wholesome family fare

[sergebroom]

Turner Classic Movies showed a musical version of Huckleberry Finn yesterday. Was it any good? Well, it was from the early 1970s and had been produced by Reader's Digest because they were sick of all the smut shown in theaters instead of wholesome family fare. Truly. Yes, if you've ever read the book, you might be raising an eyebrow very high at the idea of the book being wholesome family fare. Also... Yes? What's that sound, you ask? Oh, that's Sam Clemens swearing a blue streak while spinning fast in his grave.

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Oh dear me. Now, what, exactly, did they call Nigger Jim?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I wasn't paying close attention, but I expect that they just called him Jim. Besides, I don't think that Paul Winfield would have taken too kindly to their using the original name for his character.

[pedanther]

I'm not sure what you mean by "original name", Serge: he never gets called "Nigger Jim" in the book, either.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

He never does? I remember a scene in one of the Riverworld where a black astronaut runs into Mark Twain and chews him up because of that. That being said, Jim turns out to be the smartest character in Twain's novel, if memory serves me right.

[pedanther]

There's a couple of places where he's referred to as "Miss Watson's nigger, Jim" or similar, but he's never referred to or addressed as "Nigger Jim" like it was his name.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, I may have incorrectly remembered that scene from Riverworld, and it was the 'N' word that the astronaut took Twain to task for.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Maybe you're combining Jim with Injun Joe.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Probably. It has been some time since I read Twain's book, and even longer since I read Farmer's - heck, I was still going to college.