Has anyone seen the 1931 "A Connecticut Yankee"?

Cafe Society
1

I am watching “A Day at the Races” and I looked into Maureen O’Sullivan’s movies and found A Connecticut Yankee (1931) starring Will Rodgers. The Cast looks very interesting.
Will Rogers … Hank Martin
William Farnum … King Arthur
Frank Albertson … Clarence
Maureen O’Sullivan … Alisande
Brandon Hurst … Merlin
Myrna Loy … Morgan le Fay
Mitchell Harris … Merlin
I figure any movie with Will Rodgers and two of the most beautiful actresses of the 30s should be interesting and the IMDB gives it a 7.0 rating but only 62 votes.

So has anyone seen it and is it worth hunting down?

Thank You,
Jim

2

I enjoyed it. If you like Will Rogers, it’s a dandy. If you don’t, it’s still watchable.

Gotta say, though… no way does Will come off as being from Connecticut. He’s Okie all the way.

3

Will Rogers is as far from a Connecticut Yankee as you can get, but it’s still fun to watch him do rope tricks and crack jokes in that “aw shucks” way of his. The movie is goofy and fun - I’d call it “campy” but I’m pretty sure they weren’t *trying *to play it that way.

If you do manage to track it down, it will probably be on a beat-up old VHS tape, because I don’t think it was ever released on DVD. I’ve watched it on Turner Classic Movies, though - that might be your best bet.

4

I’ve seen clips, but never the whole movie. As far as I know, nobody’s ever made a filmed version that was true to Twain’s brutal satire.

5

I stumbled across a copy when a local video store was dumping its VHS collection. I’d wanted to see it for years, but I have to admit it didn’t hold my interest. It’s definitely a Will Rogers movie, not a Mark Twain movie. I can just see the gears turning in some producer’s head – folksy hero, homespun humor deflating highfalutin’ ideas, uses a lasso. Will Rogers is a natural for this part! Only it’s light-years away from what Twain was trying to do. Still, it’s probably closer than any other version has been, although one of these days I’d really like to see someone do ACYiKAC at least mostly straight.