Treasure Island

Starring: Wallace Beery Director: Victor Fleming

DVD Features:

Additional Release Material:

• Other - Vintage Dramatic Short The Spectacle Maker
• Oscar Nominated Short Strikes and Spares
• Classic Cartoon Tale of the Vienna Woods

Product Description:

When young Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) finds a treasure map inside a pirate's chest, he's headed off on a high adventure. Hawkins and family friend Dr. Livesey (Otto Kruger) set off to find the buried treasure, without knowing that half the crew are pirates after the same booty. En route, Hawkins befriends Long John Silver (Wallace Beery), the head of the rogues, and forms a relationship that will prove lifesaving in the dangerous days ahead. Director Victor Fleming's TREASURE ISLAND is a bang-up adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's page-turning novel, and its first adaptation as a sound film.

Plot Synopsis:

Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) is a young man who helps his mother run the Admiral Benbow Inn outside Bristol, England. One fine day a strange-looking man named Billy Bones (Lionel Barrymore) arrives at the Benbow and drunkenly discusses treasure. Bones drops dead, and Hawkins finds a treasure map in the dead man's chest. A friend of Hawkins, Dr. Livesey (Otto Kruger), recognizes the map for what it is and convinces the local squire (Nigel Bruce) to raise the money for a voyage to recoup gold and jewels. But in hiring a crew, Hawkins and Livesy unknowingly put together a motley group of pirates, led by the one-legged Long John Silver (Wallace Beery). As the ship sails, non-pirate crew members begin to disappear, and by the time the boat reaches Treasure Island, Long John and his companions vastly outnumber Jim and Livesy's stalwart crew. Robert Louis Stevenson's novel is among the best children's adventures ever written, and numerous films have attempted to capture the never-a-dull-moment spirit of the book. Fleming's rendition was the first one filmed in the sound era, and for many, it remains the best and most faithful version.

Plot Keywords:

Action | Adventure | Classic | Essential Cinema | High Seas | Kids Adventure | Outlaws | Recommended | Swashbuckler | Vintage

Production Notes:

• TREASURE ISLAND was filmed on location in and around Catalina Island, off the coast of California.
• Three silent-era versions of the novel had already been produced before Fleming's film, and several more were created after Fleming's death.
• "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."--sung by pirates at the Admiral Benbow Inn

Cast and Crew: