“TREASURE ISLAND.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20510, 11 January 1935, Page 3

“TREASURE ISLAND.”

Wallace Beery Has Lead in Stevenson Classic. “ Hide-Out ” will finish at the Regent Theatre to-night. "Treasure Island,” the talking film version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic of the same title, will begin at the Regent Theatre to-morrow. This cho.icest of all pirate stories, which has stirred the blood of millions for half a century, is picturesquely presented by a strong cast headed by Wallace Beery as that hoary old rascal. Long John Silver, one of the most remarkable figures in the whole of the Stevenson gallery, whose villainy even becomes romantic and gorgeously bizarre under the circumstances under which he and his motley crew mutiny and murder on the high seas in their anxiety to secure the long-lost Flint treasure. How the artful old one-legged man conceives and carries out this bloody plot, and how young Jim Hawkins, hidden in the apple-barrel, overhears it, and so saves Captain Smollett and his fellow officers from death, is grimly told. The scenes on the island with the officers and mutineers in separate camps, are capitally done, and Jim's meeting with old Ben Gunn, the securing of the treasure, and the marooning of the pirates, is most vividly depicted. Wallace Beery makes another distinct hit as Long John Silver, and Jackie Cooper is appealing as Jim Hawkins. The supports will include a Laurel and Hardy comedy, “ Busvbodies.” At the matinee to-morrow a number of gifts will be distributed among the children. Box plans at the D.I.C.