*** Welcome to piglix ***

The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944 film)

The Adventures of Mark Twain
Marktwain1944poster.jpg
Original film poster
Directed by Irving Rapper
Produced by Jesse L. Lasky
Written by Alan Le May
Harold M. Sherman
Starring Fredric March
Alexis Smith
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography Sol Polito
Edited by Ralph Dawson
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • May 6, 1944 (1944-05-06)
Running time
130 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Adventures of Mark Twain is a 1944 American biographical film starring Fredric March as Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Alexis Smith as his wife, Olivia. It was produced at Warner Brothers, and directed by Irving Rapper, with music by Max Steiner. The film was nominated for three Oscars.

A group of people are watching Halley's Comet overhead when Judge Clemens is called away for the birth of his son, Samuel Clemens. The film proceeds to mix in elements of many of Clemens' best-known stories as if they actually occurred. Thus, as he grows up, Sam plays with his friends Huck, Tom, and the slave boy Jim on a raft on the Mississippi, providing a fictitious "real–life" basis for the novels Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The teenage Sam goes to work for his brother Orion, publisher of the Hannibal Journal newspaper, at his now-widowed mother's urging, but after three unhappy years, runs away to become a river boat pilot. After a rough start, he thrives under the tutelage of Captain Horace Bixby and becomes a highly skilled pilot on the Mississippi River.

One day, he spots a pickpocket robbing Charles Langdon, a passenger aboard his ship. Among the possessions Sam forces the thief to return is a small portrait of Charles's sister Olivia. After seeing it, Sam falls deeply in love. As they become friends, Sam tells Charles that he is going to marry Olivia. To that end, he gives up his job to seek his fortune with his friend Steve, prospecting for gold or silver (with little success) in the west.

When he finally gives up, he becomes a newspaper reporter in Nevada. Steve persuades him to enter a jumping frog contest against Bret Harte. The plot is taken from Twain's real first major story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Steve cheats by secretly feeding lead buckshot to Harte's champion frog. Their frog wins easily as a result. However, Sam later sheepishly admits to Steve that he bet all their money on the champ. Sam then writes the story and sends it off, under the pen name Mark Twain, to try to get it published.


...
Wikipedia

...