Title: NOT "The Mysterious Stranger"
Product review: Viewers and Twain fans should be warned that this is NOT based on the well known Twain story, but based on a previously unpublished manuscript for a completely different story sharing a few plot elements and the title. Twain's literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, chose a previously written version to edit and publish as "The Mysterious Stranger" after Twain's death. Though Paine's editing was controversial, his decision as to which was the better story was certainly correct. The dark satire and human insight present in the better known version are completely missing here and replaced by warmed over "Connecticut Yankee" style adventures. The film's producers claim this version is the version Twain intended to publish based primarily on chronology, though the author left all versions unfinished when he died.Pleasant enough as family fare, a rather bland story -- particularly in the shadow of the other "The Mysterious Stranger."
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