The Richard Dury Archive

Film Versions (and Filmscripts) of Works by Robert Louis Stevenson

[An indispensable source for information on cinematic adaptations of Stevenson’s fiction is Scott Allen Nollen’s Robert Louis Stevenson: Life, Literature and the Silver Screen (McFarland, 1994), which offers further details on many of the films discussed here. – DM]

Suggest an addition or correction to the list

Abbreviations
B = Becattini, Alberto (1967). “Cinema, televisione, fumetti, cartoni animati”. Pp. 44-5 in Pratt, Hugo (art) & Carlo Chendi (script) (1997). Il ragazzo rapito [Kidnapped]. Genova: Le Mani (Comics)/Microart’s Edizioni.
BFI = British Film Institute Film and TV Database
DF = Mereghetti, Paolo (1997). Il Dizionario dei Film (Milano: Baldini & Castoldi).
F = Fuller, Graham (2009). [article on films based on Stevenson’s works]. Sight and Sound 19.i: 40-44.
IMDb = Internet Movie Database
N = Nollen, Scott Allen (1994). Robert Louis Stevenson: Life, Literature and the Silver Screen. New York: McFarland.
S = listing in Swearingen, Roger (2000). “Robert Louis Stevenson”;. In The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (3rd edition, 2000). Vol. 4: 1800-1900 (ed. Joanne Shattock). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

THE BEACH OF FALESA

[1959 The Beach of Falesà (filmscript): Dylan Thomas. Briarcliff Manor, NY: Scarborough House (1959). Also in Dylan Thomas (ed. John Ackerman). Dylan Thomas: The Complete Screenplays. New York/London: Applause/Dent (1995)]

1966 Avventure di mare e di costa
Director: Giorgio Moser
Production: RAI-TV 2, Italy
Cast: Marco Guglielmi, Maria Do Nascimento e Lidio Silvia
Screenplay: Giorgio Moser
[TV mini-series in 5 episodes inspired by stories by RLS , 13 April – 11 May 1966: La spiaggia di Falesà, Il diavolo nella bottiglia (The Bottle Imp), Bassa marea (The Ebb-Tide), Il tesoro del capitano Dodd (The Wrecker) e L’isola delle voci (The Isle of Voices)]

THE BLACK ARROW

1911 The Black Arrow (Apfel)
Director: Oscar Apfel
Production: Edison
Cast: Harold M. Shaw (Dick), Nathalie Jerome (Joanna), Charles Ogle (Brackley)
Screenplay: Charles M. Seay
[IMDb]
[1944 Black Arrow (Landers): an unrelated Western film]

1948 The Black Arrow / The Black Arrow Strikes (Douglas)
Director: Gordon Douglas
Production: Edward Small / Columbia, USA
Cast: Louis Hayward (Richard Shelton), Janet Blair (Joanna), George Macready (Brackley), Lowell Gilmore (Duke of Gloucester)
Screenplay: Richard Schayer, Thomas Seller, David P. Sheppard
[Follows the general outline of the novel, though only a few actual scenes are carried over into in the film; “Stevenson’s characters become unambiguous Hollywood types” except for Gilmore’s Gloucester; however “direction, performance, art direction, and photography” are excellent and “the film is superior to many other genre productions of the era”, N; 76 mins.]

1951 The Black Arrow (BBC)
Production: BBC (Naomi Capon)
Cast: Denis Quilley (Dick), Tarn Bassett (Joanna), Dennis Clinton, John Garley, Powys Thomas, Keith Michell, Derek Godfrey
Music: Henry Boyes
[two-part TV serial, 40 mins each]

1958 The Black Arrow (BBC)
Production: BBC (Naomi Capon)
Cast: Patrick Blackwell (Dick), Anne Dickins (Joanna), Barry Letts (Brackley), Patrick Wymark (Lawless)
[six-part TV serial]

1968 La freccia nera (“The Black Arrow”) (Majano)
Director: Anton Giulio Majano
Production: RAI-TV, Italy
Cast: Aldo Reggiani (Dick), Loretta Goggi (Joan), Arnoldo Foà (Brackley)
Screenplay: Anton Giulio Majano
[7-episode “sceneggiato” (serial); followed by an audience of 16 million and still fondly remembered as one of the best of its genre]

