The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938 film)

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Taurog
Written byJohn V.A. Weaver
Based onThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1876 novel
by Mark Twain
Produced byDavid O. Selznick
StarringTommy Kelly
Jackie Moran
May Robson
Ann Gillis
Walter Brennan
Victor Jory
CinematographyJames Wong Howe
Music byMax Steiner (uncredited)
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • February 17, 1938 (1938-02-17)
(New York City)[1]
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million[2]
Box office$2 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)[3]

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a 1938 American

drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Norman Taurog who had previously directed Huckleberry Finn (1931) with Jackie Coogan and Junior Durkin. The film starred Tommy Kelly in the title role, with Jackie Moran and Ann Gillis. The screenplay by John V. A. Weaver was based on the classic 1876 novel of the same name by Mark Twain
. The movie was the first film version of the novel to be made in color.

Plot

The

Injun Joe
, who is revealed to be the real killer.

Cast

Production notes

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was the fourth film adaptation of the Twain novel, following versions released in 1907, 1917, and 1930, and this is the first filmed in Technicolor.

H. C. Potter originally was signed to direct but was fired and replaced by Taurog after George Cukor declined the assignment.[4] Cukor directed some scenes, but received no on-screen credit for his contributions.

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."[5] 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.[6]

After reading the comment cards completed by an audience at a sneak preview of the film, 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 was cutting 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."[7]

On the strength of the designs for the cave sequence executed by William Cameron Menzies, Selznick hired him for Gone with the Wind.[8]

Some exterior scenes were filmed at

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, and 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 1951 musical Show Boat
.

Reception

The movie premiered at the

Film Daily called it "a triumph for all concerned."[11] John Mosher of The New Yorker praised Kelly and Gillis as "altogether very much the Twain children" and called Weaver's screenplay "excellent".[12]

Time Out London called the film "extraordinarily handsome to look at, with exquisite Technicolor camerawork by Wong Howe and some imaginative designs . . . [it] has its longueurs, but it does capture the sense of a lazy Mississippi summer and much of the spirit of the book, with Jory making a superbly villainous Injun Joe."[13]

TV Guide described it as "a lively production featuring a quick pace, a chilling climax, and a surprising amount of wit."[14]

Award nominations

It received a nomination for an Oscar for Best Art Direction, and the Venice Film Festival Mussolini Cup for Best Film.

Financial performance

The film lost $302,000 at the box office.[15]

Sequel

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.

References

  1. Film Daily
    . New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc. February 14, 1938. p. 2.
  2. ISBN 9781903364666
    .
  3. ISSN 0042-2738
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0573606014
    .
  5. ^ Memo from David O. Selznick, pp. 124-125
  6. ^ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at Turner Classic Movies
  7. ^ Memo from David O. Selznick, pg. 125
  8. ^ Memo from David O. Selznick, pg. 156
  9. ^ The New York Times Film Reviews. Vol. 2: 1932-1938. New York: The New York Times & Arno Press. 1970. pp. 1472–1473.
  10. ^ "Film Reviews". Variety. New York. February 16, 1938. p. 15.
  11. Film Daily
    . New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 8 February 15, 1938.
  12. ^ Mosher, John (February 26, 1938). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. pp. 64–65.
  13. ^ Time Out London review
  14. ^ TV Guide review
  15. ^ David Thomson, Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick, Abacus, 1993 p 268

External links

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