This version may be one of the weaker versions of the classic story, it's nowhere near as good as the 1990 Charlton Heston or the 1934 Wallace Beery versions(Muppet Treasure Island is great too) but it is a long way from bad. And I really do have to respectfully disagree with the commentator who said that this was the worst Treasure Island, the uncomfortably bizarre 1998 Jack Palance version is by far the worst. The film may be lower in budget than most of the versions of Treasure Island, with some of the camera work(which can be too reliant on close ups though most of it is inventive and appropriate) and the handsomely rendered if very undersized Hispagnola it does show but it was decent compared to most lower-in-budget films personally seen, the shadowy lighting was quite effective and the locations are splendid. The script is amusingly tongue in cheek with some darkly tense moments too.
The story is suspenseful and lots of fun on the most part with the storytelling at least coherent and structurally relatively faithful. The start of the film suitably intense and sets up the story well and the action is staged surprisingly well with a Spaghetti Western vibe in places. Some of the treasure hunting scenes are a little leisurely however and are slightly lacking in urgency. The acting is mostly good with Orson Welles giving the most memorable one, he can be charmingly sympathetic but he drips with evil as well, some of the performance is very fruity but I appreciated the restraint he gave the character here. Kim Burfield is an appealing Jim, Walter Slezak brings out the conflicts of Squire Trelawny's character very well- sometimes blustering, other times refined- and Jean Lefevbre an amusing Ben Gunn. Lionel Stander however is too gangster boss-like as Billy Bones and Angel del Pozo is a dull Dr Livesey.
Where the film is least successful is in the music score and especially the dubbing. The score is nowhere near "rousing adventure"-like enough, sounding more like at points like "sentimental television" scoring. The dubbing is unfortunately shoddy, very stiff and some of it sounds like they're mumbling their way through their lines. Robert Rietty is the least bad, he does sound like how Welles would speak but some of his line delivery sounds like he was drunk at the time. On the whole, a long way from great or being the best version, but it's still pretty good and is miles ahead of the Palance adaptation. 6/10 Bethany Cox
