Huck and Tom
{{short description|1918 film by William Desmond Taylor}}
{{distinguish|Tom and Huck}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Huck and Tom
| image = File:Huck and Tom Poster.jpg
| caption = Film poster
| director = William Desmond Taylor
| producer = Jesse L. Lasky
| writer = Mark Twain (stories)
Julia Crawford Ivers
| starring = Jack Pickford
Robert Gordon
George Hackathorne
Edythe Chapman
Frank Lanning
Clara Horton
Helen Gilmore
Antrim Short
Jane Keckley
| music =
| cinematography = Homer Scott
| editing =
| distributor = Famous Players–Lasky Co.
Paramount Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1918|05|13}}
| runtime = 5 reels
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Huck and Tom is a surviving American comedy-drama film directed by William Desmond Taylor and released in 1918. The scenario by Julia Crawford Ivers is derived from Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Robert Gordon and Jack Pickford reprise the title roles from the 1917 version of Tom Sawyer, a successful adaptation that was also directed by Taylor.[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/H/HuckAndTom1918.html Progressive Silent Film List: Huck and Tom] at silentera.com[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=2327 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Huck and Tom]
Plot
As described in a film magazine,{{cite journal |title=Reviews: Huck and Tom |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=6 |issue=13 |page=24 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=New York City |date=March 23, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald06exhi}} while in a graveyard trying an old remedy to get rid of their warts, Tom (Pickford) and Huck (Gordon) witness a murder. At the trial their repetition of the story clears Muff Potter (Bates), an innocent suspect and victim of Injun Joe's (Lanning) plot. Injun Joe escapes to the Painted Cave, where the next day Tom and Becky (Horton) become lost. After a four-day search the missing ones come home and the entrance to the Painted Cave is sealed. Tom tells Judge Thatcher (Burton) that Injun Joe is hiding there. The entrance to the cave is opened and the dead body of the murderer is brought out. Tom and Huck become the possessors of a treasure they found, and with this fortune they plan on becoming great and fierce robbers.
Cast
{{castlist|
- Jack Pickford as Tom Sawyer
- Robert Gordon as Huck Finn
- George Hackathorne as Sid Sawyer
- Alice Marvin as Mary Sawyer
- Edythe Chapman as Aunt Polly
- Frank Lanning as Injun Joe
- Clara Horton as Becky Thatcher
- Tom Bates as Muff Potter
- Helen Gilmore as Widow Douglas
- Antrim Short as Joe Harper
- Jane Keckley as Mrs. Thatcher
- John Burton as Judge Thatcher
}}
Reception
Upon its March 1918 release, Huck and Tom received lukewarm reviews. Variety called it "acceptable" and Photoplay described it as "not so fascinating, being an unbelievable mixture of boyish fancy and Brady melodrama."[http://silent-movies.com/Taylorology/Taylor24.txt The Silent Movie Multiplex] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630163316/http://silent-movies.com/Taylorology/Taylor24.txt |date=2011-06-30 }}
Like many American films of the time, Huck and Tom was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required cuts of, in Reel 1, the stabbing of a man in the back, robbing the dead man, in Reel 2, a vision of the stabbing of the man, and, in Reel 4, two scenes of Injun Joe prying open a window.{{cite journal |title=Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=6 |issue=13 |page=29 |date=March 23, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/stream/exhibitorsherald06exhi#page/n568/mode/1up}}
Preservation status
This film is preserved at Archives du Film du CNC, Bois d'Arcy Archive.[https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.6330/default.html The Library ofCongress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Huck and Tom]
References
External links
- {{IMDb title|0009209|Huck and Tom}}
{{The Adventures of Tom Sawyer}}
{{William Desmond Taylor}}
Category:1910s English-language films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:Films based on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Category:Films based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Category:Films directed by William Desmond Taylor
Category:Films shot in Missouri
Category:1918 comedy-drama films
Category:Films set in the 19th century
Category:American silent feature films