The Adventures of Mark Twain
Encyclopedia
The Adventures of Mark Twain is a 1944 biographical film
starring Fredric March
as Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain
) and Alexis Smith
as his wife, Olivia. It was produced at Warner Brothers, and directed by Irving Rapper
, with music by Max Steiner
.
It was nominated for three Academy Awards at the 17th Academy Awards
: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White (John Hughes
and Fred M. MacLean
); Best Effects, Special Effects (Paul Detlefsen
(photographic), John Crouse (photographic), and Nathan Levinson (sound); and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Max Steiner).
and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The teenage Sam goes to work for his brother Orion
, publisher of the Hannibal Journal newspaper, at his now-widowed mother's urging, but after three unhappy years, runs away to become a river boat pilot. After a rough start, he thrives under the tutelage of Captain Horace Bixby and becomes a highly skilled pilot on the Mississippi River.
One day, he spots a pickpocket robbing Charles Langdon, a passenger aboard his ship. Among the possessions Sam forces the thief to return is a small portrait of Charles's sister Olivia. After seeing it, Sam falls deeply in love. As they become friends, Sam tells Charles that he is going to marry Olivia. To that end, he gives up his job to seek his fortune with his friend Steve, prospecting for gold or silver (with little success) in the west.
When he finally gives up, he becomes a newspaper reporter in Nevada. Steve persuades him to enter a jumping frog contest against Bret Harte
. The plot is taken from Twain's real first major story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
". Steve cheats by secretly feeding lead buckshot to Harte's champion frog. Their frog wins easily as a result. However, Sam later sheepishly admits to Steve that he bet all their money on the champ. Sam then writes the story and sends it off, under the pen name
Mark Twain, to try to get it published.
When the Civil War
begins, Sam leaves Nevada, narrowly missing J. B. Pond
, who has come all the way from the east to find the writer of the frog story. (In real life, Clemens went to Nevada after the war started, partly to get away from the conflict.) The "Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the newspapers and is widely read and greatly enjoyed as a welcome change from the grim war news.
When the Civil War ends, Pond finally finds Sam. He signs him up for a lecture tour. Charles and Olivia
("Livy") Langdon are in the audience of his very first lecture, where his humor and wit make him an immediate success. He marries his beloved Livy, despite her father's initial opposition, and becomes a famous writer and lecturer.
However, Sam wants to become more than just a humorist. He invests in a typesetting machine
and establishes a publishing company. Both ventures require more and more capital, so Sam has to keep writing furiously for years. Finally fed up with his constant money troubles, he turns to businessman Henry Huttleston Rogers to extricate him from his financial mess. Rogers tells him he can avoid bankruptcy, but only if he does not honor his overly-generous contract to publish Ulysses S. Grant
's memoirs. Sam agrees to go see the former president. Dismayed to find Grant poverty-stricken and dying, he decides that the country owes the great man such a debt of gratitude that going bankrupt is a small price to pay. (In reality, the company did publish Grant's memoirs—about eight years before Clemens met Rogers—and the venture was a huge success. The business did, in fact, eventually go bankrupt, but not because of Grant.) Though Rogers gets the creditors to accept half payment, Sam is determined to pay in full his staggering debt of $250,000. To do so, he embarks on a strenuous worldwide lecture tour, leaving behind Livy to care for their daughters.
At last, he manages to pay everything off and is reunited with his now-ailing wife in Florence. She is very proud when she receives word just before she dies that her husband is to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, which she considers the greatest honor a writer can attain.
Sam himself dies when Halley's Comet returns in 1910. Afterward, his spirit is called away by Tom and Huck to join them in the afterlife.
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
starring Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
as Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
) and Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.-Life and career:...
as his wife, Olivia. It was produced at Warner Brothers, and directed by Irving Rapper
Irving Rapper
Irving Rapper was a British film director. His most successful body of work is 10 films he made while under contract with Warner Brothers....
, with music by Max Steiner
Max Steiner
Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
.
It was nominated for three Academy Awards at the 17th Academy Awards
17th Academy Awards
The 17th Academy Awards marked the first time this awards ceremony was broadcast nationally on the ABC Radio network.Through the 1940s, the ceremony and academy rules continued to evolve into the form by which we know them today. This is the first year that the Best Picture category was limited to...
: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White (John Hughes
John Hughes (art director)
John Hughes was an American art director. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction...
and Fred M. MacLean
Fred M. MacLean
Fred M. MacLean was an American set decorator. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction...
); Best Effects, Special Effects (Paul Detlefsen
Paul Detlefsen
Paul Detlefsen was a commercial artist of the mid to late 20th century, associated with the "Hollywood scene". He is known for his realistic depictions of serene, nostalgic scenes; his works were reproduced in a popular line of calendars and other prints.-Biography:Paul Detlefsen was born in...
(photographic), John Crouse (photographic), and Nathan Levinson (sound); and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Max Steiner).
Plot
A group of people are watching Halley's Comet overhead when Judge Clemens is called away for the birth of his son, Samuel Clemens. The film proceeds to mix in elements of many of Clemens' best-known stories as if they actually occurred. Thus, as he grows up, Sam plays with his friends Huck, Tom, and the slave boy Jim on a raft on the Mississippi, providing a fictitious "real–life" basis for the novels Tom SawyerTom Sawyer
Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...
and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The teenage Sam goes to work for his brother Orion
Orion Clemens
Orion Clemens was the first and only Secretary of Nevada Territory. He is best known through his relationship to his younger brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain.-Early life:...
