L'isola del tesoro

The set up on this film sounds like one of those fake movie announcements that pop up on the internet around April 1rst - an Italian miniseries adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND but set in space and starring Anthony Quinn as Long John Silver. But it is real and I've seen it. Young Jim Hawkins finds himself going on a intergalactic journey when Billy Bones (Ernest Borgnine, who has the sense to get out early) hands him a treasure map. Directed by Antonio Margheriti, this actually sticks pretty dang close to Stevenson's classic (yes, I've read a book) and features all of the famous bits from the book except with the occasional spaceship and android running around. Quinn just barely saves himself from Richard Harris STRIKE COMMANDO 2 levels of Italian exploitation embarrassment because this production actually looks like they had a budget to work with. There are actually some pretty impressive space ship set here. Plenty of familiar faces fill out the cast including David Warbeck as Dr. Livesy, John Morgan as Hands, Klaus Löwitsch as Capt. Smollet, Bobby Rhodes as Black Dog, Sal Borgese as Morgan, Biagio Pelligra as Pew and Hal Yamanouchi as the amusingly named Pete. The version I watched was actually a condensed one that runs 2 and 1/2 hours.