Now back to August of 1949 -As he continued to take full advantage of English locations, Director Byron Haskin took his unit to a lime pit near Harefield, only about 4 miles from Denham.

Here he found the ideal location to film a sequence where Ben Gunn who had not seen another human being for 5 years jumped down and stood in front of a startled Jim Hawkins against the wall of the lime pit.

An old bomb hole proved perfect for the spot where the treasure was buried. Designer Tom Morahan had located this as a near perfect spot

In this picture we seen Director Byron Haskin looking over Robert Newton’s shoulder on this same scene.

Technicolor Stills from this location :-

Also BELOW scenes from earlier when the landing on the island was filmed in the dammed up River Colne in the grounds of Denham Film Studios

Treasure Island

ABOVE – Robert Newton listens intently to Byron Haskin’s instruction

ABOVE – A few yards away on another raft Byron Haskin lets Robert Newton know what he wants

These two respected one another – In fact they both chose to work together again with the later ‘Long John Silver’ film made in Australia in 1954. In fact both invested in the film which should have done much better.

Byron Haskin would stand no nonsense and when directing a film was ‘in charge’ – after ‘Treasure Island’ he directed Burt Lancaster and Joan Rice in ‘His Majesty O’Keefe’ – a film I really like – made in Fiji.

Burt Lancaster was something of a bully boy and had threatened Directors who he didn’t agree with – even when they knew more than he did.

He never threatened Byron Haskin