1972-75 The Black Arrow (Leng, Croft)
Director: Bob Leng, Peter Croft
Production: Peter Croft; Southern TV
Cast: Robin Langford, then Simon Cuff (Dick), Helen Stronge (Joanna), William Squire (Brackley)
[low-budget TV series running four years with 30-min. independent stories based on Stevenson’s protagonists and War-of-the-Roses situation with ‘The Black Arrow’ a masked avenger of ills; total 500 mins.}

1973 The Black Arrow (Gram)
Director: Leif Gram
Production: Walter J. Hucker (Australia)
Script: John Palmer
[animation for TV in 5 episodes; follows the story closely]

1973 Black Arrow (Hough)
Director: John Hough
Production: Disney Cable Network
Cast: Benedict Taylor (Dick), Georgia Stowe (Joanna), Oliver Reed (Brackley), Fernando Rey (Warwick)
Photography: John Cabrera
[TV film; “a lame variation on the Robin Hood tale, with a few of Stevenson’s characters and situations added”, “simplistic script and one-dimensional characterizations… maintains many adventure clichés”, N]

1981 The Black Arrow (Gram)
Director: Leif Gram
Production: Walter J. Hucker / API, Australia
Screenplay: John Palme
[TV animation; On YouTube in five parts. Serious classic comics style, stirring music]

1985 Chyornaya strela / The Black Arrow (Tarasov)
Director: Sergei Tarasov
Production: Mosfilm, USSR
Cast: Igor Shavlak (Dick), Galina Belyayeva (Joanna), Leonid Kulagin (Brackley)
Screenplay: Sergei Tarasov
Photography: Mikhail Ardabyevsky
[TV production; 91 mins.]

1999 The Black Arrow (Goldhill Home Media)
Production: Goldhill Home Media
Cast: Bob Baines (voice)
[animated version in innocuous smiling-caricature style for kiddies]

2006 La freccia nera (“The Black Arrow”) (Costa)
Director: Fabrizio Costa
Production: Rizzoli Audiovisivi, Italy
Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio (Marco=Dick), Martina Stella (Giovanna=Joanna), Ennio Fantastichini (Raniero di Rottenburg=Brackley)
[big-budget six-part TV series broadcast from 12 October 2006 on Canale 5 (Italy). The fictional setting is shifted to late-medieval South Tirol; Dick is Marco Vattelapesca (jeune premier Riccardo Scamarcio), while Joan Sedley has become Giovanna Bentivoglio (Martina Stella: pretty, of limited acting ability, nude scene in episode 1). Giovanna cuts short her flowing blonde locks and goes as a soldier into battle, where she is captured by smouldering Marco, who somehow doesn’t realize she’s a girl… only loosely based on Stevenson’s work]

THE BODY SNATCHER

1945 The Body Snatcher
Director: Robert Wise
Production: Val Lewton / RKO Radio Pictures
Cast: Boris Karloff (Gray), Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell (Dr MacFarlane), Edith Arwater, Russell Wade (Fettes)
Screenplay: Philip MacDonald and “Carlos Keith” (Val Lewton)
Photography: Robert De Grasse
[“The best of the Lewton thrillers”, Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell’s Film Guide; “a rare artistic achievement”, N; one of the best adaptations of RLS’s works for F; 78 mins.]1966 The Body Snatcher
Director: Toby Robertson
Production: ITV, UK
Cast: Ian Holm, Michael Gwynn, John Moffatt, David Buck
Screenplay: Robert Muller
[TV production, for the series “Mystery and Imagination”, broadcast February 5, 1966]

1974 El resurreccionista
Director: Sergi Schaff
Production: TVE, Spain
[TV production, for the TV series “Ficciones”]

1976 El ladrón de cadáveres
Director: José Antonio Páramo
Production: TVE, Spain
Cast: Jack Taylor, Raúl Sénder, Andrés Mejuto, Miriam de Maeztu, Víctor Israel
Screenplay: Ángela Duerto
TV production, for the series “El quinto jinete”, broadcast: December 1, 1976

THE BOTTLE IMP

1917 The Bottle Imp
Director: Marshall A. Neilan
Production: Lasky/Paramount, USA
Cast: Sessue Hayakawa (Lopaka), Lehua Waipahu (Kokua), H. Komshi (Keano)
Screenplay: Charles Maigne

