For the past few years, I've been researching screen adaptations of Mark Twain's novels. An important part of my work naturally involves viewing the actual film and television productions. Right now, unfortunately, I've hit a snag: I cannot locate a copy of the 1981 TV movie _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (the production's full title), in which Kurt Ida plays Huck, Brock Peters plays Jim, Dan Monahan plays Tom Sawyer, and Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch play the scoundrels.
The film was actually made in 1978 and is advertised in numerous newspaper articles and TV schedules as a Christmas special broadcast on December 24 of that year, but its so-called "World Premiere" was in July 1981. The now-defunct VidAmerica company released a VHS cassette of the film, but it was never released as a DVD. Amazon recently offered it as an online "rental," but the film one's $1.99 rental fee brought up was the 1939 Mickey Rooney version of _Huckleberry Finn_.
My online searches of every online book and video sale site I could find turned up only two hits: both British VHS cassettes. If I become desperate, I may consider buying one of them. However, I'm not anxious to spend around $50 (s/h fees are outrageous) for a cassette I know won't play on my America VCR.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can help me secure a copy of the film that I can view. Please reply directly to [log in to unmask]