The Adventures of Mark Twain

The Adventures of Mark Twain is a 1944 American biographical film directed by Irving Rapper and starring Fredric March as Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Alexis Smith as Twain's wife Olivia. Produced by Warner Bros., the film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including that for Best Music for Max Steiner's score. Irving Rapper was hesitant to direct the film but was persuaded by Hal B. Wallis. Plot A group of people are watching Halley's Comet overhead when Judge Clemens is called away for the birth of his son Samuel. The film proceeds to depict 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 River, providing a fictitious "real-life" basis for the novels Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The teenage Sam goes to work for his brother Orion, publisher of the Hannibal Journal newspaper, but after three unhappy years, runs away to become a riverboat pilot. After a rough start, he thrives under the tutelage of Captain Horace Bixby and becomes a highly skilled pilot on the Mississippi. 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 (with little success) in the west.