The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - 1938

H.C. Potter was the initial director but quit over "Selsnickian interference." His footage (in black and white) was completely discarded.

Many disputes arose between photographer James Wong Howe and his associate, Technicolor photographer Wilfred M. Cline about which colors to use in wardrobe and sets. Cline wanted bright primary colors, while Howe insisted on subdued earth tones. Since Howe got his way, after one week they were not on speaking terms and The Technicolor Company banned Howe from shooting further pictures in color; Howe did not make another color film for 10 years.

Spring Byington (Widow Douglas) in studio records/casting call lists, but did not appear or was not identifiable in the movie.

Marcia Mae Jones was originally signed to play Becky Thatcher. Because of a growth spurt, she was recast as Mary Sawyer.

Tommy Kelly, a Bronx fireman's son, was selected for the title role through a national campaign waged by producer David O. Selznick, who later would conduct a similar search for an actress to portray Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. According to a 1937 memo he sent to story editor Katharine Brown, he originally hoped to cast an orphan as Tom, feeling such a stunt would receive "tremendous attention and arouse such a warm public feeling that it would add enormously to the gross of the picture." Kelly failed to achieve the star status of fellow child actor Freddie Bartholomew, and after an inconsequential career he retired and later became a school teacher.

After reading the comment cards completed by an audience at a sneak preview of the film, Selznick sent director Taurog a memo expressing concern about the climactic scene in the cave, which many viewers had described as "too horrible for children." He advised Taurog "this worried me, because we certainly want the picture to be for a family audience," and as a result he was cutting a close-up of Becky, in which her hysteria was "perhaps a shade too much that of a very ill woman, rather than that of a little girl," "with regrets."

On the strength of the designs for the cave sequence executed by William Cameron Menzies, Selznick hired him for Gone with the Wind.

Some exterior scenes were filmed at Big Bear Lake, Lake Malibu, and the Paramount Ranch in Agoura, California.

Cast of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Tommy Kelly as Tom Sawyer
Jackie Moran as Huckleberry Finn
Ann Gillis as Becky Thatcher
May Robson as Aunt Polly
Walter Brennan as Muff Potter
Victor Jory as Injun Joe
David Holt as Sid Sawyer
Nana Bryant as Mrs. Thatcher
Victor Kilian as Sheriff
Olin Howland as Mr. Dobbins
Mickey Rentschler as Joe Harper
Donald Meek as Sunday School Superintendent
Charles Richman as Judge Thatcher
Margaret Hamilton as Mrs. Harper
Spring Byington as Widow Douglas
Roland Drew as Dr. Robinson
Cora Sue Collins as Amy Lawrence