Treasure Island (1950): Disney Goes Live-Action and Newton Discovers the Pirate Accent
Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is likely the most influential work of pirate fiction. It was originally serialized in the children’s literary magazineYoung Folks (the editor of which changed the title from Stevenson’s original appellation The Sea Cook to the more direct Treasure Island; or, the Mutiny on the Hispaniola) to little success. When it was published as a novel, however, it achieved great acclaim (including, supposedly, from British Prime Minister William Gladstone). Treasure Island introduced or popularized many of the elements common to stereotypical swashbuckling fiction, such as maps with an “X” marking the location of buried treasure, one-legged pirates with parrots perched on their shoulders, and a summons—or death sentence—called the “Black Spot.” These tropes have further permeated popular culture through the numerous film and television adaptations of Stevenson’s novel, the most famous of which is probably the Walt Disney-produced 1950 version directed by Byron Haskin.
Walt Disney had been considering an animated adaptation of Treasure Island since the mid-1930s after getting the film rights to the book from MGM in an unspecified deal. However, Walt Disney Productions had gone through a lean period in the 1940s, due to both a 1941 strike during which they fired a number of their animators, and World War II, which both depressed box office earnings and caused more animators to leave due to being drafted. Therefore, Disney began incorporating live-action footage into his company’s movies as a cost-saving measure, starting with The Reluctant Dragon (1941) (which was essentially a glorified studio tour). However, live-action was always used in combination with animation during this period, usually bridging animated sequences, as in several anthology films released during the 1940s. The controversial Br’er Rabbit Tales adaptation Song of the South (1946), which the studio now tries its damnedest to bury the memory of, and the pastoral So Dear to My Heart (1948) are mostly live-action, but both have animated shorts as stories-within-the-story. So Dear to My Heart, a now almost-forgotten movie about a boy and his lamb, was in fact intended by Walt to be the first completely live-action film from the studio, until RKO Pictures convinced him to include animated segments. Thus, mostly through an accident of history, the Disney adaptation of Treasure Island was the first Disney film to be entirely live-action.
Treasure Island contains most of the major plot elements of the book, and in particular most of the famous plot points and set pieces, such as the confrontations at the Admiral Benbow Inn owned by the parents of protagonist Jim Hawkins (Bobby Driscoll), the overheard conversation in the apple barrel, Jim’s encounter with marooned pirate Ben Gunn (Geoffrey Wilkinson), the mutiny aboard ship, and the battle of the stockade. However, a number of intricacies of the plot are removed or minimized to keep the runtime down to a swift-moving hour and a half; for instance, the pirates make their move slightly earlier in the narrative, and Jim spends less time maneuvering the ship to the other side of the island. Other aspects are made more colourful, such as by the inclusion of a storm during the voyage to the island, and having Jim (perhaps suggested by Driscoll’s young appearance) be taken hostage more often than in the book, where he seems older and more competent. However, some of the most violent elements, such as blind Pew being trampled by a horse and the cold-blooded murder (witnessed by Jim) of a loyal crewman named Tom by Long John Silver (Robert Newton) are removed. Despite this, the film is still rather violent in comparison to many Disney productions of subsequent decades, at least of those which star actual children. Besides the numerous shoot-outs and sword-fights between the adults, during a confrontation between Jim and coxswain Israel Hands (Geoffrey Keen, who was also in The Third Man, Doctor Zhivago, and six Bond films), Jim is simultaneously struck in the arm with a knife thrown by Hands and shoots Hands in the face. In fact, the film had to be trimmed for its 1975 re-release to achieve a G rating.
Bobby Driscoll, who plays Jim Hawkins here, had also starred in both Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart for Disney. However, Driscoll (who had an unhappy—and short—life after his time as a child star) may be the weakest element of the film. I generally try not to criticize child actors too much, because mediocre performances by them are somewhat expected; most of them are just children whose parents and film producers have pushed into the role of actor, sometimes (on the part of the parents) as a way to vicariously live out a dream of stardom. Some few, such as Hayley Mills or Christian Bale (the latter of whom has also starred as Jim Hawkins in a 1990 version of Treasure Island), are conversely good actors who simply happened to play leading roles as children. Driscoll may not be a bad actor for a child, but he doesn’t even attempt an accent, and is rather unconvincing as an 18th century British boy. Additionally, as discussed by Hill & Eidam (2020), the transition from page to screen removes Jim’s role as narrator of the story and viewpoint character. Most adults will identify with characters other than Jim, such as the heroic trio of Dr. Livesey (Denis O’Dea), Squire Trelawney (Walter Fitzgerald), and Captain Smollett (Basil Sydney), or even with Long John Silver, viewing Jim as more of a “woobie." Thus, the film becomes far less focused on Jim’s bildungsroman or coming-of-age, and far more about his relationships with the doctor, squire, and captain, and with Long John Silver, who even becomes something of a surrogate father figure to him.
On the other hand, the 1950 Treasure Island boasts perhaps the most iconic cinematic portrayal of a pirate in history, in the form of Robert Newton’s roguish performance as one-legged “sea cook” Long John Silver. Newton had been in such notable films as Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944) and David Lean’s Oliver Twist (1948). For Treasure Island, he exaggerated his West Country accent into what has become the standard “pirate accent,” which is somewhat historically accurate, in that many “gentlemen of fortune” (as well as sailors in general) during the golden age of piracy were from the western coast of England. Newton’s Silver is so piratical that he calls his young companion “M-arr-ster H-arr-kins” and even says “Arrr-men!” at the end of a prayer. Nevertheless, Disney’s adaptation and Newton’s portrayal also softens the character considerably relative to the book, with Silver seeming genuinely fond of Jim and unable to shoot him at the end of the film, as opposed to Silver being revealed in the novel to use the same flattering words he told Jim to manipulate another young crewman. Even more important is the removal of the aforementioned murder committed by Silver, a scene which makes it much harder to sympathize with the pirate.
Newton would continue to milk his performance as Long John Silver for all it was worth, reprising the role in another movie, Long John Silver (1954), and a television series, The Adventures of Long John Silver (produced in 1954, but not aired anywhere until at least the following year), neither of which had Disney’s involvement, although Byron Haskins directed the film and at least one episode of the series. He also played the historical pirate Edward Teach/Blackbeard in Blackbeard the Pirate (1952). Newton might have played many more piratical roles had he not died of a heart attack at age 50 in 1956.
The rest of the mostly British cast also do well in their respective roles as pirates or the few loyal crew members, and the entire film is well-staged and handsomely photographed. Overall, Disney’s Treasure Island may not be the most faithful adaptation of the source material, but it has, perhaps more than any other motion picture, influenced popular perceptions of both the source material and piracy in general. Its most enduring element, Newton’s portrayal of Long John Silver, has become the standard pop-culture concept of a pirate and continues to be widely referenced and parodied.