Tom Sawyer

The first sound version of Mark Twain's immortal classic does capture the charm of the story (who wouldn't want to be a little boy in the summertime again?). As a film adaptation, it also remains pretty faithful to its original source, and contains many of the book's famous segments (whitewashng the fence, the midnight visit to the graveyard, lost in the cave, etc.).

This early "talkie" of "Tom Sawyer" does suffer, however, from the stodginess and "creakiness" that many of the early sound films exhibit, due to the (at that time) primitive sound recording techniques (the "marriage" of sound and picture still wasn't totally perfected in 1930, and a number of films that year were still being produced in both sound and silent versions). This "creakiness" does indeed have a charm of its own (at least to die-hard fans, such as myself, of classic films), but modern audiences will probably find this 1930 version too slow and stagey. (A 1938 technicolour remake by producer David O. Selznick, entitled "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", is really the definitive film version of this story).

A renowned child star, and later famous as "Uncle Fester" in the TV show "The Addams Family", Jackie Coogan performs well as Tom, but at 16 he was really too old for the role (Tom is supposed to be about 11 or 12; the 1938 version starred 12-year old Tommy Kelly, who was the perfect age). The remainder of the cast is also good (Jackie Searl in particular as Tom's obnoxious and detestable brother Sid), although like Coogan, similarly-aged Junior Durkin was also too old to play Huck Finn.

All in all, a charming "curio" for movie watchers, but won't endure as an acknowledged "classic".

Jackie Coogan, the well-known star of The Kid and several silent film efforts, hits a home run in this production of Tom Sawyer. He has just the right chemistry of naivte and worldliness to pull off what is really a fairly difficult role and make it believable. Mickey Rooney tried his hand at this role, and was not able to carry it off as well several years later. Mark Twain's character is brought to life with this wonderful Hollywood production which captures life along the Mississippi. If you want to see a REAL coming of age film for a change, this might just be the one you are looking for which the whole family can enjoy.

I feel so luck to have caught this rare film at CINEFEST the annual early & rare film festival in Syracuse, NY - March 2003. More film buffs should support these festivals and share their discoveries on the IMDB so other film fans can track these old titles down.

TOM SAWYER (1930, Paramount, D: John Cromwell) Was utterly charming, telling the story from Jackie Coogan's (Tom Sawyer) point of view and the now older `Kid' Coogan was perfectly cast. Junior Duncan (Huck Finn) was also a natural, an ironic side note is that Duncan would die only five years later in a car crash. Killed along with Duncan was Coogan's Father who was driving the car! Virtual gold mine Mitzi Green, played an innocent Becky Thatcher and stole ever scene she graced. It was fun to see Clara Blandick best known for her WIZARD OF OZ "Auntie Em" playing Aunt Polly. Where as Jackie Searl was so annoying as Sid Sawyer we didn't blame Tom for all the tricks he played on him. Rarer than the Technicolor, Selznick remake it was a big enough hit to warrant a sequel HUCKLEBERRY FINN. A perfect Depression-era film focusing on Mark Twain's fading golden age image of American small-town life, wistful and lazy, laced with homespun humor.

Mark Twain's novel TOM SAWYER has been filmed many times for the cinema and for television. 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. Many more films of the story would follow. The action is set in the year 1850 in St. Petersburg (now known simply as St. Peters), Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River. 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). The DVD which I obtained of this rare film from vintagefilmbuff.com was of a severely faded print, which in many shots faded almost to invisibility, and which also had poor sound. This film is badly in need of digital remastering. 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. 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. 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. 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 film is mostly the story of the children of the riverside town. Tom himself is described as 'a child of nature', and he goes around barefoot with a tattered straw hat and ripped trousers, though he is a model of haute couture compared to his friend Huck Finn, the outcast boy, whose father is a hopeless drunk and who lives without a family in obscure poverty. If there had been a railroad in the town, he would have been described as coming 'from the wrong side of the tracks', since in Southern towns it was always the railway at the edge of the town which formed the boundary between the town itself and the depressing penumbra of impoverished outsiders living beyond it in tumbledown houses or shacks who were not accepted in the town's 'proper society' and were treated as social outcasts. The respectable people of the town of Tom Sawyer spurn Huck, but that does not deter Tom one bit from making him his best friend. Tom is played by Jackie Coogan, and Huck by Junior Durkin. Coogan does well, although Durkin is not particularly good and even succeeds in making Huck boring, which takes a lot of lack of talent to manage to do! This was Durkin's first film, aged 16, and he played Huck the next year in HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1931). By 1935 he had left the acting profession. Since Durkin was a New Yorker, casting him as Huckleberry Finn was an absurdity. He spoke wrong, he looked wrong, and he behaved wrong. The best child actor in the film was Mitzi Green, who played Becky Thatcher, the girl Tom has a crush on. Even though she came from the Bronx and also spoke wrong, everything else about her was perfect. Her facial expressions are priceless. She was only ten years old when she made TOM SAWYER. She went on acting until 1952 but died prematurely of cancer at the age of only 48. Coogan was 16 at the time of the film. Both he and Mitzi Green carried over, with Durkin, into the sequel HUCKLEBERRY FINN the next year. Coogan acted right up until 1984, the year he died, appearing in 138 films. This film is a low-budget production made without a great deal of care, but it conveys much which is authentic and charming, and gives us something of Twain's vision, if only because it is so unpretentious, just as life in that small town was also in those days gone by. Anyone who enjoys American nostalgia would find something in this film. And for those interested in Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, I can reveal that he claimed to be a direct descendant of the English regicide Gregory Clement, who signed the Death Warrant of King Charles I. Clement was a Member of Parliament and one of the wealthiest men in England in his day. He earned his fortune by trading in India, where he lived for years during the reign of Shah Jehan, who built the Taj Mahal. When next thinking of the fondness Mark Twain had of the simple life, which he recorded so lovingly in his writings, bear in mind that his ancestor was personally acquainted with the tyrannical and brutal ruler who built one of the most famous tourist monuments in the world, which is possibly the most extravagant ever constructed. Clement became so disgusted with monarchy as a result of the excesses of Shah Jehan and his Court, that he did not hesitate to join in cutting off the head of his own minor tyrant at home, the tiny tot (only 4 feet 11 inches tall), Charles I. Never cross a Clement or Clemens! Or should I say, regarding a Clement and a king, and you Mark my words: 'Never the Twain shall meet?'

