review for A Connecticut Yankee on AllMovie

One of the remarkable attributes of Will Rogers was his resiliency -- although producers obviously favored homespun, rural subjects for his films, you could seemingly put him anywhere and audiences would accept him. Hence this filming of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, which even manages to put what modern audiences would describe as a "Back To the Future" twist on the plot as part of its cliffhanger ending. Actor-turned-director David Butler, who had previously helmed the science-fiction/musical Just Imagine, turns his attention to fantasy here and correctly lets his star, Will Rogers, carry the picture, as the homespun, deceptively clever modern man moved out of his element when he is plunged 1000 years into the past. This is a Will Rogers vehicle, much as, say, Roman Scandals or Ali Baba Goes To Town were Eddie Cantor vehicles, or the 1940's remake of this same story was built around Bing Crosby, so the real focus is Rogers rather than the story -- and as much as any of the John Ford-directed Rogers films of the era, it's a good way for modern viewers to discover the actor's appeal. That, and the conceits of the original Twain tale, still carry this picture well seven decades later, even if they don't seem as clever now as they did then.