Treasure Island

Plot synopsis:
Young Jim Hawkins Jackie Cooper) 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 (Lionel Barrymore) arrives and drunkenly talks about treasure. Soon after, Bones is visited by Black Dog (Charles McNaughton) 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) 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 (Lewis Stone) 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), who tells him that he has found Flint's treasure. Meanwhile, Smollett (Lewis Stone) 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 (Otto Kruger) and Gunn (Charles "Chic" Sale) 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. 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.

Tags: action, murder

Review:
The most famous pirate in English literature sets sail across the High Seas of Adventure - bound for TREASURE ISLAND.Robert Louis Stevenson's wonderful 1883 tale of devious deeds, derring-do & hidden doubloons is given a first rate production by MGM in this swaggering, boisterous film.
The story has been necessarily streamlined a bit, but the excisions are judicious and the robust flavour of the original novel remains.Bulbous & bulgy, with a gimlet eye & a baby's grin, Wallace Beery makes a unique Long John Silver.
Here, he gets to personify every lad's dreams of fabulous exploits & personal glory.A trio of accomplished performers portray young Cooper's three friends: Otto Kruger as noble Doctor Livesey; Nigel Bruce as blustery, big-hearted Squire Trelawney; and Lewis Stone as sternly courageous Captain Smollett.
All three acquit themselves very well.Consummate character actor Lionel Barrymore adds another portrait to his gallery - that of the bullying, rumsoaked Billy Bones, whose possession of the treasure map is the instigation of the film's problems.
It is a shame the plot gave him no scenes with Beery - they would have been memorable together.Stevenson's story creates a few small, choice cameo roles which are here delightfully delineated - Charles McNaughton as the scurvy Black Dog; William V.
But someone at MGM had a flash of casting genius cuz Beery is the spittin' image of the Sea Cook in Winslow Homer's illustrations for the novel, and he wears the role like his favorite pair of--um--shoe.
I've seen Disney's, which I liked on the Disneyland telecast, but, while Robert Newton is a definitive Long John Silver and the quintessential adventure-tale pirate--people today say Arrrr!
(And Jack Palance is another great actor and his Long John Silver terrific but the version he's in is embarrassingly bad.
and setting the standard for the rest of the cast), and the unfolding story giving us as motley & mangy a bunch of pirates as ever were--among them Charles McNaughton as Black Dog, Charles Bennett as a creepy Dandy Dawson, Douglas Dumbrille as Israel Hands, and "Chic" Sale as loony Ben Gunn--to the last frame of the last scene this is a downright exciting adventure, and I think it does Robert Louis Stevenson proud (yep, even w/the minor differences).
Casting is spot on with the obvious out of the park home run for the choice of Wallace Beery as Long John Silver.
While this film does not have all the whiz bang special effects that newer pirate films have created, the great acting & directing more than makes up for that.Add to that the amazing fact that this film brings in so much good stuff that it only needs 101 minutes to cover a major novel is enough to make you wonder if some of the new longer films about pirates just aren't very efficient in telling their tales..
Yes here is a good adventure yarn from a famous novel; a treasure map, a seafaring trip to an island with pirates too, lost treasure, and characters with names such as "Black Dog" etc etc However what distinguishes this version of the tale in my opinion is the relationship between cabin boy Jim Hawkins and the wily old one legged sea lag Long John Silver with the parrot on his shoulders.
Entertaining and solid version in which Wallace Beery is great as the famous pirate Long John Silver.
Hollywood vintage adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson pirate adventure from an eyeball-rolling Wallace Beery and a splendid Jacke Coogan .
Jim Hawkins (an appealing acting by Jackie Coogan) encounters the map that lead to a distant island where is a buried treasure.
Then , the young boy join forces with captain Smollett (Lewis Stone), Squire (Nigel Bruce), Doctor Livesey (Otto Kruger) and of course a boisterous Long John Silver(a brilliant triumph by Wallace Beery who is notably snarly , though relatively subdued) journey to isle of hidden bounty.
Jim Hawkins matches with peg-legged Long Silver and adventures go on .Fun story of high seas adventure plenty of intrigue , fights and action.
