Huckleberry Finn (1920)

The story of Huckleberry Finn, with the approval of the Twain Estate. Restored, with tinting and reconstructed titles. Directed by William Desmond Taylor.

This was a restoration performed by the Eastman House. The print they were working with was originally from an archive in the Netherlands, and all of the title cards were in Dutch. Working with translators and any surviving footage of English title cards, they worked to restore both the film itself with all its tinting, and recreate the title cards in English. They also consulted with the Twain novel, as the information they had was that the film hued very closely to the book.

The result was an exceptionally good looking film, and the audience was captivated by the story. Although the film (and the book) deal with some touchy race issues, they were handled with a minimum of discomfort - there was some stereotyping to be sure, but at least black actors were used, and not just white actors in black-face. Further, apart from the scattered stereotyping, they weren't portrayed in an a negative light.