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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 16317
Released: October 10, 2006 |
| Our Price: $8.70 |
| Used Price: $11.65 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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| Features:
Black & White Closed-captioned Dolby DVD Subtitled NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
Avast, mates, and heed a pirate's tale. Billy Bones, bless his cursed soul, has hefted his cutlass and grog for the last time, leaving behind scarcely a doubloon. Aye, but he has left a map to a fabled, buried treasure.... The unforgettable stars of 1931's The Champ reunite for a rousing adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's tale. Jackie Cooper is Jim Hawkins, a lad living the kind of adventure every child dreams about. Treasure map in hand, Jim and his backers set sail for realms and riches unknown aboard the Hispaniola. But beware, me hearties: Notorious, one-legged Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) has signed on to the voyage by posing as a cook. Will the treasure fall into his scheming grasp? Will the Hispaniola soon be a-flying the dreaded skull and bones? Drop anchor and watch. A pirate's life for ye!
DVD Features:
Other:Vintage Dramatic Short The Spectacle Maker Oscar?-Nominated Short Strikes and Spares Classic Cartoon Tale of the Vienna Woods
Theatrical Trailer
Description of Treasure Island:
For many people, this 1934 version is the definitive Treasure Island: the great chemistry between Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, the rousing pirate anthems, and the stubborn parrot on the shoulder. The pairing of the actors was a cinch, coming three years after their tremendously popular teaming in The Champ. Cooper plays Jim Hawkins, the English boy who discovers a treasure map amongst the possessions of one Billy Bones (Lionel Barrymore in a robust extended cameo), a pirate visitor to the Admiral Benbow Inn. Beery, indelibly, is the one-legged, parrot-toting seadog known as Long John Silver, who joins up on the treasure-hunting expedition by pretending to be a humble cook--though the audience knows he is a fearsome pirate captain. Victor Fleming was just the right director for this manly voyage, holding the MGM luster at bay and allowing the crew of characters actors (among them Otto Kruger, Lewis Stone, and "Chic" Sale) to find their sea legs. At times, the relationship between Jim and Silver is closer to The Champ than to Robert Louis Stevenson's marvelous novel, but it's still true in spirit to the bond between boy and surrogate father. The story has been remade many times, notably in 1950 with Robert Newton as Silver, but this one inspires the longest memories. --Robert Horton
Treasure Island Reviews:
pirates 
2009-09-12 - excellent rendition of robret louis stephenson's treasrue island. There is nothing bad I can say about this film It's just wonderful from start to finish.
Cool!
2009-04-28 - I remember watching this film a few times as a kid. This has been the first time that I saw it since then. This was as good as I remembered it to be.
Most realistic Treasure Island movie made
2009-02-23 - This original movie of Treasure Island is very realistic since it was made in the early 1900's, a time when alot of the old tall ships were still around.
Classic Motion Picture Masterpiece In Glorious Black and White!
2008-07-14 - This is a by far the best version of Treasure Island on film. The acting, story and direction are superlative! This was a period of time when MGM and the other motion picture giants were trying to get used to the Hayes Code and get the censors off their backs. The censors were leading a call to boycott movies due to their lack of morality. MGM set about calming the situation down by making a series of expensive, wonderful films from the classics. The Hayes Code couldn't complain about that and how could they lead a boycott of the Classics? It worked, not only by calming the situation down, but by providing people with some of the greatest films of all time. Treasure Island is a wonderful film. It has adventure, pirates and excitement. John Barrymore gets to act in two bit parts to show off his acting talent and we get to see why Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper were so good together as a team. This is a movie that is a good example of why the 1930s was never surpassed as the greatest decade of film in the US and probably the world. The DVD is not colorized thank god and restored beautifully. I remember it as a kid having scratchy sound and a poor print. This is all corrected here. Try it, you'll love it!
Expertly colorized (really!)
2008-05-30 - The colorization on the 1994 VHS version of TREASURE ISLAND is superbly rendered. Unlike so many other movies that have suffered from undergoing digitalized tinting, this film is actually the better for it. The colors are so vivid, diverse and in some scenes, skillfully blended, you may actually find yourself at times marvelling at them.
As for the movie itself:
Because of the talent involved (both in front of and behind the camera), this 1934 edition of the R.L. Stevenson story remains definitive. Wallace Beery is in top form as Long John Silver, Jackie Cooper brings his patented "Gee Whiz" charm to the role of Jim Hawkins and Lionel Barrymore makes for an outstanding Billy Bones. Once Bones dies and the treasure map is found in his sea chest, little time is wasted getting aboard the Hispaniola and sailing off in search of vast riches. The story never drags for a moment as events unfold. Comic relief is provided by an irascibly ill-behaved parrot and scraggly old Ben Gunn (brilliantly portrayed by 'Chic' Sale), who somehow manages to devour an entire wheel of cheese all by himself!
Whether you watch this first sound film of Treasure Island in the original black & white or in its color-enhanced format, one thing is certain-- this is the sort of movie that defines the term "classic." Enjoy!
