The Near Midnight Meanderings On A Movie With A Microwave Meal Part 6: Long John Silver (1954)

Hello there. hope you're feeling well today.

So Treasure Island wasn't good enough for filmmakers oh no. There has to be a sequel. Long John Silver. Or as I prefer to call it : Treasure Island 2 : This time It's personal.

Made in Australia ("Treasure Island Studios no less) with a choir going all "Yo ho ho" for the opening titles. I really didn't know what to expect. Regular readers would remember that I was quite underwhelmed reading the original Robert Louis Stevenson novel.

Essentially the plot is this. Long John Silver and his crew have to deal with a kidnap and various opponents in their search for (of course) treasure. Which will of course lead them back to (of course) Treasure Island.

I say "various opponents" the chief one being another pirate( and his crew) called Mendoza. The chief villain of course being both flouncy and foreign.

It's all rubbish of course. But it's the sort of movie that as long as you don't take it seriously is entertaining rubbish. The person to thank for that is Robert Newton in the starring role who overacts good and proper. But in this sort of film that's what's required. The film is on his shoulders for the most part and he takes it on. Without him (for the most part) this would be just rubbish. He makes it watchable rubbish.

Thing is. In a film like this if you see that an actor is having fun it rubs off on the audience. Newton is having fun.

The only other of note to mention here (and I didn't realise he was in the film until afterwards) is Rod Taylor. Won't tell you his part as it would spoil the film, but only he can match Newton for screen presence here.

A quick mention of the main kid in this Jim Hawkins (yes he returns too). Won't go into the plot but what he does is a surprise. Let's just say he enjoys the life of a pirate for the most part.

Of the six movies I've done so far in this occasional series. This actually comes second if I was stranded in a desert island with wi-fi for my tablet to watch on the cloud.

A treasure island hopefully.

Until the next time.