Customer Reviews

Mark Twain Tonight [VHS]

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having seen Hal Holbrook perform live in Mark Twain Tonight, I was delighted to aquire the DVD of his 1967 television broadcast performance. I have long believed, and this DVD confirms that Mark Twain Tonight is easily one of the greatest treasures of the American stage in the last half of the 20th Century. That Mr. Holbrook has performed Mark Twain every year since 1954, in over 2000 shows, is nothing short of miraculous. This 90 minute performance brings the wisdom, humor and humanity of one of the most morally insightful men of the 19th century to life. His words continue to be as hilarious, poignant and relevent in the 21st century as they were in his own time.

In 1967, I was a twenty-ish high school English teacher who sat down one evening, out of a sense of professional obligation, to watch a TV production of some guy named Hal Holbrook doing a one-man show called MARK TWAIN TONIGHT. It blew me away (though we didn't talk like that in 1967). Ever since, I've had a blank videotape sitting atop my TV, waiting to pirate a copy of the certain re-broadcast, whenever the industry moguls ran out of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND reruns. Of course, it never happened! Instead, I paid cash money for the 33-rpm record, and scratched my way to this or that band for partly appreciative teen English students. As always, the trick to life is to keep living. Today I blew the dust off my 30 year-old videotape and set it aside. My review is thirty years in the making. All you young English teachers, take note: on a scale of one-to-five stars, this performance of Mr. Holbrook is a six. Maybe seven!

If there has ever been a polished performance, this is it! I've been fortunate to see Holbrook do this show live on three occasions. He really catches the essence of Twain's marvellous story- telling, which sets the tone for later artists such as Gene Shepard and Garrison Keillor. Hal Holbrook changed his show at every performance, and this video features him at the peak of his craft. From ghost stories to humorous anecdotes to shaggy dog yarns and tall tales, this video has them all. You'll want to watch it many times.

I was introduced to Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain Tonight in a high school English class in 1962 and have been fascinated with Holbrook and his Twain presentation ever since. As the story goes, Holbrook took up cigar smoking to get the timber in his voice, spends three hours in make-up preparing, and has even listened to Edison recording tubes of Twain to get the voice and inflection just right. Sit back and enjoy tales from a hundred years ago that are just as germaine today. You'll soon be convinced that the man in front of you is actually Mark Twain!

my only regret about MARK TWAIN TONIGHT is that it's only 90 minutes. holbrook apparently has about 12 hours worth of material that his life shows alternate among. these 90 minutes include his views on man (the only animal that blushes), his mississippi adventures as seen through tom's eyes, and jim blaine's story of the ram and old man wheeler. the ram story alone is enough to be twice worth the cost of the dvd. buy the disk. holbrook is now at just the age where his twain would be even more sublime. let's hope the sales of this dvd inspire him to do another all these years after this 1967 performance. the sound and video are good (for broadcast tv) -- mainly though, holbrook is outstanding and twain is -- twain IS twain. buy it. watch it.

This DVD welcomes us into Mark Twain's parlor for an evening of stories and anecdotes that the viewer is not likely to soon forget. Hal Holbrook researched this role by looking up old newspaper accounts, letters and film of Twain to get his characterization of Twain as accurate as possible. The illusion is complete. We don't credit Holbrook because he's not there- but Mark Twain is and we are thankful. Holbrook so masterfully weaves Twain's tales together that we don't want him to stop and we want to return to his parlor as often as possible. This DVD is a tribute to two national treasures- Mark Twain and Hal Holbrook. A must for any lover of literature or the stage.

What a great gift for anyone to receive. First, you receive a piece of history. Second, you receive entertainment. This tape never grows old. Fantanstic when Hal Holbrook portrayed Mark Twain over 30 years ago and fantastic today. Good material never grows old.

if you have not heard the recordings or saw the television special 'mark twain tonight' starring hal holbrook, you are in for a real treat. my aunt took me to see the one man show many years ago in toronto. when he came a second time, years later, i took her.

i have listened to the two recordings of mark twain and mark twain tonight at least once a week for over twenty years. hal holbrook is not talente, he is gifted. listening to 'jim and huck on a raft' is so touching to me it defies description. if hou have ever trusted anyone on anything trust me. this is not to be missed. i have never heard or seen anything quite like it.

Those of us old enough to have seen Holbrook do his one-man Twain show in the 1960's, and to have owned the original cast recordings "Mark Twain Tonight" and "Encore: More Mark Twain Tonight" know that this 1967 television version featured second-rate material. Yet second-rate Twain is still better than most comic/philosophical writing. (There was also an original cast recording of this show released.) Now there is a CD on Columbia Legacy called "Mark Twain Tonight" which combines some producer's idea of the best of each of the three older records. I would have picked some different bits if I had the task, but overall that is pretty good and well worth the money. Since this DVD is the only thing available showing Holbrook as Twain when Hal was still young, playing Mark at the age of 70, it will have to do. If you are a real Twain fan, or a real fan of one-person stage offerings, this should be in your collection...but get that CD also, before it goes out of print, for some even better material. In the TV show, the one mistake was spending too many of the 90 minutes on the more "serious" side of Twain---the anti-war social criticism aspect of his works. Don't sit down to watch this and expect it to be all laughs, all the time.

To say that Holbrook reads or interprets or plays Mark Twain is an inaccuracy. He becomes Mark Twain, and you experience Twain in a way that spans the time gap and brings back the special feelings of being young and reading about Tom and Huck for the first time. For this hour you are in the presence of Twain, and you are enchanted and enthralled by his presence.