''Treasure Island'' is a 1934 film directed by

Victor Fleming Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best ...

and starring Wallace Beery,

Jackie Cooper John Cooper Jr. (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor, television director, producer, and executive, known universally as Jackie Cooper. He was a child actor who made the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first ...

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

Lewis Stone Lewis Shepard Stone (November 15, 1879 – September 12, 1953) was an American film actor. He spent 29 years as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was best known for his portrayal of Judge James Hardy in the studio's popular '' Andy ...

, and Nigel Bruce. It is an adaptation of

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's famous 1883 novel of the same name. Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

led by Long John Silver threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and lives.

Plot

Young Jim Hawkins (

) and his mother ( Dorothy Peterson) run the Admiral Benbow, a tavern near Bristol, England. One dark and stormy night, during a birthday celebration, the mysterious Billy Bones (

) arrives and drunkenly talks about treasure. Soon after, Bones is visited by Black Dog (

Charles McNaughton Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

) then Pew ( William V. Mong), and drops dead, leaving a chest, which he bragged contained gold and jewels. Instead of money, Jim finds a map that his friend Dr. Livesey (

Otto Kruger Otto Kruger (September 6, 1885 – September 6, 1974) was an American actor, originally a Broadway matinee idol, who established a niche as a charming villain in films, such as Hitchcock's ''Saboteur''. He also appeared in CBS's ''Perry Mason'' a ...

) realizes will lead them to the famous Flint treasure. Squire Trelawney ( Nigel Bruce) raises money for a voyage to the treasure island and they set sail on Captain Alexander Smollett's (

) ship ''Hispaniola''. Also on board is the one-legged Long John Silver ( Wallace Beery) and his cronies. Even though Bones had warned Jim about a sailor with one leg, they become friends. During the voyage, several fatal "accidents" happen to sailors who disapprove of Silver and his cohorts. Then, the night before landing on the island, Jim overhears Silver plotting to take the treasure and kill Smollett's men. Jim goes ashore with the men, and encounters an old hermit named Ben Gunn (

Chic Sale Chic (; ), meaning "stylish" or "smart", is an element of fashion. It was originally a French word. Pronounced Chick. Etymology ''Chic'' is a French word, established in English since at least the 1870s. Early references in English dictiona ...

), who tells him that he has found Flint's treasure. Meanwhile, Smollett and his loyal men flee to Flint's stockade on the island for safety. Silver's men then attack the stockade when Smollett refuses to give them the treasure map. While the situation looks hopeless, Jim secretly goes back to the ''Hispaniola'' at night, sails it to a safe location and shoots one of the pirates in self-defense. When he returns to the stockade, Silver's men are there and Silver tells them that a treaty has been signed. The pirates want to kill Jim, but Silver protects him. Dr. Livesey comes for Jim, but the boy refuses to break his word to Silver not to run away. The next day the pirates search for the treasure hold and when they find it, it is empty. When some of the pirates mutiny against Silver, Livesey and Gunn join him in the fight. Smollett then sails home with the treasure, which Gunn had hidden in his cave, and with Silver as his prisoner. Silver tells Jim a horror story of a slow death by hanging due to his one leg causing Jim to be unable to stand by and let his friend be hanged, Jim frees Silver. As he sails away, Silver promises to hunt treasure with Jim again some day, as Honest John Silver.

Cast

* Wallace Beery as Long John Silver *

as Jim Hawkins *

as Billy Bones *

as Doctor Livesey *

Captain Smollett Captain Alexander Smollett is the fictional captain of the schooner ''Hispaniola'' in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel ''Treasure Island''. He plays an important part in disciplining the main characters on the ship as the story progresses, and ...

* Nigel Bruce as Squire Trelawney * Charles "Chic" Sale as Ben Gunn * William V. Mong as Pew * Charles McNaughton as Black Dog * Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Hawkins * Vernon Downing as Inn Boy * As Pirates of the Spanish Main: ** Douglass Dumbrille (

Israel Hands Israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was an 18th-century pirate best known for being second in command to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. His name serves as the basis for the name of the villainous sidekick in Robert Louis Steven ...

) ** Edmund Breese (Job Anderson) ** Olin Howland (Dick) ** Charles Irwin (Abraham Gray) ** Edward Pawley (William O'Brien) ** Richard Powell (Post) ** James Burke (George Merry) ** John Anderson (Harry Sykes) ** Charles Bennett (Daddy Dawson) * Harry Cording as Henry (uncredited) *

J. M. Kerrigan Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964) was an Irish actor. Early life Joseph Michael Kerrigan was born on 16 December 1884 in Dublin, which was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time. H ...

as Tom Morgan (uncredited)

Casting notes

Wallace Beery originally was cast as Israel Hands in director

Maurice Tourneur Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...

's silent production of '' Treasure Island'' for

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

in 1920 (now a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

). Beery was replaced by Joseph Singleton but appeared that year in Tourneur's silent masterpiece ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is a historical romance written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinde ...

''.

Reception

The film's box office performance was described as "disappointing" although it was MGM's third biggest film of the season with rentals of $2,264,000. It was re-issued in 1937–38 and earned an additional $144,000. Writing for ''The Spectator'' in 1936,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

favorably compared the film to ''

Midshipman Easy ''Midshipman Easy'' is a 1935 British adventure film directed by Carol Reed and starring Hughie Green, Margaret Lockwood and Harry Tate. The screenplay concerns a young man who runs away from home, joins the navy and goes to sea in the 1790s. He ...

'', describing ''Treasure Island'' as having "a deeper, a more poetic value", with characters and events providing rich symbolism and a palpable sense of good and evil. (reprinted in: )

References

External links

* * * *
Treasure Island
at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

Radio Times review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treasure Island (1934 Film) 1934 films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1934 adventure films Films directed by Victor Fleming American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Treasure Island films Films scored by Herbert Stothart American adventure films 1930s American films