Treasure Island - July 18, 1938 - 01:03:53 - 14.6 MB

On July 18, 1938, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater players presented Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson on the CBS radio network. Cast: Orson Welles (adult Jim Hawkins,
Long John Silver), Arthur Anderson (Jim Hawkins), George Coulouris (Captain Smollett), Ray
Collins (Ben Gunn), Agnes Moorehead (Mrs. Hawkins), Eustace Wyatt (Squire Trelawney), Alfred
Shirley (Blind Pew); with William Alland, Stephen Fox, Richard Wilson.

In 1964, Welles made a deal to write and direct a film version of Treasure Island back to
back with Chimes of Midnight ("filmed on the same sets and with the same cast, for barely
more than the cost of one film" - wiki.) After a few days of shooting, Treasure Island was
abandoned in favor of Chimes At Midnight.

"However, Welles remained contractually tied to [Treasure Island] as both actor and writer,
and eventually, eight years later, he was brought in to the film for director John Hough..."
- wiki

The 1972 film featured Welles as Long John Silver, a notable performance by Lionel Stander as
Billy Bones and the last screen performance of Walter Slezak, but was otherwise unimpressive.
It is less memorable than the 1950 Disney version, directed by Byron Haskin, suffering three
different directors and four screenwriters working from Welles' original screenplay. "Welles
was sufficiently dismissive of the rewrites to his original script that he asked not to be
credited [as a writer], taking the pseudonym 'O.W. Jeeves'" - wiki.