The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)

Wonderful character development!

hyped garbage

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Produced by Joseph Mankiewicz and directed by Richard Thorpe, with a screenplay by Hugo Butler that was based on the classic novel by Mark Twain, this average adventure drama features Mickey Rooney in the title role.Huck lives with the widow Douglass (Elisabeth Risdon) and her sister Miss Watson (Clara Blandick); their Black slave Jim, who's a big part of the story, is played by Rex Ingram. Huck's fearsome and largely absent father 'Pap' is played by Victor Kilian. Walter Connolly and William Frawley play two con-men, dubbed the King and the Duke respectively; Lynne Carver and Jo Ann Sayers play these men's intended victims, Mary Jane and Susan Wilkes. Minor Watson plays Captain Brandy, who later helps these sisters and Huck as well. Harlan Briggs (uncredited) plays Mr. Rucker, a friend of the sisters' recently departed father.Huck would rather fish in the mighty Mississippi River than go to school, hence he's about to be passed over (e.g. not promoted) by his teacher. This will disappoint the widow Douglass, and especially her less tolerant (of his boyish ways) sister Miss Watson, greatly. But that's not Huck's only problem: his missing thought-to-be-dead (by some) father arrives to claim his son. Pap's actual intent is to extort money from the widow whom he knows would like to keep Huck. This prompts the boy to run away, but he's caught in the process by his laying-in-wait Pap, who then holds him captive in his ramshackle "cabin" by the river.When Pap leaves to get the money from the widow, Huck escapes and makes it look like he'd been shot and then drowned in the river. When Huck later runs into Jim, who'd been hoping to buy his freedom from the widow but had learned that he was being sold (e.g. so that she could pay Pap for Huck), he's surprised that the slave has run off. Huck goes into town to see "what's what" and learns that Jim is being wanted for the boy's own (phony) murder! While fleeing, Jim sees something that he chooses to keep secret from Huck, that the boy's father is dead.While escaping down the river in hopes of getting to Cairo and a free state (Illinois), Huck and Jim encounter a couple of men who've just been thrown off a river boat. The two are able to con neophytes Huck and Jim into believing they're royalty, when actually they'd been ejected for cheating while gambling. The 'King' and the 'Duke' are on their way to their next confidence game: pretending to be the relatives of a wealthy man who'd recently died in order to fleece his daughters out of their inheritance.In fact, once ashore, they're quickly able to fool the man's best friend Mr. Rucker, who then helps to legitimize the claimants to these daughters, Mary Jane and Susan Wilkes. Another family friend, river boat Captain Brandy doesn't believe the con men but, in part because they'd cleverly given the deceased's $2,000 in gold to his daughters, Mary Jane and Susan choose to trust in their legitimacy, giving the con men back the gold. Huck has witnessed the entire set- up, and his conscience doesn't like it, but he'd been afraid to speak up because he'd found out that the con men know about the $1,000 reward for Jim, who'd stayed a little up the river hidden with the raft.When the con men fall off to sleep, Huck takes the gold and ends up putting it in the open casket before escaping to Captain Brandy's home, where he tells what he knows about fraud being perpetrated. Before morning, however, the con men wake up to discover the missing gold. Meanwhile, Huck had gone to see Jim. The next thing you know, here comes the sheriff with his dogs to capture Jim who, along with Huck, is able to escape yet again until the boy gets bitten by a rattlesnake and the slave selflessly takes him into town to see a doctor. The con men are tarred and feathered.While recovering from his snakebite, Huck isn't told that Jim was sent back to be tried for murder until it's almost too late. However, Huck, with help from Captain Brandy, is able to return, piloting the river boat himself, in time to save Jim's life (from some vigilantes that want to lynch him). He then negotiates the slave's freedom with the widow, by promising not to play hooky from school, to wear shoes, not to smoke, etc..