1934 Liebe, Tod und Teufel
Director: Heinz Hilpert und Reinhart Steinbicker
Production: Karl Ritter (for Universum Film AG)
Cast: Käthe von Nagy (Kokua), Albin Skoda (Kiwe)
Screenplay: Josef Pelz von Felinau, Liselotte Gravenstein, Kurt Heuser
[Based on ‘The Bottle Imp’. Remembered for world-weary cabaret song ‘So oder so is das Leben’ (Life like’s that)
sung by Brigitte Horney]

1954 The Bottle Imp
Production: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Screenplay: Richard Denis
[TV adaptation]

See separate page

THE DYNAMITER

1972 Dentro la casa della vecchia signora
Director: Giacomo Battiato
Cast: Felice Andreasi, Adriana Alben, Luigi Carani
[experimental low-cost TV film based on “The Superfluous Mansion” in The Dynamiter with setting transferred to Milan and references to the recent bomb outrage there; 76 mins.]

THE EBB-TIDE

1915 The Ebb Tide (Campbell)
Director: Colin Campbell
Production: Selig Polyscope
[IMDb]

1922 The Ebb Tide (Melford)
Director: George Melford
Production: Famous Players-Lasky; Paramount
Cast: James Kirkwood (Herrick), Raymond Hatton (Huish), George Fawcett (Davis), Noah Beery (Attwater), Lila Lee (Ruth Attwater)
Screenplay: Waldemar Young
[Fawcett’s and Hatton’s performances are praised by N, but otherwise he sees the film as “a Hollywood patchwork draped upon the bones of the original story”; 80 mins.]

[1932 Ebb Tide (Rosson): unrelated film]

1937 The Ebb Tide (Hogan)
Director: James P. Hogan
Production: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Barry Fitzgerald (Huish), Oskar Homolka (Capt. Therbecke), Ray Milland (Robert Herrick), Lloyd Nolan (Attwater), Frances Farmer (Faith Wishart)
Screenplay: Bertram Millhauser
Photography: Ray Rennahan, Leo Tover
[“the substance and the significance of the tale are touched upon only vaguely”, N; script reworked for the 1947 film]

1947 Adventure Island
Director: Peter Stewart
Production: Paramount
Cast: Rory Calhoun (Herrick), John Abbot (Huish), Paul Kelly (Captain Lochlin), Alan Napier (Attwater), Rhonda Flemming (Faith Wishart)
Screenplay: Maxwell Shane
[script is a paraphrase of the 1937 version, a work of “fabrication and caricature” for N; 66 mins. Video of the film at archive.org]

1952 The Ebb Tide (Rilla)
Production: W. P. Rilla / BBC TV
Cast: Donald Pleasance

1965 Le Reflux
Director: Paul Gégauff
Production: France
Cast: Roger Vadim (Attwater), Michel Subor (Lorreille = Herrick), Franco Fabrizzi (Rizzi=Davis), Serge Marquand (Pearson=Huish)
Screenplay: Paul Gégauff
[the three beacombers agree to take a cargo of champagne from Tahiti to Australia, they arrive at Attwater’s island ; 90 mins. The film was never properly completed and the issued film ends with Vadim’s voice-over. Some footage re-used in 2005 L’intrus (below)]

1998 The Ebb-Tide (Renton)
Director: Nicholas Renton
Production: ITV
Cast: Chris Barnes (Bunch=Huish), Robbie Coltrane (Chisholm = Davis), Nigel Terry (Ellstrom = Attwater)
Screenplay: Simon Donald
[TV production; IMDB has 1998, but the DVD release seems to have been 1997; judged disappointing by some but as one of the best RLS film adaptations by F]

2004 L’intrus / The Intruder
Director: Claire Denis
Production: Ognon Pictures, France
Cast: Michel Subor (Louis Trebor)
Screenplay: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau
[Also listed as 2005 (maybe the DVD release date). In this allusive film-poem, a 68-year-old man, Louis Trebor (Michel Subor) goes looking for a long-lost son after a clandestine transplant operation: from his isolated house in the Jura Mountains of France to Korea, to a remote island near Tahiti. The title comes from a brief essay (2000) by French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy on his experience of a heart transplant. Stevenson is an inspiration for the South Seas episodes and for the name of the protagonist (Trebor is “Robert” backwards), and because the film includes inserts from Paul Gégauff’s 1965 film Le reflux (based on The Ebb-Tide), in which a younger Michel Subor plays Lorreille (=Herrick)]

