaptation of the picaresque novel by Mark Twain, which lives primarily from the wit of the young Mickey Rooney.” The film historian Leonard Maltin rated the film with three out of four stars. He highlighted the acting performances of Mickey Rooney and Rex Ingram, and Connolly and Frawley are also amusing as cheaters.
Web links
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Paul Tatara: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
- ↑ Craig Butler: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In: Allmovie . Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
- ↑ a b The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 11, 2018 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved November 11, 2018 .