Mickey Rooney has exited Boy's Town and Carvel and headed to the Mississippi for this faithful rendering of Mark Twain's classic story. Filmed many times before and since and also done as a Tony Award Winning Broadway musical, "Big River", this is the definitive version of the tale. Mickey is at his best here, and I think he was more worthy of an Oscar Nomination for this than he was the same year's "Babes in Arms". Everything from start to finish is perfect, from Victor Kilian as his evil father to Elisabeth Risdon and Clara Blandick as the two middle aged ladies who have taken him in. Special mention must go to Rex Ingram who may seem a little old to be Jim, but is outstanding. Walter Connelly and William Frawley add amusement as the con-men Huck and Jim encounter on the river after they are tossed off a riverboat. The photography is outstanding, the film moves at a fast pace, and everything is letter perfect. I really felt as if I was transported back to this time in a story that is not only entertaining but educational and enlightening about so many things as well. It's a true message film about what makes friendships so special, and Huck and Jim's is one of the best presented on film.

I do not compare this movie to the book, because it is not faithful to the book. That was never the purpose of the movie. The purpose of this movie was to provide a vehicle for Mickey Rooney who was the biggest box office star in the world from 1939 to 1942. And justifiably so. He has loads of talent. I say has because he is NOT DEAD. I read with horror a post here by someone who assumed that Mickey Rooney was dead and more about that later.For now the reasons why I think this movie is so good are simple. Beautiful presentation, cinematography, acting, direction and writing. The cast are without exception wonderful. Especially Mickey Rooney who just inhabits the role. The tears in his eyes when told by Rex Ingram that his "pap" is dead....pure gold. Speaking of Rex, his portrayal of Jim is sheer poetry. It isn't easy to bring such depth and layering and nuance to such a character and yet he just does wonders with the very unforgiving role.Walter Connolly and William Frawley are hilarious and insanely funny and yet curiously terrifying at the same time as the King and the Duke.The plot does differ a bit from the book but so did and do a lot of movies even today. Many people adore 1937's Captain's Courageous (including me) and are seemingly not bothered by the fact that it veers wildly from the Kipling novel. I am not sure why that is. It feels like some people are actively trying to denigrate Mickey Rooney and certainly he seems to be out of fashion, but someday I do believe people will revisit the man and his movies and realize just how good he was and is.Which brings me back to Mickey Rooney.. I think its sad when one of the immortal legends of movie history can be so throughly maligned and ignored. At a time when movies mattered, Mickey Rooney stood at the top of the hill. He had it all. Superbe acting talent, as well as an amazing entertainer. To compare his acting with Freddie Bartholomew is unfair to both. Freddie probably was the most talented child actor EVER but he had zero in the entertainment category. He could neither sing, nor dance, and did not have a magnetic personality. In those three areas Mickey stands head and shoulders above him. Mickey can sing, dance, and play dozens of instruments. Only Judy Garland stands above him and that is because she was a better actor and singer by far and Mickey, to his eternal credit, knew this and loved her for it.I find it heartbreakingly sad that this movie has garnered so few reviews; and more sad that this man who has given so much to the entertainment industry and to movies in particular, can be so ignored by our modern day, talentless, tasteless "entertainment" industry that one can actually be forgiven for assuming he is dead.I would love to see the over payed, over indulged denizens of the entertainment industry actually pay homage to Mickey Rooney at the Oscars before it is too late and before we truly do lose this living legend forever.Thank you Mickey Rooney for all that you have given us.

fr muffinheuer: >...Mickey Rooney simply stated is the best actor that has ever lived...< Um, no, he isn't. There are many others who far outshine him, but just because MGM kept partnering him in the "hey kids, let's put on a show!" movies, he just kept going. A far better kid actor was Freddie Bartholomew, who left movies when it was right to do so. Rooney just kept being in the same type of movie, and they got very dated very quickly.He was good in "Captains Courageous" as Dan, and as Homer in "The Human Comedy" and somewhat fair in "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world", but overall, just average. Now that he spouts the studio line on Judy Garland and the way the studio got her addicted to drugs, he's just a former kid star who didn't age well.