THE ISLE OF VOICES

1987 Lago de las vírgenes
Director: Jesús Franco
Production: Tritón P.C. / C.G. Films, Spain
Cast: Joan Almirall, Katja Bienert, Antonio de Cabo, Eduardo Fajardo, Bea Fiedler, Lola Gaos, Joaquín Navarro, Angel Ordiales, Doris Regina)
Screenplay: “David Khune” (Jesús Franco)
Photography: Juan Soler
[IMDb says it’s based on “novel Le isle” by Robert Louis Stevenson; probably based on “The Isle of Voices”: “un pescador descubre una isla salvaje habitada por tres bellas jóvenes mudas”, Fantaterror.com]

KIDNAPPED

1917 Kidnapped (Crosland)
Director: Alan Crosland
Production: Forum / Edison
Cast: Raymond McKee (David), Robert Cain (Alan), Franklin Hanna (Hoseason)
Screenplay: Charles Sumner Williams
[5-reel condensation; “much of the novel is ignored, due to the brief running time, but portions are rendered accurately”, “Unfortunately, prints… are not available for viewing, ranking it as a possible lost film”, N]

[1929 Kidnapped (Paul Terry): unrelated short animation in the Van Beuren Studios’ “Aesop’s Fables” series]

[1930 Kidnapped / Dizzy Limit (Dryhurst): unrelated UK film]

[1935 Kidnapped (Lauritzen): unrelated Danish comedy-melodrama]
1938 Kidnapped (Werker)
Director: Alfred L. Werker
Production: Darryl F. Zanuck / 20th Century Fox
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew (David), Warner Baxter (Alan), C. Aubrey Smith (Duke of Argyle), Reginald Owen (Capt. Hoseason), Miles Mander (Ebenezer Balfour), Halliwell Hobbes (Domine Campbell)
Screenplay: Edwin Blum, Walter Ferris, Eleanor Harris, Sonya Levien, Ernest Pascal, Richard Sherman
Photography: Bert Glennon, Gregg Toland
[“a dismal excuse for entertainment… A failure on almost every level… vies with MGM’s Trouble for Two as the worst Stevenson adaptation of Hollywood’s golden age.”, N; Warner Baxter’s performance and the romantic subplot are criticized by an IMDB user, who however praises Bartholemew and the supporting character actors; 90 mins.]

1948 Kidnapped (Beaudine)
Director: William Beaudine
Production: Monogram Pictures Corporation
Cast: Roddy McDowall (David), Dan O’Herlihy (Alan), Robert Anderson (Ransome), Jeff Corey (Shuan), Olaf Hytten (The Red Fox), Erskine Sanford (Rankeillor), Houseley Stevenson (Ebenezer), Roland Winters (Hoseason)
Screenplay: Scott Darling
[McDowell rises above “stilted dialogue and little dramatic inspiration” to give “a sensitive portrayal” that evokes David’s ” complex personality”, the film is “occasionally striking and generally well-acted”, N; an IMDB user criticizes the added romantic sublot and the over-genteel performance of O’Herlihy as Alan but agrees that McDowell “was the perfect David Balfour”]

1949 Kidnapped (CBC)
Production: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Screenplay: Andrew Allan
[TV production]

1951 Kidnapped (CBS)
Production: CBS
[TV production in the “Fun with Books” series]

1952 Kidnapped (Harrington)
Director: Joy Harrington
Production: BBC
Cast: John Fraser (David), Patrick Troughton (Alan), Willoughby Gray (Ebeneezer)
[6-part TV serial]

1956 Kidnapped (CBS)
Production: CBS
[6-part “For the Children” serial]

1956 Kidnapped (BBC)
Production: BBC
Cast: Leonard Maguire (David), John Laurie (Ebeneezer)
[6-part TV serial; “Likely to be a remake of the 1952 serial as the adapter and production personnel and some of the cast are the same”, BFI]

[1959 Kidnapped: unrelated 15-min. UK animation in the “Four Feather Falls” series] ]

