![]() ![]() The film is mostly the story of the children of the riverside town. John Cromwell, who directed this film, was born in 1887 in Toledo, Ohio, and although he was therefore not a Southerner by any means, he was old enough to remember the era of Mark Twain's peak popularity vividly and have a feel for it. The many quaint exclamations by Aunt Polly in the film such as 'Stars above!', 'Botheration!', and 'Ain't nobody gonna tell me ' are perfectly authentic speech of the Old South, though they probably haven't been uttered since the 1950s. Although Mark Twain's lasting classics are HUCKLBERRY FINN (the central character of which also appears as Tom's friend in TOM SAWYER) and LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, the far more accessible and appealing book of his at the time the film was made was TOM SAWYER, which contained a simple narrative of the antics and adventures of the mischievous and lovable scamp, Tom Sawyer, an orphan boy living with his maiden aunt, Aunt Polly. At the time of release in 1930, and indeed for another 25 years afterwards, no literate American viewer would have been unfamiliar with the famous book and its episodes, and most would have read it. This film is badly in need of digital remastering. The DVD which I obtained of this rare film from was of a severely faded print, which in many shots faded almost to invisibility, and which also had poor sound. As the film starts, we see an authentic paddlewheel river boat travelling along the River, past the wharves of the town, which still existed in 1930 (although what town was actually used for these shots is unknown most of the action is simply filmed in a Hollywood studio). Peters), Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River. The action is set in the year 1850 in St. Many more films of the story would follow. It was made into a silent film in 1917, and this film of 1930 was the second film of the novel, and the first sound version. Mark Twain's novel TOM SAWYER has been filmed many times for the cinema and for television. ![]()
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