Treasure Island (1950)

This is a cracking interpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of a hunt for a legendary treasure on a remote desert island. Robert Newton is superb as the double-dealing, one-legged "Long John Silver" who would betray his own mother if needs be, enlisted by the foolish "Squire Trelawney" to raise a crew to get them to Hispaniola where Flint's treasure is reputedly located. There's a solid effort from the enthusiastic young Bobby Driscoll as "Jim Hawkins", and Basil Sydney, John Gregson and Denis O'Shea complete the complement of "loyal" officers as against a crew riddled with cut-throats. It's a great, colourful, seafaring adventure with it's fair share of twists and turns. It's odd to see Geoffrey Keen ("Israel Hands") as a baddie and John Laurie, Finlay Currie and a super Francis de Wolff all help Byron Haskin's adaptation to be the best of all. "Them's the die'll be the lucky ones!"