Mark Twain Tonight

There is no doubt that Mark Twain built his reputation in America on the popular conception that he was a very funny man. After his famous "Jumping Frog" story, he was "made." But humor is not the only trade mark of Twain. A genuine and deep bitterness, sometimes strung out in novel-sized (often two volume novel-sized) indictments of the human race, is equally characteristic.

It is probably this fact that makes Hal Holbrooks "Mark Twain Tonight" a particularly noteworthy show. Besides presenting Twain's genuine humor ("I'm all abstinence. . . so long as it doesn't do anyone any harm,") Holbrook doesn't hesitate to show the "darker" side of Twain, ranging from a discourse on why men really aren't the best animals in creation to more pointed and direct statements, such as humanity is a "basket of festering corruption. . . for the support and protection of microbes."

Holbrook looks like Twain, or at least like the picture one sees of Twain these days. He even talks and walks like one would expect Twain to walk and talk, and produces a very convincing portrayal of a vigorous old man. He acts some stories out, wanders from rostrum to table to chair and back again, puffs leisurely on a cigar, and generally presents an animated and engrossing performance, despite the fact that Holbrook is the only person on stage all through the two and a half hour program.

Particularly effective is Holbrook's timing. He takes time out to light a fresh cigar, flick some ashes off, or just blow smoke into the air--and often takes this time off just before the punch line of a story, a pause that makes the tag all the funnier. And, after the first punch line, Holbrook often takes a second puff or so, followed by another line, inciting a fresh burst of laughter.

The show is funny. But the humorous part of the program could be funnier, and truer to Twain if some of the cuttings were better. If Twain is "America's funniest humorist," as all the advertisements say, and even if he isn't--much of his charm rests on an especially endowed talent for spinning the old Western tall tale. Sometimes the story-teller, without cracking a smile, is able to convince his victim that his whole tale is gospel truth and is able to use this tale for all sorts of devious ends. But the comic aspect lies chiefly in the exaggerated proportions of the tale itself.

It thus seems strange that Holbrook finds it necessary to summarize or abbreviate some of Twain's best tales, for example the episode of Huck Finn and the runaway slave Jim on a Mississippi raft. Some local men, searching for escaped slaves, ask Huck if his companion is "white or black." Huck invokes the old tall-tale weapon, and convinces the men that his companion is his smallpox-afflicted "pop." The tale takes on fantastic proportions, but the authorities take in every word and even give Huck two $20 gold pieces before fleeing the pestilence.

Holbrook adequately portrays the paradoxical and inverted morality that makes Huck conscience-striken over his assistance to a runaway; but he unfortunately omits the central yarn, which provides humor and reveals a distinctive Twain touch.

Another abridgement of a scene from the Innocents Abroad--titled in Holbrook's program. "I Took Along the Window Sash"--unfortunately left out many of the finely drawn reactions of a boy who discovers a corpse in the room in which he is sleeping.

Though the cutting could be better in places, "Mark Twain Tonight" is well worth seeing. Holbrook does a convincing job of acting, talking and looking like Twain, and he manages to present a fairly accurate picture of Twain's often bitter outlook and yet preserve a genuinely funny show.