TOM SAWYER (Paramount, 1930), directed by John Cromwell, is a highly enjoyable 84 minute juvenile comedy-drama adapted from Mark Twain's beloved story and immortal character, best described during the opening credits inscribed on a hard-bound book cover, "Tom Sawyer, the Immortal Story of a Boy." Of the many kid actors who could have played such an important role, the logical choice for its time was none other than former child star of the twenties, Jackie Coogan. Coogan, a notable young actor of who gained immediate success appearing opposite the legendary Charlie Chaplin in THE KID (First National, 1921), soon became as legendary to the silent screen as Chaplin himself through a series of starring roles in films for First National and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. By 1930, it was time for the now adolescent Coogan to either retire from the screen or attempt in the new medium of talkies. And what a great start for he to be seen as well as heard in this classic literary title role of Mark Twain's beloved Tom Sawyer.

Following the title credits presented through pages of an open book, the film opens on a riverboat bound for St. Petersburg, Missouri, followed by scenery of the rural town, a couple of gossiping women and men gathering in the post office/ grocery store before the plot development of its basic main characters begin. Tom Sawyer (Jackie Coogan) is introduced as a barefoot boy orphan living in the home of his late mother's sister, Aunt Polly (Clara Blandick - Auntie 'Em in THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), and his cousins, Mary (Mary Jane Irving) and little Sidney (Jackie Searle, a momma's boy and tattletale. Although the boy is clever in his ways of talking his way out of anything, he finds he can't talk his way out of the strict upbringing of Aunt Polly, who seemingly favors Sidney over Tom. Tom's best friend is Huckleberry Finn (Junior Durkin), an orphan as well as an outcast. One of Tom's favorite recreation is playing pirates with his friends and getting even with Sidney. With the character introduction underway, a series of events leading to the day and the life of Tom Sawyer immediately follow: Tom spending his Saturday afternoon painting a long wooden fence as punishment ordered by Aunt Polly, and smooth talking his passing friends to do the work for him, thus, taking credit for it; picking a fight with a dude boy named Joe Harper (David Winslow), who, after having "nuff," becomes his friend; Tom meeting and falling in love with a new girl in town, Becky Thatcher (Mitzi Green), whose famous line to Tom later on is, "Why did you have to be so noble" after getting punished by his teacher (Lucien Littlefield) for something Becky did; Tom and Hunk at a cemetery past midnight where they see three other men and witnessing a murder of a Doctor Rafferty; Tom, Huck and Joe playing pirates at Jackson Island where a few days later, return home where they attend their own funeral at the church after their supposed drowning; Tom in the courtroom on the witness stand testifying the innocence Muff Potter (Tully Marshall), and naming the real killer; the cave sequence where Tom and Becky separate themselves from the classmates where Tom comes face to face with Injun Joe (Charles Stevens), and some unforeseen dangers to follow.

Other members of the cast consist of Ethel Wales (Mrs. Harper); Charles Sellon (The Minister); and Jane Darwell appearing briefly as the Widow Douglas. The popularity to TOM SAWYER lead way for an immediate sequel, HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1931), with basically the same leading players, including Jackie Coogan himself.

With the most recent screen adaptation to TOM SAWYER (Paramount, 1917) starring Jack Pickford thirteen years into the past, it's surprising there weren't more Tom Sawyer movies produced in the silent era as there were years after the advent of sound. David O. Selznick produced an excellent retelling to Mark Twain's story as THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1938) starring newcomer Tommy Kelly in the title role. With that being close to a scene for scene remake to the Coogan version, it was also given the lavish Technicolor treatment as well. The story of Tom Sawyer would be told and retold many times after-wards, ranging from further theatrical and television adaptations, many with slight alterations, but often re-enacting basic factors lifted from both book and screen carnations.

Commonly shown on commercial television at least once annually during the 1960s and 1970s, TOM SAWYER slowly phased out of view after limited revivals on public television in the 1980s, turning this once renowned product into a now forgotten one, eclipsed by either the Selznick 1938 release or latter but newer adaptations as well. Regardless of its age, TOM SAWYER is still a timeless story the way Mark Twain intended it to be. While it lacks background music, super-imposing camera-work and good casting still make this a watchable item. It's also worth a look for the teen-age Jackie Coogan, years past his prime as a child star, and decades before his numerous television roles, especially that of Uncle Fester in the weekly comedy series THE ADDAMS DAMILY (1964-66). "Nuff" said. (***1/2)