Movie Type: Family-Oriented Adventure, Costume Adventure
Themes: Pirates, Daring Rescues
Main Cast: Robert Newton, Kit Taylor, Connie Gilchrist, Eric Reiman, Syd Chambers
Release Year: 1953
Country: AU
Run Time: 106 minutes
Plot
Robert Newton repeats his Treasure Island role as Long John Silver in this Australian adventure film--and if anything, Newton is even more out of control this time around than he'd been in the earlier picture. Paying only lip service to the Robert Louis Stevenson original, the film is made up of several marginally related episodes. In the first, Silver rescues a governor's daughter, managing to save the day and crooked line his own pockets in the process. In the second, Long John quells a mutiny and prevents his young friend Jim Hawkins (Kit Taylor) from having to walk the plank. And in the third, Long John and Jim arrive at Treasure Island, where they're forced to duke it out with the minions of Silver's old enemy Mendoza (Lloyd Burrell). Connie Gilchrist costars as Purity, Long John's on-and-off pubkeeper sweetheart. Long John Silver was later sliced up into three separate half-hours and released to TV as part of the 26-episode Long John Silver TV series, which of course also starred Robert "Arr, matey!" Newton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Henry Gilbert - Billie Bowlegs; Harvey Adams - Governor Strong; Muriel Steinbeck - Lady Strong; Lloyd Berrell - Mendoza; Tony Arpino - Kling; Frank Ransome - Sentry; Charles McCallum - Elderly Naval Officer; Rod Taylor - Israel Hand; Grant Taylor - Patch; Kenneth J. Warren; John Llewellyn; Al Thomas - Harry Grip; John Brunskill
Credit
Mark Evans - Associate Producer, Byron Haskin - Director, Manuel del Campo - Editor, David Buttolph - Composer (Music Score), Carl Guthrie - Cinematographer, Joseph Kaufman - Producer, Martin Rackin - Screenwriter, Robert Louis Stevenson - Book Author
It was shot in colour at the Pagewood Studios, Sydney, and the same company went on to make a 26 episode TV series with the same actors, called The Adventures of Long John Silver. The director, Byron Haskin, had directed Treasure Island in 1950, with Newton as Silver.
