TOM SAWYER
8/10
HUCKLEBERRY FINN
6.5/10
After being treated shoddily on DVD by MGM a decade ago, Twilight Time does right by both of the Sherman Brothers’ Mark Twain musicals – the wonderful 1973 adaptation of TOM SAWYER and its inferior, though not unworthy, follow-up HUCKLEBERRY FINN – which bow together as part of the label’s 3000-copy Blu-Ray limited editions this month.
After being issued in terrific laserdisc editions back in the early ‘90s, MGM cropped both films for their 2005 DVD releases, robbing viewers of their original Panavision cinematography and much of each film’s impact. Twilight Time’s single-disc Blu-Ray crams an awful lot of content onto their release, reprising all of the laserdisc’s extras while adding a new commentary, isolated mono score tracks (minus song vocals), and best of all, detailed 1080p (2.35) AVC encoded high-definition transfers.
On their own terms, the two movies are highly entertaining, especially the 1973 “Tom Sawyer.” Starring “Family Affair”’s Johnny Whittaker as Tom, Jodie Foster as Becky, future Clark Kent Jeff East as Huck Finn, and veterans Celeste Holm and Warren Oates, director Don Taylor’s movie benefits from a spirited Sherman Brothers score -- marvelously adapted and underscored by John Williams -- and exceptional scope cinematography. The opening sequence alone is worth the price of the disc – Williams’ underscoring (his final “Supervised”/”Adapted” credit) beautifully matches shots of young Tom running along the banks of the Mississippi River, with director Don Taylor’s camera utilizing overhead shots to produce a glorious image that memorably captures a romanticized time and place.
This Reader’s Digest presentation was one of the Sherman Brothers’ first projects they set up after leaving Disney, where they had penned scores for “The Jungle Book” and “Mary Poppins” among many others. Their script is an effective distillation of the source material and benefitted from tuneful songs (some sung, others told over montages, almost as if they were leveraging the decline in the genre’s popularity by the early ‘70s) and fine performances across the board. It’s not an exaggeration to say, however, that Williams’ work elevated the entire project – giving the songs a wonderful “Reivers”-esque flavor, the soundtrack boasts a splendid sense of Americana, and while Williams may not have written the songs, the backing he gives to all of them – as well as their interpolation throughout his score – is purely indicative of his musical genius.
“Huckleberry Finn” was filmed the subsequent year, and it’s a comparatively disjointed, inferior follow-up, with East reprising Huck Finn and Paul Winfield co-starring as Jim, the runaway slave our wayward young hero befriends and attempts to help. Director J. Lee Thompson proved to be a less-than-satisfactory replacement for Taylor, and what’s worse, Fred Werner proved to be a less than stellar replacement for Williams, who by 1974 was well on his way to major scoring assignments like “The Towering Inferno” with “Jaws” looming just a short time later.
The movie, though, isn’t a total loss, especially its evocative opening sequence (the film’s high point, in fact) showing black slaves working in the field set to the Shermans’ lovely ballad “Freedom,” splendidly performed by Roberta Flack. Thompson was wise to close the film with the song as well, but while those images and the respective performances of Winfield and East are commendable, the movie otherwise is flabby, running on for a full two hours and lacking both the musical conviction and overall entertainment of its predecessor. Given the passing of producer Arthur P. Jacobs during shooting and Thompson’s reported difficulty working in a genre he was unfamiliar with, perhaps it’s no surprise the finished product has a number of flaws. That said, “Huck” is still worthwhile as an interesting, if substantially more problematic, companion piece to its predecessor.
Twilight Time’s Blu-Ray does a very good job considering the amount of content it houses on one disc. There are times the bit-rate drops under 15 mbps but the compression is quite good for the most part, and the 1080p (2.35) transfers, by themselves, are well executed, with wear and tear (and some discoloration) only present in the opening credit sequences of each film.
“Tom Sawyer” features no less than three soundtracks for the film: the original 2-channel stereo mix, as well as newly remastered 5.1 and 4.0 DTS MA offerings. The latter two mixes offer a broader stage for the music with discrete separation, though I found the dialogue a little bit clearer in the original 2.0 stereo mix, which is also present here. No matter which way you go, Williams’ Overture and Exit Music is presented as an option to view in conjunction with the movie. “Huckleberry Finn” solely contains the movie’s 2.0 DTS MA stereo mix and a transfer in generally not quite as healthy a condition as “Tom Sawyer,” but it’s still quite good and a welcome presentation considering it hasn’t been seen in scope since its laserdisc release over 20 years ago.
For supplements, in addition to the isolated scores, Twilight Time’s major new extra is a commentary between Richard M. Sherman and Bruce Kimmel, which touches upon both “Tom Saywer” and “Huckleberry Finn”’s rocky production as well. Carried over from the laserdisc is a wonderful, vintage commentary track with the Shermans and Don Taylor, plus brief rehearsal footage of Williams and the Shermans, an unintentionally funny promotional featurette from 1973, and the original trailer. “Huckleberry Finn” also offers its trailer in a disc that should come as a warm and welcome release for musical lovers and devotees of both the Sherman Brothers and maestro Williams.