Appropriately adventurous rendition of Robert Stevenson's often-filmed and spine-tingling tale , in which Wallace Beery hands perfectly the role as rogue pirate and gives a memorable acting, as always.
At the film appears usual and notorious secondary actors in several Hollywood productions, such as Lionel Barrymore as Billy Bones , Otto Kruger as Doctor Livesey , Lewis Stone as Captain Smollett , Douglass Dumbrille as Pirate of the Spanish Main and Watson's Nigel Bruce as Squire .
Other renditions -being multitudinous remakes , as there are many films made of it- based on this classic novel are the followings : Disney take on (1950) by Byron Haskin with Robert Newton , Basil Sydney and Bobby Driscoll , respectable full-blooded second-best the classic Fleming version ; European retelling (1974) by John Hough with Orson Welles , Angel Del Pozo , Lionel Stander and Kim Burfield ; Teasure Island (1999) by Marc Charlesbois with Jack Palance , Patrick Bergin and Kevin Zegers ; TV recounting by Fraser C Heston with Charlton Heston , Christian Bale and Richard Johnson ; and cartoon-Sci-Fi version Treasure planet (2002) directed by John Musker and Ron Clemens .
Victor Flemming, famous helmer for bigger films such as Gone With The Wind, conducts this adventure story with a pleasant, confidant ease, if not a touch of true inspiration.Wallace Beery is brilliant as Long John Silver while Jackie Cooper as Jim plays the perfect sounding board to Beery's loud, large, charismatic performance.Faithful to Mr. Louis Stevenson's chirography of the same tile; in this writer's humble opinion this incarnation of the film captures, most closely, the tone of the original novel - maybe it being closest to the novel chronologically can account for that.Beery delivers a truly classic American performance here, that anyone, even the most media jaded of our day, should have fun following the old tar and his young friend in their adventures across this terraqueous globe..
However, despite this, the movie is an excellent version of the Stevenson novel--mostly due to good acting, great sets and the nice MGM polish you'd expect from one of their top productions.As far as the film goes, it's one of the earliest of the Wallace Beery films that teamed him with a cute kid--a formula that was repeated again and again up until Beery's death in 1949.
Irresponsibly altering Stevenson's ending to 'tie in' with the film's top-heavy emphasis on the Long John Silver/Jim Hawkins relationship.
truly of a long past era, and yet this is an American film displaying convincing old British patriotism.Jackie Cooper is also far away from today's acting styles; manifestly limited to a few notes, but heck, the kid plays it for all its worth.
Every generation sees a new adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's eternal classic Treasure Island.
And it has one of the great acting roles of all time, one you can really eat a whole living room set with and still be in bounds.For a scene stealing actor like Wallace Beery playing Long John Silver is no stretch at all.
He dominates this version over the entire cast and as he's in most of the scenes after Lionel Barrymore as Captain Billy Bones dies and leaves his map to that intrepid band of treasure hunters.
Barrymore gets his innings in as well as the bloodthirsty pirate captain who double-crossed his crew and had the presence of mind to die in Dorothy Peterson and Jackie Cooper's inn.It's a real toss up between who is loudest, biggest eyerolling, larger than life Silver, be it Wallace Beery or Robert Newton in the later version done by Walt Disney.
Yet you'd never know it seeing them together as Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver.Otto Kruger as Dr. Livesey, Nigel Bruce as Squire Trelawney, and Lewis Stone as Captain Smollett are perfectly cast in their roles.
Beery's Long John Silver and Barrymore's Billy Bones are the quintessential pop-culture pirates, parrots and all, and for that alone 1934's "Treasure Island" is worth watching.
TREASURE ISLAND is the sort of film that cries out for Technicolor since it deals with pirates, treasure maps, ships at sea and a fort under attack--the sort of thing done in scores of other movies (and other versions of the story), but usually in color.Here the B&W photography is handsome enough, the sets look sturdy, the ship masts are full and the acting is strictly from the '30s era of overacting--not too much of a flaw in this case because the story cries for some good old melodramatic turns.During the opening sequences, LIONEL BARRYMORE acts up a storm as Billy Bones, the man who has the whole tavern singing "Sixteen Men On a Dead Man's Chest".
