MovieChat Forums > The Mysterious Stranger (1982) Discussion > Which version is this based on?

Which version is this based on?

posted 17 years ago by bgrubb
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Doing a little research on this I have found out there are supposedly FIVE versions of this story: three actually written by Twain and two posthumously edits by Albert Bigelow Paine (1916) and University of California (1982)

The three main versions Twain actually wrote are called 'Chronicle of Young Satan' (set in 1590 Austria, abandoned in mid scene), 'Schoolhouse Hill'/Hannibal (set in Hannibal with Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer as Satan's (now called No. 44) companions, also incomplete), and 'No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger'/Print Shop (set in 1490 Austria and the only version to actually have an ending). (http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~kwillis/)

Thanks to modern scholarship it is now knows the 1916 was Paine trying to complete the 1590 Austria version with the 1490 Austria ending. Since this is set in the "Middle Ages" it clearly is using the No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger version but is it what Twain wrote or what University of California had come out as the definitive version?

[–] standardmetal 16 years ago

The character of August Feldner (Chis Makepeace) seems to come from from "No. 44 the Mysterious Stranger" but I wonder if the "frame" is based on the concept of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" where a contemporary of Twain's goes back to the Middle Ages instead of the semi-fictional King Arthur's time which I think is generally thought to be earlier. (late 12th Century?)

Oddly enough, Lance Kerwin who plays the atheistic "No. 44", later found religion after becoming a drug addict early on:

http://www.celebritynooz.com/watn/lance_kerwin.html/

But I'm also rather puzzled about how this script was constructed especially since I can't find any source for the "No. 44" version.