7/10
ROONEY AS HUCK...!
6 December 2021
An affable, spry 1939 adaptation of Mark Twain's classic starring Mickey Rooney as Huck. Following the trials & tribulations of our ne'er do well adventurer who'd rather go fishing & smoke a pipe, Huck goes from one episode to the next eventually partnering w/Jim, a runaway slave, formerly in thrall to his benefactors (a pair of well meaning sisters), as he aims to get him on a steamboat bound for the North towards freedom but matters becomes complicated when Jim becomes the subject of a manhunt, suspected of Huck's murder (he faked his own death to ease the burden he feels he's placed on the sisters' plate). I'm embarrassed to say I've never read the immortal tome but know some of the situations depicted so I got the gist of the fable as Rooney, a pure delight, essays a lively take on our immortal rapscallion w/special mention going to Rex Ingram as Jim. Look for William Frawley (Fred Mertz from I Love Lucy) as one of 2 con men out to get a family's fortune.
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