Apparently is was a glorious summer in 1949 as filming of Walt Disney’s ‘Treasure Island’ began in late June. Such a film for Walt Disney had not been attempted before – this was a non-cartoon Live Action film to be made in England at Denham Film Studios with some location work in Cornwall.

The above picture shows the ‘Hispaniola’ – ready for filming probably in Cornwall

ABOVE – very large model ‘Hispaniola’ – again most probably in Cornwall in readiness

Walt Disney and his family had arrived in England aboard the Queen Mary in June – and he is seen BELOW with his daughter Sharon buying flowers from a market stall somewhere in the West End of London – this picture appeared in the Cinema Studio magazine of 29 June 1949

Treasure Island

Favoured by sunny skies and a carefully planned 65 day shooting schedule, the RKO-Walt Disney film got under way on Monday 4 July 1949 as planned, at Denham Film Studios under the direction of Byron Haskin.

Additional casting at this stage included John Gregson, Ralph Truman, David Davies, William Devlin and Geoffrey Keen as Israel Hands.

Also another interesting minor character was ‘Vane’ and this role went to Reg Peters who was cast on 28 June 1949, again as reported in the Cinema Studio Magazine of 6 July – however in the films credits ‘Vane’ is played by Reginald Drummond I wonder if the wrong name has been printed. He was reported as being ‘mine host’ at the White Horse Hotel in Moretonhampstead on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon- and he travelled to Denham no doubt staying there, and relinquishing his day job temporarily.

As well as the arrival of Walt Disney, his trusted colleague Perce Pearce the producer of the film had arrived in England to oversee the filming along with his family. It has he who enlisted second unit director to head down to Appledore in Devon for location filming. It is also rported that Walt Disney was heading down to Hartland in Devon for approximately 7 days iof filming.

Hartland Beach was to be used. Local horses were hired to pull a coach and the Quay Hotel was to double as the ‘Admiral Benbow’. My own opinion was that this footage was not used and the ‘Admiral Benbow’ was built in the Denham Film Studio.

At Hartland Quay on Monday a pirate crew wearing pigtails and carrying an assortment of weapons landed by rowing boat but their activities were cut short by rain – the first that had fallen in North Devon for weeks.

This was the start of the filming in this district of exterior scenes for Walt Disney’s production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic ‘Treasure Island’.

There was plenty of activity at the Hartland Quay Hotel, an old building adjoining, which is being transformed into the ‘Admiral Benbow Inn’. The landing of the pirate crew, who were all ‘extras’ recruited locally, were watched with keen interest by many holidaymakers and residents.

At this stage some exterior scenes were to be shot in Falmouth‘

Filming occurred in July 1949, with Falmouth and the surrounding Cornish coast serving as a primary location for exterior ship scenes. The specific areas used included: 

• The River Fal
• Carrick Roads
• Helford River
• Falmouth Docks (for wharf scenes) 

The schooner used for all exterior ship scenes was a real 19th-century vessel named the Ryelands, which was reconfigured and renamed the Hispaniola for the film. The ship was a frequent visitor to Falmouth during the filming period in 1949

On 13 July thunderstorms wreaked havoc on filming with light so poor that no shooting could be done – the huge Technicolor cameras need a lot of light. Neither Robert Newton or Bobby Driscoll went down to Cornwall on location.

I do remember my Aunt who had visited Cornwall with her husband at the time saying that Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel had been earmarked for ‘Treasure Island’ and this in fact was very true but for whatever reason no scenes were ever shot there – it may appear in a long shot as Treasure Island and that is as far as it went

More to come …………