Unfortunately, his role is a comparatively brief one.JACKIE COOPER resorts to too much pouting (in Shirley Temple style) to be truly effective as Jim Hawkins but does a decent enough job; WALLACE BEERY steals every scene he's in as the one-legged Long John Silver with a parrot on his shoulder; LEWIS STONE and NIGEL BRUCE do well enough in more conventional roles as high-blooded men from aristocracy; and even OTTO KRUGER, an actor I'm not particularly fond of, does one of his best jobs as Dr. Livesey, protector of the Hawkins boy, and DOUGLAS DUMBRILLE does a brilliant job as a master villain.Among the pirates, there's a good sense of adventure all the way through and the Robert Louis Stevenson story is faithfully rendered except for the sentimental ending.
This version is let down a little by an, for my tastes, overly-sentimental ending(though it is nowhere near as bad as the insulting ending of the bizarre-in-a-bad-way adaptation with Jack Palance) and Jackie Cooper's at times wooden and cloying Jim, though he does show believability in some of his scene with Beery.
Treasure Island(1934) is not one of Victor Fleming's very best films, it's not among the best films ever made like The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind are, but it does rank high among his filmography and Fleming does a very good job directing, both technically and in his direction of the story and acting.
Stealing the show is Wallace Beery who is perfectly-cast as Long John and does wonderfully showing the character's good and bad sides, usually I take or leave him as an actor but his performance here is one of his finest, a career-best perhaps.
There is some great character actors involved and they don't disappoint, Lionel Barrymore plays Billy Bones with great menacing gusto, Nigel Bruce's blustering and bumbling fits Squire Trelawney like a glove and Charles "Chic" Sale is an amusing Ben Gunn.
In this 1934 film classic that actor happens to be the 12 year old future Hollywood adult star Jackie Cooper.
Treasure Island is another of Wallace Beery's greatest performances and to this day some 84 years later the film is as entertaining as when it was first released.
Treasure Island provided millions of people a few hours of relief in which they listened and laughed to the gregarious pirate Long John Silver played to perfection by Wallace Beery.
Young boys and girls today will greatly enjoy the key part that the 12 year old Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) plays opposite both the pirate Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) and the good guy Captain Smollett (Lewis Stone).
Who knows, but maybe, just maybe, this 1934 version of Treasure Island will allow some of our own children's imagination to actually develop and at a future date when they become adults create a future film classic in this current century.For all real movie fans this is a film classic that should not be missed as it still stands up well almost a century old now.I give the film a perfect 10 for 10 rating for its time and even to this day!.
This is a pretty schmaltzy version of Stevenson's classic story.It's lots of fun,and quite enjoyable,but has been forced in to MGM's procrustean bed of turning classic novels into warm-hearted family fare,without regard as to the appropriateness of that decision.There's a big emphasis on the love story between Jim and Long John,which really doesn't occupy that place in the novel.Cooper goes around trying to convince everybody of how nice Beery is,and nobody else can see it,because it isn't there.Beery as Silver grunts and puffs away,and lacks both the energy,the smarts,and the boldness to do an accurate portrayal of the character-but no one  else available could have carried it off,either.bruce is stupid,greedy,and reliable as the Squire;Krueger's Livesey is intelligent and incisive;and Stone is stern,capable and brave:bravo to each one.The English rustics are kind and stupid;the pirates are so grotesque as to be cartoony;and Barrymore and Sale ham it up something awful.(Black Dog and Pew,however,are first-rate.)The routines with the parrot and the nose-blowing are okay,if you're 7 years old.This is a fun movie,and a classic,but won't replace the 1990 version made by Turner..
I've never read the book Treasure Island so I can't compare this 1934 adaptation to the source material but rather give a point of view as someone who watched the film out of admiration for the stars involved.
The chemistry they share, what a pure and natural delight.For me Cooper's performance in Treasure Island is priceless; a little kid trying to act tough.
