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Welcome to the new Robert Newton chatboard! This is a place to discuss the colorful and talented actor and his work. (Feel free to carry over discussions from the previous message board, located at www.voy.com/17058/, to this one. (If copying and pasting, please use quotation marks and mention who you are quoting. Thanks.)

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Treasure Island


This is a place to discuss Robert Newton's groundbreaking 1950 performance in which he redefined not only the role of Long John Silver but the way we think of pirates to this day in Walt Disney's Treasure Island (based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson), along with other aspects of the film, comparisons to the book, etc.

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"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd

"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
10/21/2006, 5:58 pm Link to this post Send Email to vampyrate   Send PM to vampyrate
 
Jenny30 Profile
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posticon Re: Treasure Island


Honestly, I don't think I can say anything about this film that hasn't already been said. But, like so many, it was the film in which I first saw and fell head over heals for Bobbie.
For those of us who can remember the days when Jack (er, sorry, Captain Jack) Sparrow was non-existent, Newton's Long John Silver was the epitome of pirates. For me he it still is, rest his soul. Arrmen.
All kids have a favorite character (either from literature or film). When I was a kid, Long John Silver was my favorite, thanks to Bobbie's l-arrr-ger than life performance! That character has to be one of the most physically demanding in all of theatre!
Anyone who is a fan of 'Pirates of the Carribean' should watch this film and see where it all began....and then watch the sequel - Long John Silver's Return to Treasure Island!
Disney's 'Treasure Island' captured the swashbuckling allure of piracy and adventure on the high seas that Stevenson so masterfully created. When I hear that sweeping musical score, it transports me right back to my childhood.
You may think this is sappy, but at the end of the film, when Silver escapes, I always wished that somehow, I could have gone with him!
I hope that "the wiser youngsters of today" and of the future will view this film with an open mind and heart and recognize this classic film for it's wonder, and give due credit to RN for his brilliant performance!
"So be it! And fall on!" (R.L.S.)

Last edited by Jenny30, 12/3/2007, 10:17 pm


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Jenny

"Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!" Ancient Pistol.
Henry V - Act II, Scene I
11/28/2007, 9:50 pm Link to this post Send Email to Jenny30   Send PM to Jenny30
 
Lacy J Profile
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Re: Treasure Island


I just want to thank Kitty Hawk for that wonderful - I don't know what to call it - web presentation? I barely remember Treasure Island so it was really terrific. Plus, I needed cheering up. My dogs killed a rabbit. They must be getting in under the fence so I'll have to figure out how to fix it. Sometimes I really miss NYC and LA. No super to call to fix things. They have tornadoes and hurricanes here (I'm still cleaning up the field from Rita). This country stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be. Lacy
4/7/2008, 11:23 pm Link to this post Send Email to Lacy J   Send PM to Lacy J
 
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Re: Treasure Island


I know, that video is awesome, isn't it? Kitty Hawk doesn't seem to come around here (she doesn't have time, she said), so you might want to leave her a comment on the YouTube page. (I don't know if you have to have a YouTube account or not.)

Sorry to hear about the incident with your dogs. I'd feel the same way. (I have pet rabbits myself ... and used to live with a guy whose dogs would do the same thing--not my bunnies because I went out of my way to protect them, but ones in the back yard. It didn't seem to bother him much, but it upset me a lot.)

Yeah, I'm a city girl myself (born in NYC), although where I live now, it's kind of in-between. This is considered the city, but we still get raccoons in our tiny back yard, and my parents' get deer in theirs. (Why am I hearing the lyrics to Neil Diamond's "I Am, I Said" in my head now? lol) Fortunately, the worst "weather events" we get around here are blizzards and ice storms.

