Return to Treasure Island

Peachy Jamesina "Jamie" Hawkins, femme descendant of guess who, is lured by Porter Hall into taking a jaunt to Treasure Island to find the loot that was overlooked back in 1753. (She's English, so maybe she never saw any Porter Hall movies. Her great-grandfather also trusted the wrong fellow at first.) On the island Jamie meets marooned sailor Tab Hunter (no shirt, bushy red beard) and together they fend off the bad guys while searching for the treasure. Basically kid-level programmer from UA, but Dawn Addams' fresh-faced good looks help quite a lot. OK 75 minute timewaster as long as you're not expecting Wallace Beery or Robert Newton to shiver your timbers.

Return To Treasure Island was the farewell film for noted character actor Porter Hall. But aside from a chance for Hall to play one of his sniveling rat villain type characters once more and for Tab Hunter to go around bare chested for most of the film there's not much else to recommend this film.

Hunter also narrates the film from flashback, he's a graduate student and his contention is that there's more treasure to be found on Treasure Island. The famous Robert Louis Stevenson novel is treated as a factual account of a voyage. He interests a descendent of Jim Hawkins played by Dawn Addams in taking a look for some more. There is also a flashback showing Captain Flint coming back to bury some more so we know this to be true.

Unfortunately they also interest some greedy villains like Hall, like the blind James Seay who has his own gang of pirates 20th century style.

Hunter looks fabulous, Addams who is scantily clad herself look pretty good, something for everyone's prurient interest. Too bad they weren't provided with a decent story and the acting is amateurish.

Hunter did have sex appeal though. Otherwise this film would have sunk his career without a trace.

The two interests of the film : Tab Hunter shirtless and following the story of his shoes and stripy socks, they keep disappearing and reappearing throughout the movie. Before the fight is barefoot, then he suddenly has shoes, when captured they take his shoes off, he escapes barefoot, but back in the rocks his shoes reappear, then disappear, sometimes with socks sometimes not, terrible continuity.

He's acting is not bad, excepted for his awful Voice-over, here to help us understand a film with pretty bad "mise en scene", there's lots of tiring and pointless trips back and forth to the ships , too many baddies, a pretty funny special effect where a boat is supposed to explore, we see an explosion but the boat remains then when the camera changes angle disappear.

There is also a random love story, that comes out of nowhere just so that tab hunter can kiss a girl in order to get teenage girls to swoon, before they yawn back to boredom the next scene. Adams is beautiful and Hunter is jaw breaking gorgeous but when they're off screen it gets UN interesting .

The locations are not cinematic, or maybe it's all due to the bad framing, it's kind of entertaining in bits and because the whole narration is hilariously bad, a good film to watch when you're hungover

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.)

Here is a contemporary sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "Treasure Island" (1883). We begin with a brief flashback to the 1700s, which serves to link the old treasure map to the present. In 1954, the map is in the possession of beautiful Dawn Addams (as Jamesina "Jamie" Hawkins), a direct descendant of "Jim Hawkins" (the original story's young hero). The map's worth is suddenly realized, leading to the titular return. On the island, Ms. Addams meets handsome archaeologist Tab Hunter (as Clive Stone)...

Mr. Hunter is also the story's star and narrator. He shaves off his beard for Addams (and keeps his shirt off for viewers). She keeps her shirt on, except for a brief bath scene (which is modestly shot for the viewer). The attractive couple kiss and hold hands while battling Porter Hall (as Maximillian "Maxie" Harris) and his sadistic blind henchman James Seay (as Felix Newman). Everyone wants the treasure. Directed by veteran E.A. DuPont, this production relies mostly on the attractiveness of Hunter and Addams.

*** Return to Treasure Island (6/30/54) E.A. DuPont ~ Tab Hunter, Dawn Addams, Porter Hall, James Seay