Climax! (TV Series) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1955) User Reviews

Thomas Mitchell and John Carradine

[kevinolzak · 4/10 · 21 August 2011]

William Lundigan's CLIMAX! opened its second season in September 1955 with this easily available adaptation of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." At a mere 50 minutes, this poverty stricken TV version would hold little entertainment value for today's youngsters, shot in black and white, with the mighty Mississippi represented by a stagnant studio tank. What little life it has is provided by its veteran cast (although the child actors give decent performances), reuniting top billed Thomas Mitchell with John Carradine, former co-stars in 1937's "The Hurricane" and 1939's "Stagecoach." Mitchell plays Old Man Finn, who crawls out of the woodwork when he learns that Huck (Charles Taylor) and blood brother Tom Sawyer (Bobby Hyatt) have discovered buried treasure stolen by Injun Joe. Carradine and Walter Catlett are a pair of con men, the former passing himself off as The Duke of Bridgewater, the latter more ambitious, King of France. Together, they try to bilk Mary Jane Wilks (pretty 15 year old Denise Alexander) out of her rightful inheritance by posing as her uncles from England. Poor Huck and Tom pretty much stand around watching the scenery chewing by the adults, which also include Katherine Warren, 80 year old Elizabeth Patterson, and Minor Watson. By far, the best known episode of CLIMAX! is the third, an adaptation of the recently published Ian Fleming novel "Casino Royale," which introduced James Bond-007. John Carradine had not yet finished with the title character, appearing as the Slave Catcher in the colorful 1960 feature "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," after playing real life author Bret Harte in 1943's "The Adventures of Mark Twain."

Making Huck Finn this way is like omitting Jesus from the Gospels!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 23 April 2013]

This is an insanely made TV version of "Huckleberry Finn". I say this because one of the most important characters from the book is completely omitted and THE main point of the novel is completely missing!! This is because back in 1955 the country was very divided racially and some idiots thought that the way to appease the bigots out there was to omit the runaway slave, Jim, from the story! I am pretty sure Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) would NOT have been pleased and he probably was spinning like a rotisserie in his grave because of this! Because of this, no matter how good the rest of the story is, it's only a pale imitation of the original and they should have been ashamed of themselves for making the story this way. So what are we left with? Well, many of the characters are here but, oddly, Injun Joe is apparently a zombie, as he died in "Tom Sawyer" (a book set BEFORE "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"! My advice? See another version or read the book. I like that this book is a rare example of a book that has been both banned by ultra-conservatives and do-gooder liberals--which is a great reason to read it.