Treasure Island (1920 film)

Treasure Island is a 1920 silent film adaptation of the 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, directed by Maurice Tourneur, and released by Paramount Pictures. Lon Chaney played two different key roles in this production. Charles Ogle, who had played Frankenstein's Monster in the first filmed version of Frankenstein a decade earlier at Edison Studios, portrayed Long John Silver.[1]

Treasure Island
Directed byMaurice Tourneur
Produced byMaurice Tourneur
Written byJules Furthman (screenplay)
Robert Louis Stevenson (novel)
StarringLon Chaney
Shirley Mason
Charles Ogle
Sydney Deane
Charles Hill Mailes
CinematographyRené Guissart
Production
company
Maurice Tourneur Productions
Distributed byParamount-Artcraft Pictures
Release date
  • April 4, 1920 (1920-04-04)
Running time
76 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent
English intertitles

This film is now considered a lost film.[2][3]

Plot

Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint. Young Jim Hawkins helps his widowed mother run the Admiral Benbow Inn on the west coast of England.

When former pirate Billy Bones is killed at the inn by other pirates seeking the map to the lost treasure of Captain Flint, Jim finds the map and turns it over to his mother's friends, Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawney, who organize an expedition to recover the treasure. Jim stows away aboard Livesey and Trelawney's ship, which is manned by a crew largely chosen by Long John Silver, a one-legged pirate posing as a cook.

Treasure Island 1920 film magazine article
period advertisement

Silver's plans for a mutiny are discovered by Jim and reported to Livesey and Trelawney, who manage to hold the pirates at bay until they arrive at the island and take refuge in a shelter with Jim and the loyal crew members. A battle with the pirates results in the map being turned over to Silver and his gang, but the pirates are eventually routed, and Jim and the others find Flint's treasure through the services of Ben Gunn, a pirate who had been stranded on the island.[4]

Cast

Production background

In September 1919, announcements of the upcoming film in movie journals stated that Jack Holt would play Long John Silver and that Wallace Beery would play Israel Hands, though both roles were eventually filled by different actors. Both Holt and Beery as well as Lon Chaney and Bull Montana had appeared in Tourneur's Victory the year before.

The film reportedly had color sequences, possibly hand-colored with the Handschiegel Color Process.

The film opened in New York on April 11, 1920, and some contemporary sources give that date for the film's release.

This film was actually the fifth and most lavish silent film adaptation of the story with productions made in 1908, 1911, 1913, and by Fox Film Corporation in 1918. This version was also the last silent production of the story.

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See also
  • A pirate on lookout
  • Pirates by the mouth of a cave on the island
  • Ogle and Mason
  • Lon Chaney as Blind Pew
  • Jim a prisoner of the pirate crew
  • Pirate gathering

References
  1. The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:Treasure Island(Wayback)
  2. Treasure Island at silentera.com
  3. The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:Treasure Island
  4. American Film Institute Catalog, Feature Films 1911-1920, (The American Film Institute, 1988)
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