, publisher of the Hannibal Journal newspaper, at his now-widowed mother's urging, but after three unhappy years, runs away to become a river boat pilot. After a rough start, he thrives under the tutelage of Captain Horace Bixby and becomes a highly skilled pilot on the Mississippi River.
One day, he spots a pickpocket robbing Charles Langdon, a passenger aboard his ship. Among the possessions Sam forces the thief to return is a small portrait of Charles's sister Olivia. After seeing it, Sam falls deeply in love. As they become friends, Sam tells Charles that he is going to marry Olivia. To that end, he gives up his job to seek his fortune with his friend Steve, prospecting for gold or silver (with little success) in the west.
When he finally gives up, he becomes a newspaper reporter in Nevada. Steve persuades him to enter a jumping frog contest against Bret Harte
Bret Harte
Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
. The plot is taken from Twain's real first major story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain, his first great success as a writer, bringing him national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"...
". Steve cheats by secretly feeding lead buckshot to Harte's champion frog. Their frog wins easily as a result. However, Sam later sheepishly admits to Steve that he bet all their money on the champ. Sam then writes the story and sends it off, under the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Mark Twain, to try to get it published.
When the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
begins, Sam leaves Nevada, narrowly missing J. B. Pond
James Pond (Medal of Honor)
James Burton Pond was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. For his actions during the Battle of Baxter Springs, he received the Medal of Honor...
, who has come all the way from the east to find the writer of the frog story. (In real life, Clemens went to Nevada after the war started, partly to get away from the conflict.) The "Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the newspapers and is widely read and greatly enjoyed as a welcome change from the grim war news.
When the Civil War ends, Pond finally finds Sam. He signs him up for a lecture tour. Charles and Olivia
Olivia Langdon Clemens
Olivia Langdon Clemens was the wife of the famous American author, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.-Early life:...
("Livy") Langdon are in the audience of his very first lecture, where his humor and wit make him an immediate success. He marries his beloved Livy, despite her father's initial opposition, and becomes a famous writer and lecturer.
However, Sam wants to become more than just a humorist. He invests in a typesetting machine
Paige Compositor
Paige Compositor was an invention developed by James W. Paige between 1872–1888. Designed to replace the human typesetter of a printing press with a mechanical arm, the machine was not nearly as precise as it should have been and never turned a profit because of its complexity and continual need...
and establishes a publishing company. Both ventures require more and more capital, so Sam has to keep writing furiously for years. Finally fed up with his constant money troubles, he turns to businessman Henry Huttleston Rogers to extricate him from his financial mess. Rogers tells him he can avoid bankruptcy, but only if he does not honor his overly-generous contract to publish Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
's memoirs. Sam agrees to go see the former president. Dismayed to find Grant poverty-stricken and dying, he decides that the country owes the great man such a debt of gratitude that going bankrupt is a small price to pay. (In reality, the company did publish Grant's memoirs—about eight years before Clemens met Rogers—and the venture was a huge success. The business did, in fact, eventually go bankrupt, but not because of Grant.) Though Rogers gets the creditors to accept half payment, Sam is determined to pay in full his staggering debt of $250,000. To do so, he embarks on a strenuous worldwide lecture tour, leaving behind Livy to care for their daughters.
At last, he manages to pay everything off and is reunited with his now-ailing wife in Florence. She is very proud when she receives word just before she dies that her husband is to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, which she considers the greatest honor a writer can attain.
Sam himself dies when Halley's Comet returns in 1910. Afterward, his spirit is called away by Tom and Huck to join them in the afterlife.
Cast
- Fredric MarchFredric MarchFredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
as Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) - Alexis SmithAlexis SmithAlexis Smith was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.-Life and career:...
as Olivia "Livy" Langdon Clemens - Donald CrispDonald CrispDonald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter...
as J.B. Pond - Alan HaleAlan Hale, Sr.Alan Hale, Sr. was an American movie actor and director, most widely remembered for his many supporting character roles, in particular as frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn. His wife of over thirty years was Gretchen Hartman , a child actress and silent film player and mother of their three children...
as Steve Gillis - C. Aubrey Smith as Oxford Chancellor
- John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as Bret Harte - William HenryWilliam Henry (actor)William Albert Henry was an American actor working in Hollywood movies. He started as a child actor, then was a hero in B-movies , and ended his career as a character actor. He also appeared in various roles on episodes of many TV series. He was a member of the John Ford Stock Company and...
as Charles Langdon (as Bill Henry) - Robert BarratRobert BarratRobert Harriot Barrat was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor.-Career:Born in New York, Barrat's theatrical debut was in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts...
as Horace E. Bixby - Walter HampdenWalter HampdenWalter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty was a U.S. actor and theatre manager. He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty ....
as Jervis Langdon - Joyce Reynolds as Clara Clemens
- Whitford Kane as Joe Goodwin
- Percy KilbridePercy KilbridePercy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...
as Billings - Nana BryantNana BryantNana Bryant was an American film actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1935 and 1955.She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California. Her grave is located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery....
as Mrs. Langdon - Jackie Brown as Samuel Clemens - age 12
- Dickie Jones as Samuel Clemens - age 15
- Russell Gleason as Orion ClemensOrion ClemensOrion Clemens was the first and only Secretary of Nevada Territory. He is best known through his relationship to his younger brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain.-Early life:...
- Joseph CrehanJoseph CrehanJoseph Crehan was an American film actor. He appeared in over 300 films between 1916 and 1965.He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and died in Hollywood, California from a stroke.-Selected filmography:...
as Riverboat Captain / Ulysses S. Grant - Douglas Wood as William Dean HowellsWilliam Dean HowellsWilliam Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...