Return to Treasure Island (1954)

Such a frustrating disappointment

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I just saw this zero-entertainment-value time-waster on this. You'd think MGM had better films to fill the wee small hours of the morning.The script is amateurish, with clumsy dialog and zero suspense or dramatic interest. (I don't think there's a single line that isn't expository.) At least the director keeps things moving along (probably because he wanted to get it all over with).There is a single (unintentionally) amusing moment, when one of the villains tries to shoot another villain. The latter runs back and forth trying to avoid the bullets, resembling a ball bearing in a pinball machine.The project seems to have been cooked up not only to take advantage of the success of the Disney film, but to let Mr Hunter walk around with his shirt off.Unless you find either of the leads appealing, this is strictly Sominex cinema.

Since this mishmash of a movie is nearly incomprehensible, I'll exercise my powers of simplification to review it. Just as there are island nations today whose entire economies are based on centuries' worth of deposited bird droppings, in the past there have been "treasure islands" where a mother lode of a rare mineral provoked conflict between gangs or even nations of men. Since RETURN TO TREASURE ISLAND is a very low-budget flick, there are no armies or navies on display here. (When one of the two boats shown "blows up" and sinks, the special effects would not even do justice to a Muppets movie.) The islet featured in this brief film has been the stopping off place for Pirate hordes since the days of Roberto Clemente. In those long-ago days, their cans of grog came equipped with pull-rings, which got left on the beach by the billions when the buccaneers returned their empties for the deposits. Now, in a post-apocalyptic world, these once-overlooked bits of metal are crucial to humanity's survival. Therefore, Jim Hawkins' great great great granddaughter Jamisina recruits a handsome tab hunter to garner the aluminum jackpot before the orcs can melt it down. If you've been to treasure island once, now's the time to return!

Pretty awful picture. A descendant of Jack Hawkins named Jamie Hawkins (played by lovely Dawn Addams) is tricked into revealing where some hidden loot is hidden on a desert island. There happens to be hunky shirtless Clive Stone (Tab Hunter). She and him try to find the treasure and battle the bad guys.The color is nice, Addams is beautiful and Hunter is hot...but the picture is TERRIBLE! It's slow, boring and horrendously acted. Even Hunter himself hates it! In his autobiography he says it's abysmal and a stinker and his acting was terrible. Even his MOTHER said it was bad! There's also a mildly kinky scene where Addams is tied to a tree and briefly whipped--but her shirt is on and no marks are shown. This type of picture was popular in the 1950s--it played as the second feature of double bills everywhere. Some patient kids might enjoy this but aside from the lovely color, Addams beauty and Hunter shirtless there's little here to enjoy. A 1 all the way.

The Tab Hunter/Dawn Addams "Return to Treasure Island" (1954) is mildly entertaining, but banish all notions that it has anything to do with 1930s Hollywood swashbucklers. This low-budget flick used to appear on TV, but it has not made it to DVD (or even VHS, as far as I know). It disappeared from TV long ago, perhaps partly because of a scene in which Dawn Addams is tied to a tree and whipped to make her reveal some information (probably the whereabouts of the treasure, but I don't remember—I haven't seen this picture for decades).Note that another (much better known) 1954 film, with Robert Newton as Long John Silver, now goes by the same title. I believe it was originally simply "Long John Silver." This is the picture whose DVD cover erroneously appears on the IMDb.com page.Note: I see that IMDb has corrected the graphic. (Wow, nine years have flown by.)