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11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Welles makes this film work, 11 October 2004
Author: dvandevi (dvandevi@rochester.rr.com) from Rochester, New York USA

At first glance, Orson Welles did indeed seem to be woefully mis-cast in this bastardized [French, Italian, Spanish, British, West German and who knows what else] version of the Stevenson classic. Fortunately, by the second or third viewing you start to focus less on Welles articulation and more on the film itself. It is a menacing version. From the moment ships' cook Silver opens the galley window with his crutch and demands 'Three cheers for Cap'n Smollett!' this version is dripping with evil. And Welles is just the actor [and his mumbling delivery is deliberately utilized] to bring that evil into sharp focus. Kim Burfield is superb as Jim Hawkins [a kid alternately scared-to-death and naively cocky] , and even when Silver asserts that 'I thinks gold-dust of this here boy!' you know the kid's in trouble. That international crew of pirates brings an air of realism to the production [even if their lips aren't always moving in synchronization with the spoken dialogue] which an all-English crew wouldn't have imparted, and Jean Lefebvre's somewhat dazed Ben Gunn is in fine contrast to Geoffrey Wilkinson's loopy Disney version. Natale Massara's score is wonderful, though apparently there never was a soundtrack ['and more's the pity'], and the cinematography is magnificent. My only two criticisms are that Lionel Stander is badly mis-cast as Billy Bones [the guy still sounded like exactly what he was: a tough-guy from the Bronx], and the pirates' treasure-hunting seems much-too-much like they're out for a leisurely Sunday after-dinner stroll. It definitely lacks urgency. This said, I would rank this version almost on a par with the Disney/Newton version, and well worth owning and watching again and again.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
TREASURE ISLAND (John Hough and, uncredited, Andrea Bianchi and Antonio Margheriti, 1972) **, 13 May 2006
5/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

In my childhood, this was a perennial on Italian TV over Christmas - but, somehow, I never got to watch it! It's surely the least of the three most renowned film versions of the R.L. Stevenson classic but, in itself, is decent enough...if still mainly interesting for the contribution (both as actor and writer) of Orson Welles.

Welles' presence alone elevates any film he appears in - though he's quite restrained here (certainly in comparison to Robert Newton) and, unwisely, adopts perhaps the silliest accent since THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)! As for his script - co-written, under the pseudonym O.W. Jeeves, with Wolf Mankowitz - it's reasonably faithful to both the spirit and letter of Stevenson's original. However, the low-budget hurts the overall effort (Welles must have identified with such a predicament, as his own films were too often plagued by compromise!) and the 'modern' score composed by Natale Massara is quite inappropriate.

Still, despite a good cast - including Kim Burfield (unexceptional but not bad as Jim Hawkins), Walter Slezak (as Squire Trelawney), Lionel Stander (as Billy Bones), Paul Muller (as Blind Pew) and Maria Rohm (as Mrs. Hawkins) - it's essentially a 'kiddie' film and is, therefore, in sharp contrast with most of producer Harry Alan Towers' output (particularly his collaborations with Jess Franco)!

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Best adaptation of Stevenson, 23 April 2008
9/10
Author: ubisuntleones from France

Treasure Island with O Wells is simply the best adaptation of the Stevenson story ever done. Why ? Beside the great play of Wells, and others good actors, i would say that the movie keep alive the spirit of the book which is the one of people who like the old seaman story, who like the wind, the sea, the waves, this touch of tough adventure and sea. BUT MORE important than anything else, the movie keeps and makes everyone feel strongly this specific young spirit with the which one Stevenson himself started his book : spirit which is necessary to enjoy this sort of story. Really better than the one of Walt Disney ( too sugary ), this Treasure Island will enjoy people who like to be told a story like when one read the book for hours and hours, unable to leave it. Or like children, exactly the expectation of Stevenson, who told too about the young of his time : "may be too wise young..." "Too wise", meaning unable to taste the spirit of adventure and ability to dream, sail full of wind and salt ! The music is great too. N.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
I loved this dark version of Treasure Island, 6 July 2005
9/10
Author: caesarmoridon from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I find this to be the definitive version of Treasure Island. I thought that Orson Wells's performance was exactly what it needed to be as a pirate. He was evil, but charming, violent but kind, he was as two sided as a coin. In my mind that is what a pirate is romantically. I saw this film first when I was 10 years old approximately and loved it then. I saw it again in the 1990's and fell in love with it again. With all the bad, weird and annoying versions of this classic novel like treasure planet (lame!) It is nice to have a standard to base them upon in cinematic form. This is it. Not Orson Wells greatest film by far but an enjoyable treat yes!

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
This is the BEST adaption i've ever seen of TREASURE ISLAND!, 6 July 1999
Author: anonymous from Midrid, Spain

I love this film! It is so great! I was sitting on my couch eating Ruffles potato chips when this film called TREASURE ISLAND came on! I was caught up in it all the way! I especially love the way Maria Rohm plays Mrs. Hawkins! She is so sinister in her role that it makes me glad! I hope that this film will come on again! I love the smell of it!

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
European remake of the Robert Louis Stevenson pirate adventure, 20 June 2009
6/10
Author: ma-cortes

Again we live the roaring adventure of men against the sea. We share the struggles, the heartaches, the laughter of courageous souls who leave their houses they love to dare the wrath of the angry pirates. Upright men and greedy pirates in conflict with their destiny enacting the Robert Stevenson's most thrilling story. Jim Hawkins(Kim Burfield) encounters the map that lead to a distant island where is a buried treasure. Jim, captain Smollett(Rik Battaglia), Squire(Walter Slezak), Doctor Livesey(Angel Del Pozo) and of course a boisterous Long John Silver( a brilliant triumph by Orson Welles) journey to isle of hidden bounty.

