Tom Sawyer (1917 film)

by William Desmond Taylor

For works with similar titles, see Tom Sawyer.

Jesse L. Lasky
presents

JACK PICKFORD
in

MARK TWAIN'S
GREAT AMERICAN CLASSIC

"TOM SAWYER"

By arrangement with Mark Twain Company

Copyrighted 1917 by The Oliver Morosco Photoplay Co.

Photoplay by

JULIA CRAWFORD
IVERS

From the story by
MARK TWAIN

Directed by
William Desmond Taylor

"Tom Sawyer, who is not the model boy of the village."

"My! Look behind you, Aunt!"

"Hang the boy! Can't I never learn anything?"

"'Spare the rod and spile the child!' I ain't doin' my duty by that boy. I'm a-layin' up sin and sufferin' for us both!"

Alfred Temple, who is the model boy of the village

. . . . . . Carl Goetz

The juvenile pariah of the village, with whom Tom is under strict odrers not to play

Huckleberry Finn ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Robert Gordon

"Say, I can lick you!"

"I'd like to see you try it!"

"You think you're some now, don't you? . . . Oh, what a hat!"

"Say, if you give me any more of your sass, I'll take and bounce a rock off'n your head!"

"I dare you to step over that. Anybody that'll take a dare will steal sheep!"

"Holler 'nuff!"

"Holler 'nuff!"

"'Nuff!"

The enemy's mother

"You are a bad, vicious child! Go away at once!"

The next day is Saturday, and there is a song in every heart but Tom's

"I dasn't, Marse Tom. Ole missis, she'd t'ar de head off'n me. 'Deed she would!"

"If you will — I'll show you my sore toe!"

Jim is only human; this attraction is too much!

And — the free boys are going fishing —

— while Joe Harper pretends he is a Mississippi river steamboat

. . . . . . . Antrim Short

At this dark and hopeless moment, Tom has a great and magnificent inspiration!

"Hi-yi! You got to work, ain't you?"

"Do you mean to let on you like it?"

"Like it? I ought to like it! Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little?"

"Aunt Polly's awful particular about this fence. There ain't one boy in a thousand — maybe a hun'red thousand — can do it the way it's got to be done!"

"Lemme try! Say — I'll give you the core of my apple!"

"I'll give you all of it!"

— and Tom has discovered a great law of human nature; namely, in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make it difficult to attain!

"The fence is all done, aunt."

"Don't lie to me, Tom. I can't bear to hear it!"

"Tom, what you earn by honest effort and without sin has the best flavor."

A new girl in the town.

Becky Thatcher ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Clara Horton

Sunday dawns upon the peaceful village

But this day, too brings its trials

When Mary finishes with Tom, he is a man and a brother — and fully as uncomfortable as he looks!

Inspired by Becky's presence, Tom finds a use for this ill-gotten wealth

BIBLE PRIZE

The Widow Douglas, a lady of wealth and distinction, in whose class Tom is a disturbing element

Widow Douglas ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Helen Gilmore

The children begin to show off

The superintendent is also showing off

"Has any little boy or girl won a Bible prize this week?"

It's Tom's turn now to show off

Is it possible that the learned Judge is showing off, too?

"No doubt, you know the names of the twelve disciples. Tell us the names of the first two who were appointed."

"Answer the gentleman, Thomas."

"David and Goliath!"

Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of this scene!

"My — sore — toe's — mortified!"

"It seemed mortified. It hurt so I didn't mind my tooth at all!"

"Thomas Sawyer, why are you late?"

And the schoolmaster punishes bad boys by making them sit with the girls!

"I stopped — to — talk with Huckleberry Finn!"

"Now, sir, you may go and sit with the girls!"

PLEASE

KEEP IT

I GOT MORE

"I know your name. Its Thomas Sawyer."

"That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom, when I'm good. You call me Tom, will you?"

I Love You

DONKEY

At noon, every one goes home to dinner — except Tom and Becky

"Say, Becky, how'd you like to be engaged?"

"I don't know. What's it like?"

"'Tain't like anything! You only — tell a boy you'll marry him; then you kiss, an' that's all. Anybody can do it!"

"Do you remember what I wrote on the slate?"

"I — love — you!"

"Being engaged's ever so gay! Why, when me and Amy Lawrence —"

His most cherished possession — a brass door-knob

Supper-time the same day

"Now, that pet model, Sid, is going to catch it!"

"Hold on! Whatcher belting me for? Sid broke it!"

"Well! I guess you didn't get a lick amiss!"

Far into the night, Tom broods over "man's inhumanity to man"!

If he should die, would SHE be sorry, or would she turn coldly away like all the hollow world?

And thus she should see him when she looked out upon the glad morning!

The next morning, Tom's mind is made up. He will lead a life of crime! They have driven him to it!

"Two souls with but a single thought —"

"We're goin' to be pirates, on a desert island, and start tonight!"

"Sure, we gotta have names! I'll be Tom Sawyer, The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!"

"You'll be Huck Finn, The Red-Handed!"

"Your name is Joe Harper, The Terror of the Seas!"

That night — the great adventure!

"Hist! The countersign!"

"B-l-o-o-d!"

About 2 A. M.

"Who cares? It's bully to be a pirate! You don't have to go to school and wash, and all that blamed foolishness!"

The alarm

"Oh, Mis' Sawyer, my Joe wasn't home last night, and I'm that scairt!"

"Me an' my pardner saw the boys startin' down the river."

Catfish for breakfast — fresh from the Mississippi

"Why, it's just as easy! If I'd know'd this was all, I'd have learned long ago!"

"The boys must be drowned! We found the raft drifting five miles down the river!"

"Say, I wish the fellows could see us now!"

"I — I lost my knife. I'm going to find it!"

"I'll help you!"

Something seems to tell Huck that if they have had any trouble they have got rid of it!

Dear aunt Polly
dont you worry about
me No more
I Aint dead
I'm allrite
tom

If I dont come
back by sun-up
these things
are yours

Tom finds home almost as moist as the Mississippi

"As I was sayin', he warn't bad, so to say — only mischeevous!"

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, but it's so hard! Only last Saturday my Joe busted a fire-cracker under my nose and I knocked him sprawling!"

"If the bodies ain't found, the funerals will be preached Sunday morning!"

With the rising sun —

"What does this writin' say, Joe?"

"— and when they get to preaching about us —"

Then came the day of the funerals

"Sing!"

"Please, Tom, won't you give me the brass door-knob?"

The End