The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)

Sentiment rules in this version of Twain’s beloved classic tale of boyhood in 1850 Missouri. Tom Sawyer (Tommy Kelly) and his pal Huckleberry Finn (Jackie Moran) have great adventures on the Mississippi River, including most sequences familiar to readers of the book. The fence-whitewashing episode. A wild raft ride down the Mississippi River. Tom and Huckleberry Finn’s attendance at their own funeral, after the boys, who were enjoying an adventure remote Jackson’s Island, are presumed dead. The murder trial and salvation of local drunkard Muff Potter (Walter Brennan). Tom and Becky Thatcher’s (Ann Gillis) adventure through a cave as they try to escape Injun Joe (Victor Jory), who is revealed to be the real killer. A 1938 American drama film directed by Norman Taurog. The screenplay by John V. A. Weaver was based on the classic 1876 novel of the same name by Mark Twain. Produced by David O. Selznick and starring Tommy Kelly (in his Feature film debut), Jackie Moran and Ann Gillis. The cast includes one Oscar winner (Walter Brennan) and two Oscar nominees (May Robson and Spring Byington). Margaret Hamilton played the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz“ (1939). Marcia Mae Jones was originally signed to play Becky Thatcher. Because of a growth spurt, she was recast as Mary Sawyer. Final film of Seessel Anne Johnson, Phyllis Holt, and Sharon Keller. Tommy Kelly, a Bronx fireman’s son, was selected for the title role through a national campaign waged by producer David O. Selznick, who later would conduct a similar search for an actress to portray Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. According to a 1937 memo he sent to story editor Katharine Brown, he originally hoped to cast an orphan as Tom, feeling such a stunt would receive “tremendous attention and arouse such a warm public feeling that it would add enormously to the gross of the picture.“ Kelly failed to achieve the star status of fellow child actor Freddie Bartholomew, and after an inconsequential career he retired and later became a school teacher. H. C. Potter originally was signed to direct but quit over “Selznickian interference,“ and was replaced by Taurog after George Cukor declined the assignment. Cukor and William A. Wellman directed some scenes, but received no on-screen credit for their contributions. Taurog previously directed “Huckleberry Finn“ (1931) with Jackie Coogan and Junior Durkin. After reading the audience comment cards at a sneak preview, Selznick sent director Taurog a memo expressing concern about the climactic scene in the cave, which many viewers had described as “too horrible for children.“ He advised Taurog “this worried me, because we certainly want the picture to be for a family audience,“ and as a result he cut a close-up of Becky, in which her hysteria was “perhaps a shade too much that of a very ill woman, rather than that of a little girl,“ “with regrets. On the strength of the designs for the cave sequence executed by William Cameron Menzies, Selznick hired him for “Gone with the Wind“ (1939). Some exterior scenes were filmed at Big Bear Lake, Lake Malibu, Paramount Ranch in Agoura, California, and RKO’s Encino movie ranch. Other scenes were filmed on recycled sets left over from “A Star is Born“ (1937), such as the Blodgett family home interior (kitchen, living room, & bedroom), and a silhouette of a wolf howling at the moon. Mississippi River long shots from Tom Sawyer would later be reused in MGM’s musical “Show Boat“ (1951). The movie was released by United Artists, was the fourth film adaptation of the Twain novel, following versions released in 1907, 1917, and 1930, and the first filmed in Technicolor. It received a nomination for an Oscar for Best Art Direction, and the Venice Film Festival Mussolini Cup for Best Film. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a version of Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with a different cast the following year, replacing Jackie Moran with Mickey Rooney. Many disputes arose between photographer James Wong Howe and his associate, Technicolor photographer Wilfrid M. Cline about which colors to use in wardrobe and sets. Cline wanted bright primary colors, while Howe insisted on subdued earth tones. Since Howe got his way, after one week they were not on speaking terms and The Technicolor Company banned Howe from shooting further pictures in color; Howe did not make another color film for 10 years. B. R. Crisler of The New York Times called it “one of the better pictures of the year“ on the strength of the source material alone, but also criticized it for the “cheap and obvious“ slapstick involving such things as tomatoes and cake icing. Crisler told Selznick to “get busy on ’Gone with the Wind’, will you, before WE begin throwing tomatoes.“ Variety wrote that Selznick “pulled no financial punches“ in mounting the production and that while the film was generally faithful to the book, an “excellent job“ had been done on the new dialogue written for the screen.