Movie Type: Costume Adventure, Family-Oriented Adventure
Themes: Treasure Hunts, Pirates
Main Cast: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney, Walter Fitzgerald, Denis O'Dea
Release Year: 1950
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
The Walt Disney production of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic novel Treasure Island is one of the company's best live-action films of the '50s, and one of the best family-oriented adventures ever filmed. Bobby Driscoll plays Jim Hawkins, a young cabin boy who battles the pirate Long John Silver (Robert Newton) for a treasure. Disney changes the ending of the book, yet the film is so entertaining--particularly Newton's scene-stealing performance--that the difference is forgivable. In the '70s, Treasure Island was re-issued with "objectionable" violence cut out of the print; the original version was restored in the 1992 home video re-release. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Review
The most popular and often-filmed of all pirate adventure stories is this Robert Louis Stevenson classic. It was filmed by MGM in 1934 and remade several times, but no version was more memorable than the 1950 Walt Disney effort. As Disney pictures go, Treasure Island was rather daring, with so much spectacle and violence that some of the battle sequences had to be edited out in some versions. At the heart of the film's appeal was the unique performance of Robert Newton as villain Long John Silver. Newton's combination of swagger, cruelty, and foppishness gives the film needed weight, since so much of the suspense depends on the young protagonist's fear and loathing of his nemesis. Many a young child's nightmares were filled with Newton's characterization of Silver, and Treasure Island was a prime example of the criticism that Disney's successful pictures depend as much on instilling fear as on providing comfort. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Finlay Currie - Capt. Billy Bones; Ralph Truman - George Merry; John Laurie - Blind Pew; Francis de Wolff - Black Dog; Geoffrey Wilkinson - Ben Gunn; Geoffrey Keen - Israel Hands; William Devlin - Tom Morgan; Sam Kydd - Cady; Harry Locke - Haggott; Stephen Jack - Job Anderson; Gordon Mulholland - Durgin; Patrick Troughton - Roach; Leo Phillips - Spotts; Fred Clark - Bray; Tom Lucas - Upson; David Davies - Mr. Arrow; John Gregson - Redruth; Howard Douglas - Williams; Eddie Moran - Jack Bart
Credit
Peter Ellenshaw - Art Director, Byron Haskin - Director, Alan Jaggs - Editor, Clifton Parker - Composer (Music Score), Muir Mathieson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Tony Sforzini - Makeup, Tom Morahan - Production Designer, Freddie Young - Cinematographer, Perce Pearce - Producer, Lawrence Edward Watkin - Screenwriter, Robert Louis Stevenson - Book Author
A sequel to the film, Long John Silver, was released in 1954, with Newton reprising his role of Long John Silver. Newton went on to play Silver again in a TV series, The Adventures of Long John Silver (made 1954-55), also shot at Pagewood Studios Sydney, and started (in Technicolor) before Australia had television.
