Let's be realistic.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

You folks from the Chicago area will remember Frazier Thomas and his 'Family Classic' television program that ran for years on Friday night on WGN. My favorites were 'Robin Hood' and 'Tom Sawyer' from 1938. The movie is moving event that will take you down Memory. First love, raw fear, shame, murder, fun and pure joy is present in this wonderful retelling of Mark Twain's American classic. The story is set on the mighty Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri, circa 1850. The young boy playing the lead role is a very pleasant young fellow with plenty of charm and mischief to entertain the entire family. I have seen this film numerous times and I still love it. You will too.

I like the book a lot. It is quite episodic in structure, but the characters, dialogue and the story of Tom's adventures are very memorable. This is a very pleasant film and the best version by some considerable distance, like the book it is episodic but it does maintain its likability and charm with only Ann Gillis's rather coy performance and an underdeveloped Huck being the only real problems. Visually and technically, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is very impressive with gorgeous Technicolour, authentic costumes and lavish sets. (Uncredited) Max Steiner's score helps convey the moods of each scene, the film is faithful to the book(not that it needed to be particularly) with good dialogue and an intense confrontation with Injun Joe and it moves at a good pace. Tommy Kelly is a likable Tom, but it is May Robson and Victor Jory that make the film as memorable as it is. In conclusion, likable and pleasant and definitely something I would watch again willingly. 8/10 Bethany Cox

We complain that today's movie stars lack the charisma, the memorable faces and personalities of the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. But one thing has gotten better over the years and that's child acting. Today's kids are remarkably natural and real compared with the awful, slow, sticky artificiality of most of the child actors of yesteryear.There are many wonderful things about this film. William Cameron Menzies' visualization of the graveyard and the caves, Jack Cosgrove's matte paintings (those skies!), James Wong Howe's cinematography are all first class and memorable. Some (but not all) of the adult actors are quite fine. But the labored hamminess of the kids is quite unendurable. The illusion of thought, the illusion that something is being said for the first time never surfaces here for a moment. All is wide-eyed, over-rehearsed, over-enunciated and torture to watch.Mark Twain's immortal story retains power and magic, and the cave sequence in particular will stay with you, but in spite of the child actors, not because of them.

There have been numerous film adaptations of Mark Twain's beloved story, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but few capture the boyish wonder and childlike bliss which permeates the classic yarn. Luckily, 1938 rendition is one of the select few that do. The acting is first class; the directing often innovative, and the whimsical screenplay is respectful of the novel.The novel itself is entertainingly superior to Huckleberry Finn in its lack of a political agenda or societal commentary. Its sole objective is to return us once more to the naivety of youth when our life was far simpler and, in many cases, far happier.For the older generation of film aficionados, child actor Tommy Kelly was the definitive Tom Sawyer. His winning smile, visible freckles and bright eyes encapsulate the literary character to a tee. After watching this film and re-reading Twain's novel, it is impossible to remove the image of Tommy Kelly from one's mind as he or she remembers Sawyer's antics.It is in the supporting characters, however, that this film truly shines. The grade-A performances of Walter Brennan as the likable Muff Potter, a make-up smeared Victory Jory as the menacing Injun Joe and Olin Howlin as the violent schoolmaster are highlights of the film. Brennan seems to infuse a perpetual helplessness in his inebriated character that epitomizes the small town bum of a forgotten America; Jory makes Injun Joe the personification of evil and a red-faced Howlin is superlative as an authoritarian teacher who makes the audience cringe when he canes Tom. Australian-native May Robeson, who portrays Aunt Polly, is able to make smooth, believable transitions from harsh severity to tender leniency as the script demands.Remarkably, the numerous child stars in this film were destined for unhappy lives. David Holt (Sid) spent his early life as a child actor in poverty as he, much like Tommy Kelly, waited for star-making film roles which never came. Jackie Moran (Huckleberry Finn) soared briefly higher towards elusive stardom when he was cast as the energetic sidekick of Buster Crabbe in a "Buck Rogers" (1939) serial. Immediately afterwards, Moran's career plummeted into oblivion. Perhaps the only exception to this streak of bad luck was Ann Gillis (Becky Thatcher) who found herself always in demand to portray a screen brat. Upon coming of age and legally capable of making her own decisions, Gillis wisely left the film industry to find happiness elsewhere."The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938) is also significant in that its talented screenwriter, John V.A. Weaver, died shortly after its release of tuberculosis. His successful but altogether short career included writing screenplays for such cinematic classics as King Vidor's "The Crowd" (1928) and "The Saturday Night Kid" (1929). In a sense, this film was his last hurrah and it is only fitting that Weaver's last project in his old age should be subtly based upon the universal human longing to be young once again.