Treasure Island
TREASURE ISLAND (U)
D: Byron Haskin
RKO/Disney (Perce Pearce)
UK 1950
96 mins
Adventure
W: Lawrence Edward Watkins [based on the novel by
Robert Louis Stevenson]
DP: Fred A. Young
Ed: Alan Jaggs
Mus: Clifton Parker
PD: Tom Morahan
Robert Newton (Long John Silver), Bobby
Driscoll (Jim Hawkins), Walter Fitzgerald (Squire Trelawney), Basil Sydney (Capt. Smollett), Denis O'Dea (Dr. Livesey), Geoffrey Wilkinson (Ben Gunn)
Disney's version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel
of a stowaway stuck abroad a ship of swashbuckling pirates on a quest for booty, filmed in the UK to make use of profits which couldn't be transferred to stateside due to tax
reasons.
It's about as good a production as what could have been
made at the time, and considering the film is over 60 years old, it holds up quite well.
Bobby Driscoll, as the only American in the cast, feels
quite out of place as Jim Hawkins, but Robert Newton makes up for it with his iconic performance as Long John Silver, complete with an "Aarrgh!" which has long since become a
recurrent stereotype of pirate lingo.
6/10
