Evening star., 1939-03-04

Wnen IL was joyous new pOSSeSSlOn.'
This lad Mickey Rooney looks like
Huckleberry Finn, to be sure, as GER
tainly as the beloved Marie Dressler
looked like Tugboat Annie and as
Clark Gable resembles Rhett Butler.
But he does not act very much like
him. There was a character, that
Huck of Mark Twain's, blood
ed, rugged individualist, maybe the
Dead End kid of his day, who
went his own way and the devil take
the hindmost. The. greatest sins of
which the Huckleberry Finn of the
new M-G-M photoplay can boast are
playing hockey so often he does not
get promoted and smoking a pipe
before he is old enough. These, you
know, do not imply too much
individualism, nor do they make
M-G-M's Huckleberry Finn Mark
TWain's.
1t probably is the fault of both
script and direction rather than
Mickeys that he does not become
completely Huck. The former is a
fairly close adaptation of the orig
inal, or at least parts of it. but. while
it does have its humor now and
again. it lacks the salty wit of Mr..
TWain's version. Those frauds, the
Duke" and King for instance,
instead of being exceedingly funny
are SO overdrawn they become very
fraudulent frauds indeed. And there
is a moment when Walter Connolly
plays Romeo to Mickeys Juliet that
is strictly from hunger, so hard does
1t try to be funny.
But these are minor lapses. The
major fault seems to be that the
script devotes less time to the de-
velopment of character you expect
than 1t does to arousing itself to
melodramatics. 1t seems to have
become, while losing the Twain
sparkle. just story about boy who
didn't like to wear shoes, who almost
helped slave escape and who
dashed back up the river to save
him when the slave was apprehended
and accused of murder. In justice
to "Huckleberry Finn" it must be
said that it is almost always inter-
es.ing and it does work its melo-
drama up to fairly high pitch.
The arrival-in the mick of time eli
max seems still good. whether it's
the cavalry over the hill or a steam
boat up river.
Richard Thorpe's direction is sew
eral things. 1t is good in that he
has done fine job of welding an
episode script into a well-knit mar
rative in which there is mounting
interest. 1t is good, too in that ne
has not let Mickey Rooney get away
with an iota of mugging. 1t is not
so good, however, in that the re-
strlctlons placed on young Mr..
Rooney have also restricted him in
the matter of spontaneous comedy
touches. There must be some happy
medium for the lad, but don't anv
director tell us to come out and try
to find it.
Anyhow this is Mickey Rooney in
'Huckleberry Finn" and he does
float down the river on a raft and
he does not reform to the extent of
giving up his pipe. And Rex IN
gram, incidentally. does one fine
job as his runaway slave companion.
The best news about the Capitol's
stage show is that Marjorie Gains
worth has come back to town to ap-
pear in it. She is, as you we'll know,
a lovely lass with voice as nice to
the ear as she is to the eve. as
golden as her hair. as melodious as
music itself. Or are We just a Mar
jorie Gainsworth fan? Anyhow her
current repertoire ranges from st.
Louis Blues to dramatic version
of Lover Come Back to Me" to "One
Fine Day from Madame Butter
fly to the italian Street Song" and
it is all splendid.
The rest of the revue, which is
titled Spring Gambols" is at its
brightest when Virginia Lee and the
Lathrop brothers are tapping away
at their nimble and polished antics.
And there are Frank Albertson, the
fellow from films, who talks a bit,
sings bit and does one of those fan
dance take-offs with a couple of
stooges; young lady named only
TriXie, who is one of the more
adept jugglers; Ken Whitmer, who
plays a lot of musical instruments,
and the l6 Rhythm Rockets, who
have got that.