I guess this little guy was almost the first of the Australian child stars, I first saw this movie years ago (it is a 1954 release) and although it lacks the drama and danger of RLS's great "Treasure Island", it is still a great fun romp and Kit Taylor is excellent as Jim Hawkins. I must admit that at first I was unsure as to a "Jim Lad" with an Aussie accent, but this is such a spirited, talented performance that I truly warmed to what is a great performance from an outstanding child actor. A friend of mine (now long dead) actually worked with Kit back in the '50s and said he was a really, fun super kid. I'm also amazed by Kit's resemblance to my great friend Mark Lester and that can't be bad! Once again I can fully recommend that you get a copy of "Long John Silver", I promise you that you will seriously enjoy Kit's performance. It's also well worth watching for Robert Newton's delightfully OTT performance, I swear that if he had swilved his eyes one centimeter more they would have fallen out of his head!

IMAGES FROM "LONG JOHN SILVER"