Dumbrille, by the way, should be congratulated for his acting here - he manages not to show off that stentorian voice of his, but uses a more weaselly sounding voice quite effectively.Note also Lionel Barrymore's noisy and frightening, but ultimately frightened Captain Billy Bones, forcing the civilians in the Admiral Benbow Inn to sing "Fifteen Men on a Deadman's Chest", but quivering when told the one legged sea cook has been seen nearby.
So the film merits a "10".*Historically, there was a pirate named Israel Hands, though he was dead by the time of TREASURE ISLAND (roughly 1740).
It only made sense that with the successful pairing of Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios would try their luck again with "Treasure Island." Wallace Beery adds his own unique charm to his portrayal of Long John Silver, that I found very amusing and he is actually pretty good on one leg.
Jackie Cooper's acting is a little wooden as Jim Hawkins, but he does manage to shine and is most endearing in his many scenes with Beery.
This above average adaption of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story, still remains a very entertaining family film to watch..
Vintage movie is fun version of Stevenson's pirate adventure tale.
The gruesome death of Blind Pew, and the murder of an honest seaman by Long John Silver, witnessed by the horrified Jim Hawkins, are presented unflinchingly.The shipboard and island scenes are good, and the siege of the stockade is excitingly staged.
Robert Louis Stevenson has written a fine tale of adventure, life on the high seas, pirates, treasure chests, betrayal and intrigue, and all that.
Doctor Livesey (Otto Kruger), Squire Trelawney (Nigel Bruce), and Captain Smollet (Lewis Stone) hire a crew to sail the Hispaniola to Treasure Island and dig up the chests.
'Long' John Silver shows that he is an able conman, pirate, liar, double-crosser, and schemer through this whole treasure hunting experience.*Special Stars- Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper*Theme- Men will look for treasure even if they suffer for it.*Based on- Robert Louise Stevenson's famous pirate novel*Trivia/location/goofs- There is a obvious film goof when Jim (Cooper) Hawkins goes to the Hispaniola's galley to speak to Long (Beery) John and stands at the galley door.
In later years during Jackie Cooper interviews, he tells about Wallace Beery's antagonism and drinking during their scenes in this film.
At one level, it's a reluctant buddy story between a devious, sometimes piratical, one-legged rascal(Long John Silver) and a naïve imaginative boy(Jim Hawkins) who worships the charismatic knowledgeable man.
On the voyage home, in reciprocation, Jim releases Silver from custody, so that he may sail off into the unknown, and avoid the hangman's noose that the gentlemen adventures had in store for him.....Wallace Berry makes an appealing charismatic Long John, but it's inevitable that he will be compared with Robert Newton, who took the same role in the 1954 Disney remake.
Of course, kids these days usually demand color movies, which is where Disney's version shines....Other charismatic characters include Lionel Barrymore as Billy Bones, who supplies the treasure map among his post-humus things., William Mung, as blind Pew, Charles McNunington as Black Dog, and ,of course, skeletal Ben Gun..
109 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Young Jim Hawkins tackles vicious Long John Silver.VIEWERS' GUIDE: Suitable for all.COMMENT: Young Cooper is not an overly convincing Jim Hawkins, but everyone else is absolutely brilliant in this outstandingly entertaining version of the Stevenson novel we all studied so assiduously at school.
In fact, Long John Silver was the role Beery was born to play.
What they don't realize however is that the recently hired cook—and Jim's new friend--named "Long John Silver" (Wallace Beery) knows quite a bit more than he lets on and he has a secret agenda all of his own.
In my opinion, the only good thing about this 1934 film was the wonderful relationship that developed between Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery.
Victor Fleming teams up Beery and Cooper in Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Nevertheless, back in 1934, he was the one chosen to direct a film version of Robert Stevenson's 1883 novel, TREASURE ISLAND.
Elements of the story can be found the most recent Disney trilogy PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.In this version, Wallace Beery stars as Long John Silver, then literature's most famous pirate.
His co-star is Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins, the protagonist in Stevenson's novel.
Silver connives his way through the boy's grace and gets a position as the ship's cook.I found neither Beery or Cooper entirely convincing here though both are fun to watch when together.
It's sad evidence showing how segregated Los Angeles was at time.However, for the movie sake, they're great antagonists for Stone and his crew and allows Silver and his pirates escape the ship for the island.