(Norman Taurog, US 1938, 91 min., 35mm)
The third Hollywood adaptation of the classic Mark Twain novel (and the first in glorious Technicolor!) sees the mischievous boy going through all his iconic pranks: the ingenious fence-whitewashing episode, the courting of Becky Thatcher, rafting down the Mississippi river, attending his own funeral, saving the local drunk from the gallows, and finally a daring escape through a gorgeously designed cave. In all aspects very much a brainchild of its producer, David O. Selznick, the film initially flopped at the box office, but resonates today with a nostalgic blend of naiveté and wickedness lost to contemporary Hollywood. While working in an early version of Technicolor, cinematographer (and George Eastman Award honoree) James Wong Howe instead worked toward the elimination of unnecessary color to produce an image that was more natural, and thus more effective.