Orson Welles who is also screenwriter hands perfectly the role as rogue pirate and gives a memorable acting, as always. Delightful performance by Jean Lefebre as Ben Gunn, as well. At the film appear usual secondary actors in several Spaniard-Italians co-productions, such as Paul Muller, Barta Barry, Victor Israel, Jose Jaspe and Aldo Sambrell .The motion picture is middling directed by John Hough and uncredited by Andrew White. This production is powered by the great Orson Welles. Rating: Acceptable and passable.

Another renditions based on this classic novel are the following : vintage version (1934) by Victor Fleming with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper; Disney take on (1950) by Byron Haskin with Robert Newton and Bobby Driscoll and cartoon-Sci-Fi version(2002) directed by John Musker and Ron Clemens.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A good version of Treasure Island, 30 January 2011
8/10
Author: Tony Rome from Long Island, New york

I agree this film is slow paced, however it has some redeeming points. Lionel Stander gives a great performance as Billy Bones. Stander was gruff looking and perfectly cast. Jim Hawkins, played by Kim Burfield, does remind one of young Jackie Cooper, in the Wallace Berry version. Walter Slezak is good as the squire, but he does not get many scenes to play out his role. Orson Welles plays Long John Silver very well, his mumbling may at times be unintelligible, however this appears to have been done so that the audience gets a good picture, or a rough, tough, sea faring man who has seen a lot in his years as a pirate. The relation ship between Jim and LJS is almost like a father son relationship. I enjoyed this version, the cinematography, and costume design are superb. A++++

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5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Strange Casting,Shoddy Production, 23 November 2002
Author: Hans C. Frederick (schweinhundt1967@postmaster.co.uk) from Parma Heights, Ohio, U.S.A.

The level of production values,the caliber of the sets,the quality of the writing tend to make me think of the peplum films and cheap swashbucklers made in Europe during the post-war period and the 1950s and early 1960s that we used to see at Saturday afternoon matinees at the cinema or on Television.Let's face it,it doesn't even come up to the level of bad entertainment.Where do we begin? 1.)The ship is so small and shoddy that it couldn't even qualify as a fishing boat,let alone a deep-water vessel. 2.)The fort on the island,described as a sturdy log cabin in the story,is a stucco and brick hacienda,with a stone wall rather than the log stockade required. 3.)The casting is really quite strange:a.)Stander is so benign as to be unbelievable;b.)Slezak,as the squire is too refined and much too Middle-European to portray the blustering,blowhard Stevenson intended;c.)Who,in the name of all that's holy,suggested that Welles play Silver?He's too old,too lethargic,and too unhealthy looking to gives us the strong,powerful,vital villain we all think of.The only truly piratical trait he has is a genuine penchant for evil.

Interestingly enough,they do show Ben Gunn as was the original concept.And the scenes at the Benbow Inn are quite realistic and accurate.In addition,the scenes at Silver's inn,interactions among the pirates there,and the introduction of Silver's mulatto wife give this production it's only redeeming moments.Watch this ,and see what not to do.

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More efficient enough time filler than buried treasure, 6 July 2009
5/10
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

It's a curious irony that a producer as fond of adapting novels in the public domain as Harry Alan Towers should let so many of his films fall into the public domain himself. So it is with his 1972 Anglo-Spanish-Italian co-pro version of Treasure Island, one of his many collaborations with the perennially cash-strapped Orson Welles. The great man may have co-written the script under the pseudonym O.W. Jeeves (alongside five others), but he didn't hang around for the dubbing, which means we see him as Long John Silver but hear Bond villain revoicer par excellence Robert Rietty delivering his dialogue. Still, some of it is good dialogue and, while not attempting an impersonation, Rietty does at least get the style, cadence and intonation of Welles so it's not quite as big a handicap as it might seem at first. Not that he's the only one dubbed – half the multi-national cast are flying (or talking) under false colors, as is the Spanish port that doubles unconvincingly for Bristol Harbor. The film itself isn't an eye patch on the 1934 Wallace Beery-Jackie Cooper version or even the hard-to-find but surprisingly good 1990 Charlton Heston-Christian Bale TV movie, but it's efficient enough time filler without ever hitting the highs, and the early scenes at the Admiral Benbow Inn are fairly atmospheric. Natale Massara's score sounds suspiciously like Roy Budd's impressive work on the previous year's Kidnapped – something that probably was not a coincidence, though since Budd wasn't averse to 'borrowing' himself, it's not quite such a brazen act of musical piracy as it may at first seem.

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Disappionting, 24 March 2009
5/10
Author: mmka1 from United States

So far as I've seen, this is the most commendable of all interpretations of Robert Lewis Stevenson's stirring book; yet, still a great disappointment.

Most of the cast did well enough in their rolls, with the exception of, believe it or not, Orson Welles. Mr. Welles so severely under played the part of Long John Silver he made the character completely uninteresting; that and his unintelligible mumbling fatally scuttles what should have been a great and memorable film.

The music of Natale Massara, another problem, while expertly orchestrated, is derivative of other works and does nothing to convey the feeling of a thrilling tale of the sea. It would have been better suited to an episode of "Little House On The Prairie" with it's ocean of grass.

I certainly won't say that it is a waste of time to watch this version, but if it were not for Wolf Mankowitz writing the screenplay, this might well have been a complete failure.

For a real treat, go see "Muppet Treasure Island". You won't be sorry! More information at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117110/ .

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