1960 Kidnapped (Stevenson)
Director: Robert Stevenson (b. 1905)
Production: Walt Disney Productions, UK / USA
Cast: James MacArthur (David), Peter Finch (Alan), James MacArthur (David), Bernard Lee (Hoseason), John Laurie (Ebenezer), Niall MacGinnis (Shuan), Finlay Currie (Cluny MacPherson), Miles Malleson (Rankeillor), Peter O’Toole (Robin MacGregor), Richard Evans (Ransome), Andrew Cruikshank (Colin Roy Campbell);
Photography: Paul Beeson
Screenplay: Robert Stevenson
[“follows the novel very closely”, “characters… resemble their literary counterparts”, “Peter Finch is outstanding”, N; Peter O’Toole’s first screen appearance]

1963 Kidnapped (BBC)
Production: BBC
[11-part serial based on Kidnapped and Catriona, BFI]

1968 Schüsse unterm Galgen / Shots Under the Gallows
Director: Horst Seemann
Production: DEFA, East Germany
Cast: Werner Kanitz (David), Thomas Weisgerber (Alan), Alena Prohazkova (Catriona), Herwart Grosse (Alexander Balfour/Ebenezer Balfour), Hans Hardt-Hardtloff (Captain)
Screenplay: Horst Seemann
Photography: Jürgen Brauer
[combines Kidnapped and Catriona; 107 mins.]

[1971 Kidnapped produced by John Ryan Studios: unrelated 5-min. UK TV animation]

1971 Kidnapped / David and Catriona (Mann)
Director: Delbert Mann
Production: Omnibus-American International
Cast: Lawrence Douglas (David), Michael Caine (Alan), Donald Pleasence (Ebenezer), Jack Hawkins (Hoseason), Vivien Heilbron (Catriona), Trevor Howard (Lord Advocate Grant), Gordon Jackson (Charles Stewart), Freddie Jones (Cluny)
Screenplay: Jack Pulman
[combines material from Kidnapped and Catriona; emphasizes the political context; “Caine’s Alan Breck is the highlight of the film” (though others have judged his interpretation negatively); dressed in a tartan trouser suit he is “a Jacobite dandy”; “technically impressive”, “one of the better films adapted from a Stevenson work”, N; 100 mins.]

1973 Kidnapped (Air Programs)
Production: Air Programs International
[1-hour cartoon version; first broadcast on CBS 22 Oct. 1973]

[1975 Kidnapped (NZT) – full-length animated adaptation: could be just an airing of the 1973 animation – more information required]

1978 Die Abenteuer des David Balfour / Les aventures de David Balfour / Kidnapped (Delcourt)
Director: Jean-Pierre Delcourt
Production: Seewolf & Co., Germany / France
Cast: Ekkehardt Belle (David), David McCallum (Alan), Aude Landry (Catriona), Patrick Allen, Bill Simpson, Bernhardt Wicki, Arthur Brauss
[TV mini-series of four 90-min episodes (thirteen 30-min. episodes, BFI); covers both Kidnapped and Catriona; shown in several coutries 1978-79; ;”best performance of any dramatized version of Kidnapped”, IMDb user’s comment, also included by F as one of the best adaptations of S’s works especially because it faces the historical question of the eradication of the clan system as S does; site page devoted to this production]

1980 Kidnapped (BBC Scotland)
Production: Tom Cotter / BBC Scotland
[TV feature; more information required]

1986 Kidnapped (Collins)
Director: Geoff Collins
Production: Burbank Films, Australia
Voices: Tom Burlinson (Alan), Matthew Fargher (David)
Screenplay: Leonard Lee
[56-min. animation released directly as video]

[1987 Kidnapped (Avedis): unrelated US feature film]

1995 Kidnapped (Passer)
Director: Ivan Passer
Production: CBS-TV, USA
Cast: Brian McCardie (David), Armand Assante (Alan), Dave Duffy (Riach)
Screenplay: Michael Barlow, John Goldsmith
Photography: James Devis, Dennis C. Lewiston
[TV production; IMDb and B have Passer as director, S has E. Coppola; an IMDb user says “Armand Assante turned in a superb performance”, Lachie Munro agrees but says the script “a travesty”]

[2004 Kidnapped by Warner Bros. TV animation: unrelated 30-min. US TV animation]

