This film begins in 1765 at a small tavern on the west coast of England where a young boy by the name of "Jim Hawkins" (Bobby Driscoll) is given a sheet of paper by a fugitive to keep in his possession in case something happens to him. Sure enough, the man is killed not long afterward and Jim dutifully calls the local authorities who chase those responsible off. It's then that Jim shows the person in charge named "Squire Trelawney" (Walter Fitzgerald) the paper given to him which proves to be a map detailing where a fortune in treasure is buried on an deserted island in the Caribbean. This excites Squire Trelawney who immediately seeks to charter a ship out of Bristol to take him to there. Unfortunately, once they find the right ship they realize that there aren't enough reliable sailors in Bristol at the time to fully man it. So to solve the problem Squire Trelawney allows a cook at a nearby inn named "Long John Silver" (Robert Newton) to personally recruit the men needed. What nobody knows, however, is that Long John Silver is a pirate captain and the people he hires are his own men who also want to get their hands on the treasure as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent pirate movie which follows the book reasonably well and is definitely suitable for the entire family. Admittedly, I didn't particular care for the manner in which Geoffrey Wilkinson overplayed the character of "Ben Gunn" but that's just my opinion. Regardless, this wasn't a bad film by any means and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of Treasure Island
