Plot
Huck Finn's got a problem with a haint. And tarnation if it ain't Mark Twain himself, come to show Huck the future. A future that can't decide whether Huck is best left ignored... or sanitized. Huck Finn and the Five Boons, based on Twain's most mystical short story, shows Huckleberry an America he never knew, one that the 1800's could never have imagined. And with Twain as his guide, Huck must face both his novel's recent censorship and the chance that he's become an artifact: no longer relevant and no longer pop.
Brilliant, eccentric... forgotten. He gave us the future.
Plot
Ken Burns, the premiere documentarian of Americana, tackles the life of Mark Twain, the first writer with a uniquely American voice. In this installment in Burns' "American Lives" series, the two 2-hour episodes explore a side of Twain that is unfamiliar to many. Widely regarded as the funniest person of the 19th century, Twain suffered through severe personal tragedies and lack of business sense that brought him to the brink of financial ruin on several occasions. Includes interviews with writers William Styron and Arthur Miller and actor Hal Holbrook (who has portrayed Twain in a one-man play each year for over 50 years).
Keywords: character-name-in-title, mark-twain, voice-over-narration, writer
Narrator: "I am not AN American," Mark Twain said, "I am THE American."
Mark Twain: I was made merely in the image of God, but not resembling Him enough to be mistaken for Him by anyone except a very near-sighted person. I believe our Heavenly Father created man because he was disappointed in the monkey.
Arthur Miller: I'm sure there are artists that are good businessmen, but I've never met any.
Narrator: He was a Southerner and a Northerner, a Westerner and a New England Yankee; a tireless wanderer who lived in a thousand places all around the world. He would call just two of them home: the Missouri town of his childhood, which he would transform into the idealized hometown of every American boy, and the magnificent Connecticut house he built for his wife and children, which he hoped would shelter them from hardship, but where heartbreak found them nonetheless.
Narrator: During his long life, he was a printer's apprentice and a riverboat pilot, a prospector who never struck gold, and a Confederate soldier who never fought a battle. He was considered the funniest man on earth, a brilliant performer on the lecture circuit who could entertain almost any audience... and a spectacularly inept businessman whose countless schemes to get rich quick threatened again and again to bring him to ruin. But above all, Mark Twain was a writer, a natural born storyteller, and a self-taught genius with words who understood before anyone else that art could be created out of the American language.
Narrator: He wrote constantly: newspaper stories, poetry, plays, political diatribes, travel pieces, irreverent musings about religion, and a series of autobiographical sketches noted as much, he admitted, for the tall tales they spun as for the truth they told. And he wrote books, books read by millions, including the deceptively simple story of a backwards boy and a runaway slave that showed his people a whole new way to think about themselves.
Narrator: He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the sixth of seven children, two months premature and so thin and sickly, his mother remembered that "I could see no promise in him." But Halley's Comet blazed in the sky on the night of his birth, and his mother clung to the hope that it would be a bright omen for her baby's future.
Mark Twain: I was born the 30th of November, 1835, in the almost invisible village of Florida, Monroe County, Missouri... The village contained a hundred people and I increased the population by one per cent. It is more than many of the best men in history could have done for a town... There is no record of a person doing as much, not even Shakespeare. But I did it for Florida, Missouri, and it shows I could have done it for any place - even London, I suppose.
Mark Twain: [referring to his boyhood friend Tom Blankenship] He was the only really independent person - boy or man - in the community, and by consequence he was tranquilly and continuously happy and was envied by all the rest of us.
Mark Twain: In my schoolboy days I had no aversion to slavery. I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. The local papers said nothing against it; the local pulpit taught us that God approved it, that it was a holy thing, and that the doubter need only look in the Bible if he wished to settle his mind - and then the texts were read aloud to us to make the matter sure; if the slaves themselves had an aversion to slavery they were wise and said nothing.
Plot
An old man observes a boy bullying his playmates and treats him to a morality lesson. The man tells the story of the epic cross-country race between a young Mark Twain and his rival, Mike Fink. The bulk of the film depicts the race, which proves to be more a test of character than of stamina.
Keywords: boat-race, cross-country, journey, race
Plot
Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures.
Keywords: abc-movie-of-the-week, auction, based-on-novel, character-name-in-title, charity, con-artist, friendship, impostor, last-will-and-testament, magnifying-glass
Plot
When silver is found in Virginia City, Lawyer John Storm leads a group from Indiana west. He soon has to defend them all in court against a company that is after their claims. Fighting a crooked Judge, he gets a mis-trial by telling how much each of the jurors was bribed. Then he gets the Governor to appoint a new Judge. But just as the retrial opens, the Judge learns his daughter has been kidnaped.
Keywords: b-movie, b-western, bonanza, bribe, bribery, brother, comstock-lode, courtroom, crooked-lawyer, defense-attorney
BONANZA! A TOWN GONE MAD and GUNS BARK RED IN THE LUST FOR RICHES! (original poster)
THE ACE ACTION STAR OF THE SCREEN IN HIS MOST SENSATIONAL PICTURE.
The Thrilling Drama Of The Greatest Silver Strike In History!
Plot
In 1921, a young man, having read Mark Twain's classic novel of the same title, dreams that he himself travels to King Arthur's court, where he has similar adventures and outwits his foes by means of very modern inventions including motorcycles and nitroglycerine.
Keywords: back-in-time, based-on-novel, character-name-in-title, king-arthur, motorcycle, nitroglycerine, time-travel
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel."
Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", which became very popular and brought nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well-received. Twain had found his calling.
He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.