Armand a lovely surprise. it is not only a biographic movie but a charming fresco who can be real surprise for many viewer. the script, the acting, the artistic solutions are pillars for a special form of fairy tale because the adventures , the Fredric March performance , the music and high quality humor does a special work with value of homage and invitation for readers . it seems be magic and the axis of that fact is the incredible freshness of images. it is pure delight. and useful meeting with the universe of a great writer. so, indicated trip in Mark Twain empire. see it. for memories who are resurrected. for the joy to discover an admirable work.

gkeith_1 I just graduated with a B.A. in History from The Ohio State University. I wrote a paper about the life of U.S. Grant. First, I read Grant's autobiography. Grant was a childhood horse expert. He wanted to be a math teacher, but his grades were too low. He went into the military. At West Point, he fell in love with and later married Julia Dent, the sister of another student.Our class covered the Civil War, Grant's presidency, then his business bankruptcy. Mark Twain enters here (as in this movie). Twain wanted to publish Grant's autobiography so Mrs. Grant could have an income. Grant was near death, but Twain persuaded him to finish writing just before the end.Twain saved Julia's life financially (the movie showed the check being made out to Julia Dent Grant), giving her the largest royalty check ever given to anyone. She later moved to New York City, becoming friends with Varina Howell Davis (widow of Confederate President Jefferson Davis), who had also moved to NYC after Davis' death. Newspaper stories talked about "the famous widows".I enjoyed seeing the Grant portrayal in this movie. I am glad they did not show the buffoonish-alcoholism associated with him, though Julia admitted he was certainly no teetotaler. How many other drunkards can say that their face is on the $50.00 bill?I enjoyed Fredric March as Mark Twain. I read "Tom Sawyer" during my childhood. In another college course, we had a lecture about Mark Twain the philosopher. Twain said that God exists, but He sends us evil to overcome so that we can be good again.15/10.

Sean H-. (cornflakeboy20) Of course, this biography of Mark Twain will be of interest to any admirer of the man - which is why I rented it - or to any fan of Fredric March, who gives a fine performance as usual...however, the complexity and objectivity we'd expect of a modern biography is sorely lacking. Sure, some of Twain's less successful moments and un-PC jokes are depicted in this movie, but the overall tone is 100% laudatory. This movie indulges in several clichés of the biopic genre, such as the twirling-newspaper montage sequences, as well as a greatest-hits jokes montage featuring audiences cackling like they're on drugs. Many plot points seem manipulatively sentimental, and the performances by some supporting players are mawkishly earnest and come off as laughable to the modern viewer. And - of course - the portrayal of African Americans is, to put it politely, unfortunate. The movie, in order to end on a relatively high note, leaves out some of Twain's later life tragedies and more bitter attitudes he adopted in his old age. Happily, this first big attempt at a Twain film biography was not the last and Twain fans received better film portraits of the author in subsequent years.

Neil Doyle A dull biography of Mark Twain is all Warner Bros. managed to do with this lumbering tale of the great author's progression from riverboat captain to editor to author--all accompanied by some jaunty Max Steiner music that holds the various segments together nicely. But it's still dull stuff.Credit FREDRIC MARCH with at least looking the part--although his heart doesn't seem to be in playing Twain with anything more than superficial likeness. Wouldn't you know ALAN HALE plays his rambunctious buddy--hey, it's a Warner flick. Percy Kilbride and John Carradine get short shrift but at least DONALD CRISP, the great character actor that he is, gets to play a more substantial role.Lovely ALEXIS SMITH is the love interest, as Libby, Twain's sweetheart who becomes his understanding wife. Alexis is so modern looking, even in period films, that somehow her characterization of the loyal wife seems false. But the script is so cliché ridden that even the romance doesn't seem real, not entirely her fault.Instead of being the colorful bio it should be, even events like the frog jumping contest comes off as pure hokum. Twain was the teller of tall tales but apparently the screenwriters weren't able to come up with anything resembling his true spirit.It's a tribute to Max Steiner that he was able to come up with a delightful background score in view of the fact that nothing on screen could have given him the inspiration needed.