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"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd

"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
4/8/2008, 9:08 pm Link to this post Send Email to vampyrate   Send PM to vampyrate
 
Lacy J Profile
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Re: Treasure Island



Thanks re: bunnies. These were wild. They got INTO the yard. I had the guy who mows the lawn come and try to fix it. He said they can squeeze though the separation between the gates and the fence. The dogs got two. One in the back yard and one in the front. The yards are separated so the cat can have the front yard. I only let them out there once in a while. I guess thats when it happened. I hate to think of my dogs being killers, but they are. I would love to be in a blizzard one more time. I was raised in Ohio. I don't have a YouTube. I'll try to find Kitty Hawks though. Bye, Lacy
4/9/2008, 1:58 pm Link to this post Send Email to Lacy J   Send PM to Lacy J
 
Spev Profile
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Re: Treasure Island


Has Bobbie's relationship off-screen with Bobby Driscoll ever been documented??

On-screen Driscoll comes across as a precocious little brat who is short of a good slap - but maybe that's just my total anti-children brain talking. Given Driscoll's tortured adolescence and young adulthood - and more notably his tragic death and the events surrounding it - I can't help but feel sorry for the way Disney treated him. I often wonder what he would have made of all this re-interest in pirate films etc if he'd been around today.

The Bobster did seem to have a genuine affection for Driscoll in their scenes together and I just wondered if he had any fond memories of working with Driscoll??

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I never understood the invention of water - it ain't fit to touch and it ain't fit to drink neither!!

Soldier's Three
7/9/2008, 9:13 am Link to this post Send Email to Spev   Send PM to Spev MSN Yahoo
 
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Re: Treasure Island


I remember, a couple of years ago, that someone was inquiring, either on this site or I came across it out on the Internet, about the relationship between Bobby and Bob. I think this person was writing a book about Driscoll and was looking for some info. Maybe Susan will remember if it was on this website.
Someone had also made mention of Bobby attending Bob's funeral and really sobbing over his death. When you Google Bobby Driscoll there are articles posted but, so far, I have not found one that specifically mentions his relationship with Bob when they filmed Treasure Island. If I find one, I will post the link here.
7/10/2008, 7:52 am Link to this post Send Email to SMG01   Send PM to SMG01
 
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Bobby Driscoll


I'll chalk it up to your anti-children brain, Spev. emoticon I have to say, as the only American in the film, his accent sticks out like a sore thumb, but somehow such details didn't seem to trouble filmmakers of the '50s. (I have the same impression of very American Robert Taylor in the role of Ivanhoe.) Anyway, my nieces certainly enjoyed Bobby Driscoll's performance; they were totally rooting for him through the whole movie.

I just e-mailed the Bobby Driscoll biographer who posted on this site once before; hopefully, he'll return to give us some more info. In the meantime, here's an informative blog about Bobby Driscoll.

Last edited by vampyrate, 7/10/2008, 6:41 pm


---
"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd

"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
7/10/2008, 6:38 pm Link to this post Send Email to vampyrate   Send PM to vampyrate
 
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Re: Treasure Island


Hahahaha!!!! Yes, I did a bit of research for myself to see what I could find on the subject, and it appears that it was my anti-children brain doing the talking. He appears to have been a really lovely boy who everyone adored onset.

Maybe it's my dislike of kids and Americans... emoticon *please note use of sarcasm, I don't want to be the start of any flame wars round here!!!*

The more I read about Driscoll's later life the more I feel desperately sorry for him. As he once reportedly said "They carried me on a silver platter and dumped me in the garbage" which is absolutely true. Good grief, just cos a kid gets a few spots when he hits those dreaded teenage years doesn't make him any less of an actor!! It's nothing short of an abomination that he was treated so badly.

I don't think Treasure Island really showed his acting skills off to any great extent but to be fair it didn't show off Bobbie's either...

I'd like to think they had some sort of affinity due to having the same name... wouldn't that have been lovely?!?!? Awww!!!

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I never understood the invention of water - it ain't fit to touch and it ain't fit to drink neither!!

Soldier's Three
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Re: Treasure Island


FYI, I just started a topic for Bobby Driscoll under "Miscellaneous," where I shared the URLs for two good tribute sites I found.l

---
"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd

"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
8/23/2008, 6:57 pm Link to this post Send Email to vampyrate   Send PM to vampyrate
 


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