Pudd'nhead Wilson
Cast & Crew
Frank Reicher
Theodore Roberts
Alan Hale
Thomas Meighan
Florence Dagmar
Jane Wolff
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the pre-Civil War South, lawyer Pudd'nhead Wilson suffers the mockery of the community because of his obsession with fingerprints. Two of his samples are the infant prints of Tom Driscoll, the son of a white woman, and Chambers, whose mother is a mulatto nurse. Both boys have the same father, however, and both are about the same age, and after their birth, Roxy, angry at the Driscolls, switches them, so that quadroon valet. Then, the false Tom murders his uncle and tries to blame his valet for the crime. Pudd'nhead defends the accused, and while comparing new fingerprint samples against the old, discovers the switch that was made years before. He then convinces an initially skeptical jury to accept the infallibility of fingerprint evidence, after which the real Tom is restored as the Driscoll heir and the false one goes to jail.
Director
Frank Reicher
Cast
Theodore Roberts
Alan Hale
Thomas Meighan
Florence Dagmar
Jane Wolff
Ernest Joy
Gertrude Kellar
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A theatrical version of the novel by Frank Mayo opened in New York on April 15, 1895. The novel was originally published as a serial in The Century Magazine from December 1893 to June 1894. Although the Variety review of this film mentions Cecil B. DeMille as the "producer," it seems unlikely that he had any direct association with the picture. As DeMille was the Director-General of the company at that time, Variety May have been referring to this position rather than the actual producer or director credit. According to a news item in New York Dramatic Mirror this film was to be the first in a series of Mark Twain stories to be adapted for the screen by the Lasky Co., but the series did not continue after Puddn'head Wilson. The film was remade in 1984 and shown on the American Playhouse television series, with Ken Howard starring and Alan Bridges directing.
