The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [VHS]
Mark Twain'sHuckleberry Finnis considered by many to be the greatest American novel ever written. Though none of the many film adaptations have done the book justice, the closest remains the 1939 remake with Mickey Rooney. Toning down his usual firecracker personality, Rooney's river-boy Huck is a fun-loving, superstitious kid who can't give up his free-and-easy life of fishing and smoking, despite the best efforts of his kindly guardians. When his souse of a Pap blackmails the well-meaning matrons, mischievous Huck fakes his death and heads down the river with his friend Jim (Rex Ingram), a slave he grudgingly helps escape to a free state. Rooney displays his underrated skills as a dramatic performer as he banters with Jim about slavery, fate, and destiny, and his slow realization that, slave or not, Jim is a human being ripples across his face like a remembered sin. The last half of the picture winds the destinies of the runaways around the schemes of con men Walter Connelly and William Frawley (who make a hilarious team as "the King" and "the Duke"), where the comic antics nuzzle against despicable plots and Huck's free spirit slams against his growing sense of responsibility. It's a generally faithful adaptation until the climax, which completely removes Tom Sawyer's appearance for a melodramatic, race-to-the-rescue conclusion. But for all the film's narrative liberties, Rooney's thoughtful performance captures Twain's Huck better than any version before or since.--Sean Axmaker