Treasure Island (1934) on Netflix
Jim Hawkins and his mother keep the Admiral Benbow, where Billy Bones dies leaving a chest that holds a map to Captain Flint's treasure. Jim befriends Long John Silver.
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- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Admiral Benbow, a tavern near Bristol, England, is kept by Jim Hawkins and his mother. One stormy night, during a birthday celebration, Billy Bones arrives, drunk and talking of treasure. Black Dog and Pew come to see him, and then Bones drops dead, leaving a chest that Jim opens. It holds no gold, only a map, and Dr. Livesey recognizes it as charting the famous Flint treasure. Squire Trelawney raises money for a voyage, and the Hispaniola sets sail under Captain Alexander Smollett. Aboard are Long John Silver, who has one leg, and his cronies. Bones had warned Jim to beware a sailor with a single leg, yet the boy and Silver become friends.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Treasure Island (1934)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While rehearsing on set with a pistol, Jackie Cooper shot Wallace Beery in the foot with flash powder. The crew, who despised Beery, delighted in his yowls of pain.
- Wallace Beery so resented having to reshoot the film's ending that his misbehavior stretched what should have been a daylong shoot into nearly a week of work.
- Victor Fleming wanted to shoot Treasure Island in color in the South Seas, and when MGM refused, the director threatened to quit.
- The screenplay included the scene in which Silver's men hand him the Black Spot, but at a test screening Fleming noticed the audience was restless, decided they cared more about Jim and his friends, and cut the scene.
- The pirate ship Hispaniola was played by the Nanuk, a schooner converted into a full-rigged ship and moored in Catalina's Emerald Bay for the three-month shoot.
- The film's success vaulted Victor Fleming to the top of his profession, with producers feeling safe entrusting big pictures to him; he finished the decade with The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.
- Jackie Cooper came to feel he was too young to play Jim Hawkins, especially when Louis B. Mayer insisted on wedging in a trademark crying scene for Cooper.
