Treasure Island (1934)

Treasure Island (1934)

Treasure Island is a 1934 movie adaptation of Robert Louis StevensonΓΓé¼Γäós famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) threaten to take away the honest seafarersΓΓé¼Γäó riches and lives.


Synopsis

Young Jim Hawkins and his mother run the Admiral Benbow Inn near Bristol, England. During a birthday celebration, the mysterious Billy Bones arrives and drunkenly talks about treasure. Soon after, Bones is visited by Black Dog then Pew, 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 realizes will lead them to the famous Flint treasure. Squire Trelawney raises money for a voyage to the treasure island and they set sail on Captain Alexander Smollett's ship. Also on board is the one-legged Long John Silver 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, who tells him that he has found Flint's treasure. Meanwhile, Smollett and his men flee to the island's stockade 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 ship 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. Unable to stand by and let his friend be hanged, Jim frees Silver. As he sails away, Silver promises to be good.

Cast & Crew

Victor Fleming Director
Wallace Beery as Long John Silver
Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins
Lionel Barrymore as Billy Bones
Otto Kruger as Doctor Livesey
Lewis Stone as Captain [Alexander] Smollett
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
Douglas Dumbrille as Hands

Release Date 17 Aug 1934
Color/BW Black and White
Sound Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Production Dates 20 Mar---late May 1934
Duration (in mins) 109-110
Duration (in reels) 11
Distribution Company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Production Company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Country United States

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MOVIE REVIEW:

Wallace Beery Waves The Jolly Roger
23 May 2002 | by Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com)

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. Although many of the lead actors are American and make no pretense of hiding their Yankee accents, this in no way hinders the enjoyment or appreciation of the film's many qualities. 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. As willful as an infant and as ruthless as a Mafia don, he completely manages to steal every scene he's in. Acting as innocent as any cherub, he gleefully commits murderous mayhem at every turn, while hobbling about on his crutch in feverish pursuit of Flint's buried treasure. Beery had the rare - and enviable - ability to take a wretched sinner like Silver and transform him into a lovable old rogue. He makes this role his own and is unforgettable in it.

OUR GANG star Jackie Cooper makes a sturdy Jim Hawkins. His screen chemistry with Beery, so important to the plot, is still as good as it was previously in THE CHAMP (1931). Cooper was a talented child actor and could easily go from excited high jinks to blubbery tears with ease. 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. Although the role is really quite brief, Barrymore makes the most of it, slashing wildly about with his cutlass and singing ΓΓé¼╦£Fifteen Men On A Dead Man's Chest' with passionate fury. 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. Mong as the fearsome Blind Pew; and a terrific Charles ΓΓé¼╦£Chic' Sale as canny old Ben Gunn, all jerks and fidgets and ridden with fleas. Dorothy Peterson, a fine actress, plays Mrs. Hawkins.

The seafaring scenes on board the Hispaniola, filmed along the coast of California, are particularly well produced.



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