The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

I’ve gone through Buster’s miscellaneous shorts that don’t fit into any easy category – the ones I can find anyway.  Now, while I’m waiting for the next 100^th anniversary piece, it’s time to get started on his assorted post-MGM films.  First up is this lavish production of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Huck Finn, chafing under the watchful eye of his guardian, the widow Douglas, longs for more excitement and fewer rules.  After a nasty run-in with his drunken lout of a father, Huck decides to ride the river to adventure.  The widow Douglas’s slave, Jim, accompanies him on a raft down the Mississippi, and despite Huck’s protests that he’s no dirty abolitionist, he and Jim look out for each other as they encounter a variety of colorful characters and tricky situations.

This definitely feels like a production, with the large cast, the many locations, and the expansive shots of Huck and Jim floating down the river – I mean, it’s no Ben-Hur, but the sense of “look at all we put into this!” is baked into the film.  It’s a common feeling with bigger films from this period, I think, a throwback from the days when going to the movies was an event, something you couldn’t get at home.  Today’s big films are of course much bigger and insanely more expensive, but it’s just a feeling I get with these older ones.

As far as the film goes, it’s pretty enjoyable.  Lots of good vignettes – the con men who dog Huck and Jim are obviously a standout, and I also really enjoy the segment where Huck is trying to free a recaptured Jim.  Throughout, I get a kick out of how Huck’s lies continue to grow more elaborate, always taking on elements of something he encountered on his last adventure.

But what about Buster?  He has a small but decent role in a sequence in which Huck tries to get him and Jim a gig at a small-time traveling circus.  Buster plays a lion tamer/gofer/jack of all trades (you get the idea that lion-taming is his main gig, but with business going badly, he’s had to wear a lot of additional hats.)  Highlights include him gloomily hanging around inside the lion cage, offering the lion some very affectionate words of encouragement.  I wouldn’t say it’s a hugely comedic role, but it is amusing and echoes the backstage sensibilities that Buster brought into a number of his films from his vaudeville days.

Strictly speaking, if we’re only talking Buster, it’s not a must-see – the role just isn’t big enough and there’s not enough there.  But if you’re a completist like me and do want to see it mainly for Buster, you could do a lot worse.  The rest of the film is entertaining enough, not a bad way to pass the time while you’re waiting for a certain Stone Face to make an appearance.

Warnings

Drinking/smoking, a little violence, and thematic elements.