We may never see this first movie adaptation of Twain’s story, since only three of the eight silent reels are known to still exist. The Yankee in this version is Martin Cavendish, who after reading Twain’s book, is knocked on the head by a burglar and slips into the time of Camelot. The result is high comedy coupled with a romantic interest and replete with motorcycles, explosions, Model T Fords, telephones, indoor plumbing, and lassos at a jousting tournament. As we did for
Twain’s original, we classify the story as science fiction for the Yankee’s attempts at bringing modern technology to the distant past. And yes, the hero predicts a solar eclipse to save his life.
One review at
Silent Hollywood indicates that the ending has Martin
awakening from a dream and there is no explicit mention of actual time travel. With this in mind, we’re marking the time travel as
debatable. Oh, and Mark Twain himself appears in the film, played by Karl Formes.
—Michael Main You know about transmigration of souls; do you know about transportation of epochs—and bodies?
