I’m Your Huck Finn

What’s in a name…

Huckleberry Finn is by far Mark Twain’s most infamous and incorrigible character, and from the time Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884 no one has ever been indifferent to young Finn. There was, however, one time when he came very close, and that was the 1939 film adaptation starring Mickey Rooney, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. But we’ll get to that.

The film opens in a schoolroom, where the teacher laments Huck Finn’s absence and tells the other kids not to associate with him because heaven forbid those bad habits rub off. She’s more pitying than scornful, but either way, Huck’s a slacker and in danger of not getting promoted.

Huck (Mickey Rooney) himself doesn’t seem terribly concerned, though, because we first see him in repose by the river, fishing pole and corncob pipe in hand and hat over face. Well, at least he’s not concerned until some of the boys from school find him and tell him he’s not getting promoted because he’s never been in school. Huck’s got the sense to feel a little guilty, though, because the Widow Douglas (Elisabeth Ridson) and her sister, Miss Watson (Clara Blandick) have taken such trouble with him. He feels even guiltier when Mrs. Douglas presents him with a new knife as a promotion present.

Naturally, Huck’s in big trouble for skipping school. As penance he has to listen to Miss Watson read the Bible for an hour, and he would have had to do it, too, except that the corncob pipe he’s hidden in his pocket starts to smoke.

Huck might want to reform, or at least try to, but his dad has other ideas. This reckless sponge of a homo sapien has climbed into the window of Huck’s window because he’s heard his son can read and he’ll have none of it. He figures he’ll shake Miss Watson and Widow Douglas down for as much money as he can get.

Huck is kidnapped by his dad, essentially doing slave labor for him until one day when his dad goes out on a spree, Huck escapes, making it look as if he was shot. He happens upon Widow Douglas’s slave, Jim (Rex Ingram), who’s run away from the Widow because she was going to sell him to raise money to give to Huck’s dad. The two of them raft up the river so Jim can escape to Illinois, where his wife and son are living, and time is of the essence when they find out Jim is wanted for Huck’s murder.

They’re not alone on the raft for long, however, as they pick up two conmen who were thrown off a riverboat. Rather than thinking there has to be some reason these guys were thrown off in the first place, Huck and Jim become enamored with the lines they dish out. One claims to be the Duke of Bilgewater (William Frawley) and the other to be Louis XVII, Dauphin of France (Walter Connelly), and they even show Huck what they claim is a gold ingot. It’s clearly a painted block of wood, and Huck is clearly unaware of how heavy pure gold is, so he and Jim buy the Duke and Dauphin’s flimflam.

Our heroes get caught in the Dauphin and Duke’s trap. Even though they’re supposedly rolling in wealth, the Duke and the Dauphin plan to raise money by putting on Romeo and Juliet with Huck playing Juliet, but the gig is up when the sets fall over during the balcony scene and the crowd realizes Huck is a boy.

Huck and the group have to hightail it out of town, but not before the Duke and Dauphin realize Jim is a wanted man. They’ve got yet another scheme up their sleeves involving supposedly long-lost relatives and inheritance money, and Huck basically gets blackmailed into helping them or they’ll turn Jim in. Jim, meanwhile, is carrying a secret and not sure how Huck will take it, but the conmen aren’t the only ones with surprises up their sleeves.

MGM bought the rights to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn specifically for Mickey Rooney. While it’s not the meatiest adaptation of Twain’s novel by a long shot, and even writes Tom Sawyer out of the proceedings completely, it still hits most of the high points, including putting Huck in a dress on two occasions. If anyone hasn’t seen the film I’m not going to ruin it, because it’s Mickey Rooney after all, and he was definitely known for rising to the occasion.

The film also had the distinction of being filmed on location in Alabama, as well as Isleton, California and a Sacramento river dock. I’ve never seen the Mississippi River so I can’t say if the American River is a good stand-in, but just the fact that MGM would use it for the film is pretty cool, especially in an era when location shooting was so rare. It gives the film an authenticity it otherwise wouldn’t have.

Mickey Rooney is a strong, plucky Huckleberry Finn. He was slightly too old for the role at almost nineteen, but since he was already known for playing younger teenager Andy Hardy, Huck Finn was probably a piece of cake. In fact, the trailer promotes Rooney as adept at playing boyish characters. He’s ably matched by Rex Ingram as Jim, and the film touches on Twain’s handling of the slavery question by retaining Huck’s newfound empathy for Jim after working what was essentially slave labor himself. Huck initially mistrusts abolitionists and thinks they’re a wee bit eccentric, but experience teaches him otherwise.

There are a ton of funny scenes in the film, especially once the two conmen show up, although their attempts at Shakespeare and the sign language later on are more cringe-y than anything. Then again, they’re supposed to be because they’re terrible actors.

Despite The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn having a lot going for it and pulling in a respectable $2.7 million at the box office, the critics were mostly “meh.” Variety said the film lacked the humor of the novel as well as the narrative nuance, and said the direction was nothing special, with lots of missed opportunities. The Film Daily said pretty much the same thing, although whoever wrote the review didn’t seem to be a huge Twain fan anyway, at least not of Twain’s way with plots. Harrison’s, on the other hand, was more measured, calling Huck “fairly good entertainment” and regretting the absence of Tom Sawyer.

Photoplay Studies went all out, though, releasing an “Appreciation Guide” for the film for educators with tons of photos and behind-the-scenes tidbits, prepared by Mary Imelda Stanton. Seriously, it’s impressive.

Ultimately, the film would be vastly overshadowed by the juggernaut that was 1939, and it didn’t take long for the public to basically forget about it. That wasn’t Huck’s fault, though. He didn’t know 1939 was going to be the most successful year in film history. In the years since, though, this version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has become a respectful, if lightweight retelling of Twain’s novel and one of the most popular screen adaptations.

For more of the It’s In the Name of the Title Blogathon, please click here or visit my co-host Gill’s site. Thanks for reading, all, and see you tomorrow for more posts…

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is available to own on DVD from Amazon. The original novel is available here, also from Amazon.

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