"Tom Sawyer"-1917- A classic Mark Twain's novel, a fine modern silent film-Full movie-Soundtrack
Thomas "
Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the
Mark Twain novel
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884),
Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and
Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).
Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works,
Huck and Tom Among the
Indians,
Schoolhouse Hill, and
Tom Sawyer's
Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters.
Tom Sawyer's best friends include
Joe Harper and
Huckleberry Finn. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,
Tom's infatuation with classmate
Rebecca "
Becky" Thatcher is apparent. He lives with his half brother Sid, his cousin
Mary, and his stern
Aunt Polly in the (fictional) town of
St. Petersburg,
Missouri. In addition, he has another aunt,
Sally Phelps, who lives considerably farther down the
Mississippi River, in the town of
Pikesville. Tom is the son of Aunt Polly's dead sister.
The fictional character's name may have been derived from a jolly and flamboyant fireman named Tom Sawyer whom Twain was acquainted with in
San Francisco, California, while Twain was employed as a reporter at the
San Francisco Call. Twain used to listen to Sawyer tell stories of his youth, "Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he'd occasionally take 'em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: '
I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.' 'Go ahead, Sam,' I said, 'but don't disgrace my name.'
William Desmond Taylor (26 April 1872 --
1 February 1922) was an Irish-born
American director and actor. He directed 59 silent films between
1914 and 1922 and acted in 27 between 1913 and
1915. He was a popular figure in the growing
Hollywood motion picture colony of the
1910s and early
1920s.
Taylor's murder on 1 February 1922, along with other Hollywood scandals, such as the
Roscoe Arbuckle trial, led to a frenzy of sensationalistic and often fabricated newspaper reports. His murder remains an official cold case.
Jack Pickford (August 18, 1896 - January 3, 1933) was a
Canadian-born American actor and film director, brother of early filmstar
Mary Pickford. After their father deserted the family, all three Pickford children had to take work as child actors. When Mary broke into films,
Jack went to Hollywood with her, but was never in her league. When she signed her first $1 million contract, he was mostly playing the boy-next-door in B-films. Some claimed that he had great talent, but suffered from living in her shadow. At any rate, his life of drink, drugs and scandal ruled out any career success, and his three marriages to showgirls all ended in failure. Pickford died in
Paris aged thirty-six.
"Mark Twain's immortal
TOM SAWYER flirts with
Becky Thatcher, goes rafting with Huckleberry Finn on the Mississippi River & generally makes life a sore tribulation for the law-abiding citizens of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Produced only seven years after the death of Mark Twain, this rousing, action packed silent film remains faithful to the original classic novel. The fine production values lavished upon it give it the feel of an old photo
album. Many of the favorite episodes from the first half of the book are included and filmed with much charm.
Jack Pickford gives a hardy, robust portrayal of Tom, the eternal companion of millions of American boys. Although a bit tall & old (he was 21) to be an authentic portrait of the real Tom, he comes close enough. Tattered, begrimed
Robert Gordon as Huckleberry Finn also scores in his small role.
The film concludes with the boys interrupting their own funeral, after being assumed drowned while river rafting.
Director William Desmond Taylor decided to film the rest of the book and release it as a sequel, which he did the following year as HUCK AND TOM (
1918). Four years later, in 1922, Taylor's still unsolved murder would give Hollywood one of its most sensational scandals.
Almost forgotten today, Jack Pickford,
Mary's younger brother, was a movie star in his own right, appearing in 106 films between
1909 & 1928. Lacking his sister's intense dedication& drive, he gave his life over to riotous living - to the detriment of his career.
Personal tragedy & dissipation would haunt him until his death in 1933 at the age of 36. -
Ron Oliver"
Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org
New soundtrack and dubbing: CinemaHistoryChannel
Music:
Kevin Mac Leod (www.incompetch.com) licensed under
Creative Commons licence http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ .
Attribution 3.0 Unported (
CC BY 3.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
3.0/