Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (film #1 on Side A of Disc #12 of Historic Classics DVD Megapack (Mill Creek Entertainment, 2005)). [Category: Early Film & TV]

This episode of the drama series “Climax!” is an adaptation of the Mark Twain novel. It looks like they had to cut out a lot to fit this into a 60 minute TV drama, but what remains is a fairly exciting and fun story, involving Huck escaping from his drunk and abusive father, going down the river on a raft, meeting a couple of con artists calling themselves the Duke and the Dauphin, and foiling their plans to steal the fortune of a young woman he’s acquainted with. Considering this was live early TV drama with minimal sets, this was pretty well done, with John Carradine giving a rousing performance as the Duke. This also contains the original Chrysler commercials which introduce “The Forward Look” in car design. These are great fun, featuring stilted interviews with ordinary drivers, an animated calypso sequence, and the introduction of transistors to car radios. All in all, this is a great example of early TV.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.