Las aventuras de Tom Sawyer

This film is in reality David O. Selznick's 1938 dress rehearsal for 1939's Gone With the Wind. Full length feature films in Technicolor weren't made until 1935 and there hadn't been many made by 1938. some studios didn't start using Technicolor until after 1940. Producer Selznick produced this big production film in Technicolor a year before he would masterfully capture the world's attention with it in Gone With the Wind. Production Designer William Cameron Menzies worked on both this film and GWTW for Selznick as did Art Director Lyle Wheeler, Special Effects Director Jack Cosgrove, Composer Max Steiner and Costume Designer Walter Plunkett. Wheeler was nominated for art direction for the 1938 Academy award for the Adentures of Tom Sawyer. He would received an astounding 26 nominations in his career including five wins including GWTW. Menzies got an Oscar and Cosgrove and Steiner were nominated for GWTW. Cinematographer James Wong Howe didn't join the others on GWTW but he had a cinematography career that spanned photographing Pola Negri movies in 1923 to Barbara Streisand in 1975 in Funny Lady a year before he died. Tom sawyer was directed by Norman Taurog who had a long directorial career from 1920 to almost 1970 and ended his career by directing nine of Elvis Presley's movies. Child actors Tommy Kelly as Tom Sawyer, Jackie Moran as Huckleberry Finn and Ann Gillis as Becky Thatcher. Veteran actors Walter Brennan is Muff Potter, Victory Jory is Injun Joe, Victor Kilian is the Sheriff, May Robson is Aunt Polly and Margaret Hamilton is Mrs. Harper. This film was trimmed from it's 93 minute run-time to 77 minutes when it was reissued in 1959 and that was the version that was shown on television that I saw when I was growing up. I've seen this a few times but haven't seen it in many years. It's one of the more faithful filmed adaptations of the many popular Mark Twain stories. I would give this an 8.5 of 10 but I would like to see the full version and see it on the big screen.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER keep the small town of St. Petersburg, Missouri in constant turmoil, circa 1850...

This is a splendid family film, one of producer David O. Selznick's very best. Presented in wonderful Technicolor, it is like looking through the pages of an illustrated copy of the classic novel. All the favorite episodes are here. All of the performers are perfect in their roles. It is difficult to imagine a better transition from book to screen.

Elderly May Robson has one of her finest roles as harried, temperamental, lovable Aunt Polly. She easily steals every scene she's in & provides the sentimental heart of the movie. However, breaking out a bit, her last scene at the film's conclusion is hilarious. A small cluster of veteran character actors - Walter Brennan, Victor Jory, Donald Meek & Margaret Hamilton - are also exceptional in their roles.

12-year-old Tommy Kelly IS Tom Sawyer - he will instantly gain the respect & admiration of every prepubescent male in the audience. Beguiling & mischievous, with an infectious grin & sad eyes, he admirably fills the bare feet of America's most famous literary kid. The movie's other child actors - David Holt, Marcia Mae Jones, Ann Gillis & Jackie Moran - give excellent support. (Legend has it that Selznick found young Master Kelly in an orphanage. True or not, this was his best role. Very soon he was playing only bit parts and eventually left films around the age of 25.)

The cave sequence is especially noteworthy, thanks to the art design of William Cameron Menzies, the flickering camera work of James Wong Howe, and the moody music of Max Steiner. Spooky & claustrophobic, these scenes are the embodiment of every viewer's nightmares, and, thus, are tremendously entertaining.

It should be noted that while the character of Jim is correctly depicted as a slave, the film itself is blessedly free of the racism that blights so many Hollywood films of the 1930's.

It is almost hard to believe that this film was made in 1938. The movie is incredibly faithful to the the book. Even when you know the story it is still suspenseful in the cave with Indian Joe (that is the mark of a good movie). This movie belongs on every family's bookshelf and especially a grandparent's.

May Robson--this veteran always gave her best in family dramas. Here she is as Tom's likable Aunt Polly, fresh from her memorable stint as Janet Gaynor's wonderful and endearing grandmother in the original Star Is Born from the previous year (1937),

Walter Brennan--he won his first supporting actor Oscar for Come And Get It in 1936, which was also the first year that this award was given out. He subsequently snagged it two more times. Nobody did a town drunk (like his AOTS character Muff Potter) any better. Truly a "one of a kind" performer.

Victor Jory--the following year, Jory played perhaps his most famous role as the amoral and unpleasant field supervisor at Tara in Gone With The Wind. He was able to be convincing in both sympathetic (The Shadow serial 1940) and nasty (Bad Men Of Missouri 1941) parts. His Injun Joe from AOTS is one of the most scary characters to emerge from movies of the 1930s.

Marcia Mae Jones--this busy child actress scored big as the victim of Bonita Granville's sadistic torment in These Three (1936). She made a convincing Mary Sawyer in AOTS.

Spring Byington--she will always be remembered as Marmee in Little Women (1933) and countless other maternal roles that became her unique specialty.

Margaret Hamilton--her Wicked Witch from The Wizard Of Oz (1939) is probably best described as the female counterpart to Victor Jory's Injun Joe in AOTS.

Donald Meek--the ultimate victim of life's misfortunes in cinema, whose unforgettable presence graced so many enjoyable films of the 1930s. In 1939, he created the memorable whiskey salesman role in Stagecoach; the previous year he was impressive as Poppins In You Can't Take It With You. The human version of a "'frady cat."

On a personal level, AOTS is important to me as being the very first film that I can remember seeing in a movie theater. It also was the first color movie I ever saw. In addition, it introduced to me the element of terror as a possible consequence of going to the movies. And in Tommy Kelly as Tom and Ann Gillis as Becky, I was exposed for the first time to the charm and sweetness of innocent childhood romance--something that probably confused me more than anything else. You see, I had a lot more growing up to do in the days and years ahead!

I like the book a lot. It is quite episodic in structure, but the characters, dialogue and the story of Tom's adventures are very memorable. This is a very pleasant film and the best version by some considerable distance, like the book it is episodic but it does maintain its likability and charm with only Ann Gillis's rather coy performance and an underdeveloped Huck being the only real problems. Visually and technically, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is very impressive with gorgeous Technicolour, authentic costumes and lavish sets. (Uncredited) Max Steiner's score helps convey the moods of each scene, the film is faithful to the book(not that it needed to be particularly) with good dialogue and an intense confrontation with Injun Joe and it moves at a good pace. Tommy Kelly is a likable Tom, but it is May Robson and Victor Jory that make the film as memorable as it is. In conclusion, likable and pleasant and definitely something I would watch again willingly. 8/10 Bethany Cox