Huckleberry Finn ** (1931, Jackie Coogan, Junior Durkin, Mitzi Green, Jackie Searl) – Classic Movie Review 10,008

Director Norman Taurog’s 1931 family comedy Huckleberry Finn [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] is Paramount’s pleasing, now faded second version of the Mark Twain classic (after a 1919 silent with Lewis Sargent as Huckleberry Finn), made as a sequel to the hit 1930 Tom Sawyer (with the same producer, writers and some of the players).

Junior Durkin and Jackie Coogan are back from the 1930 Tom Sawyer as Huck and Tom who sail a raft down river with fleeing slave Jim (Clarence Muse), while Mitzi Green and Jackie Searle also return as Becky Thatcher and Sid Sawyer.

Jane Darwell (as the widow Douglas) and Eugene Palette (as the Duke of Bilgewater) are especially welcome among the adults, and so is Clara Blandick as Aunt Polly Watson, a role she recreated in the 1939 MGM remake of Huckleberry Finn.

Junior Durkin (1915–1935).

Junior (Trent) Durkin died, aged 19, in 1935 in a road accident in which his good friend Jackie Coogan was the sole survivor. He made just 10 films.

The  main cast are Jackie Coogan, Junior Durkin, Mitzi Green as Becky Thatcher, Jackie Searl as Sid Sawyer, Eugene Pallette, Jane Darwell, Clarence Muse, Clara Blandick, Oscar Apfel, Warner Richmond, Lillian Harmer, and Charlotte Henry as Mary Jane.

Huckleberry Finn [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] is directed by Norman Taurog, runs 79 minutes, is made and released by Paramount, is written by Grover Jones and William Slavens McNutt, based on the novel by Mark Twain, is shot in black and white by David Abel and scored by Jack King (composer: stock music) and John Leipold (composer: title music).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,008

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