The film stars Orson Welles as Long John Silver (albeit later dubbed by a different actor), Kim Burfield as Jim Hawkins, Walter Slezak as Squire Trelawney, Rik Battaglia as Captain Smollett, and Ángel del Pozo as Doctor Livesey.

Jim Hawkins (Kim Burfield) is a young boy who works at a tavern with his mother (Maria Rohm).

When a drunken old sailor named Billy Bones (Lionel Stander) comes in for a drink and dies, Jim gets his hands on a map which shows the whereabouts of pirate Captain Flint's treasure.

Immediately taking action, he then enlists the help of Squire Trelawney (Walter Slezak) and Dr. Livesey (Angel DelPozo) to join him as he locates the island on the map.

With his help Jim, the Squire, the Doctor, the Captain and a number of loyal crewmen outwit the pirates, killing most of them in gun battles.

As well as having written the script, he proposed to direct Treasure Island and play Long John Silver.

It used a rented ship originally built for the Spanish-shot John Paul Jones (1959) and subsequently used in a number of other films.

[6] He said the film would be in colour, the budget would be $1.5 million and that part of the finance had been secured from Seven Arts Productions, who would distribute in the US and Canada.

[8] In October 1971 producer Oliver Unger was going to remake Treasure Island from a script by Wolf Mankowitz starring Mark Lester.

Eight years later, he was brought in to make the film again by producer Harry Alan Towers who had worked with Welles in radio.

Welles still wanted to direct but Towers said he could not get a completion guarantee if that was the case so John Hough was brought in to do the job.

[12] According to one contemporary report the director at one stage was Italian Andrea Bianchi who said, "I knew all about the 'black legend' of Orson Welles.

However, Towers says Nat Cohen, who was in charge of the film's release in Britain and on American TV, insisted the voice be dubbed again.