By John & Jimmy Flynn
Based on Mark Twain's satirical novel, a fair-skinned enslaved woman crib-switches her master's son with her own baby boy, producing an evil heir whose misdeeds are discovered by the town's laughingstock, Pudd’nhead Wilson.
Feature-length Movie Adaptation | Drama
Think of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
meets My Cousin Vinny.
Synopsis
The Truth is not Black and White
Dawson’s Landing, Missouri, 1830. Despite being 15/16ths white, Roxy has spent her whole life as an enslaved woman. After her master, Percy Driscoll, threatens to sell her down the river, Roxy fears her newborn son, Chambers, will be condemned to that awful fate. Desperate to avoid this, Roxy realizes that her baby is nearly identical to her master’s baby, Tom Driscoll. So one night, she switches their clothes and cradles—thus, Chambers becomes Tom.
Unaware of the switch, the inattentive Percy treats Roxy’s boy as his own and spoils him, producing a selfish and wicked child, who beats “Chambers” and abuses the unceasing care of Roxy. Following Percy’s early death, “Tom” is entrusted to the care of his wealthy “uncle,” Judge York Driscoll, the premier citizen of Dawson’s Landing.
Next door to the Judge lives the good-natured Dave Wilson. Although Wilson desires to be a lawyer, his career never launches—as his offbeat interests, including a fascination with fingerprints, cause most in the backwater town to mock him as a “Pudd’nhead,” a taunt Tom frequently uses. Wilson’s true intelligence is only grasped by Roxy and Judge Driscoll.
Twenty years later, Tom is a drunken scoundrel, deeply in debt after gambling away his uncle’s money. Now a free woman, but facing hard times, Roxy pleads to Tom for a single dollar. He rebukes her with fury. In a fiery response, Roxy threatens to tell Judge Driscoll that Tom is actually her son—and should be enslaved. Shaken to his core, Tom agrees to pay off Roxy and do whatever she says.
Dawson’s Landing comes alive with the arrival of a piano-playing pair of conjoined Italian twins, Angelo and Luigi Capello. They win over the town and befriend Wilson, but earn an enemy in Tom after Luigi thrashes him for an insult. Seeking revenge, Tom ruins the twin’s reputations by spreading a false rumor that Luigi is an assassin. At the same time, Tom racks up so much debt that, in desperation, he attempts to rob his uncle. When Judge Driscoll catches him in the act, Tom kills the old man and escapes, leaving the twins as the obvious suspects.
Facing a certain hanging, Luigi and Angelo call upon Pudd’nhead Wilson to prove their innocence. But can Wilson find evidence that will overcome the town’s prejudices, serve justice, and save the twins?
Sharp, poignant and timeless, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson harnesses the full force of Mark Twain’s signature wit to investigate race, identity, and America’s original sin.
Script
Bible