2005 Kidnapped (Maher)
Director: Brendan Maher
Production: BBC / South Pacific Productions
Cast: Iain Glenn (Alan Breck), James Pearson (Davie Balfour), Adrian Dunbar (Uncle Ebenezer), Gregor Fisher (James of the Glens), Paul McGann (Col. McNabb), Kirsten Smith (Catriona)
Screenplay: Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle
[TV miniseries combining Kidnapped and Catriona. Filmed in New Zealand (for cost reasons). Was generally judged a bit disappointing]

[2006 Kidnapped! by William Street, 70/30 Productions: unrelated 11-min. US animation]

MARKHEIM

1952 Markheim
[included among “Television Adaptations” by N with no further details]

1957 Markheim
Production: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Screenplay: Alfred Harris
[TV version]

1974 Markheim
Director: Tina Wakerell
Production: Scottish Television

Cast: Derick Jacobi (Markheim), Julian Glover (The Stranger) and Paul Curran (Dealer)HEIMScreenplay: Tom Wright

[Broadcast 24 December 1974; Julian Glover as the Stranger gives an excellent performance; he is dressed like Markheim and his words occasionally become off-screen thoughts in Markheim’s mind; 30 mins.]

THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE

[1929 Le Maître de Ballantrae (fimscript outline) by Antonin Artaud: Published in Artaud, Antonin (1961). Oeuvres complètes, vol. 3. Paris: Gallimard. Also in Le Bris, Michel (éd.) (1995). Stevenson. Paris: l’Herne (Les Cahiers de l’Herne, 66): 318-22]

1950 The Master of Ballantrae (CBC)
Production: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Screenplay: Andrew Allan
[TV version]

1953 The Master of Ballantrae (Keighley)
Director: William Keighley
Production: Warner Bros
Cast: Errol Flynn (James), Anthony Steele (Henry), Mervyn Johns (MacKellar)
Screenplay: Herb Meadow
Photography: Jack Cardiff
[Henry here is the traitor who does everything to rob the dashing Master of his inheritance, in the duel James kills Henry; DF finds the screenplay banal, but praises the photography; “must rank high on the list of cinematic maulings”, Oliver Buckton; N sees it good as an Errol Flynn adventure film and praises the photography but says it has only “scattered connections with the novel” and “a simplistic plot and one-dimensional characters”; 89 mins.]

1962 The Master of Ballantrae
[Scottish TV production]

1974 El Señor de Osanto
Director: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo
Production: Estudios Churubusco Azteca, Mexico
Cast: Daniela Rosen, Hugo Stiglitz, Mario Castillón Bracho, Farnesio de Bernal, Fernando Soler, Rogelio Guerra, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Salvador Sánchez
Screenplay: José de la Colina, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo
Photography: Gabriel Figueroa
[occasionally listed as 1972 but IMDb and BFI have 1974; 108 mins.]

1979 Il Signore di Ballantrae (Majano)
Director: Anton Giulio Majano
Production: RAI TV
Cast: Giuseppe Pambieri (James), Luigi La Monica (Henry), Mita Medici (Alison), Giancarlo Zanetti (McKellar).
[TV mini-series (“sceneggiato”) in 5 episodes. Interestingly it is the better-known actor who gets the role of the Master (like Errol Flynn in 1953, and Michael York in 1984). The RAInet site has a brief promo interview with Calvino, who seems a bit bored with always being asked the same questions about Doubles—but it’s preceded by a brief clip of a much younger Calvino who says “What interests me is the mosaic in which the individual finds himself trapped: the play of relationships, the pattern to discover among the arabesques of the carpet” (“Quello che mi interessa è il mosaico in cui l’uomo si trova incastrato: il gioco di rapporti, la figura da scoprire tra gli arabeschi del tappeto”)]

1984 The Master of Ballantrae (Hickox)
Director: Douglas Hickox
Production: HTV / Columbia Pictures Television
Cast: Michael York (James), Richard Thomas (Henry), John Gielgud (Lord Durisdeer), Timothy Dalton (Burke), Ian Richardson (MacKellar), Finola Hughes (Alison)
Screenplay: William Bast
[TV version; faithfully follows the novel and shot on location; N praises the acting the transposition of the text and the location shooting – “a good Stevenson adaptation and an interesting film in its own right’; 52 mins.]

THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS

1920, The White Circle
Director: Maurice Tourneur
Production: Paramount Pictures
Cast: John Gilbert (Cassilis), Spottiswoode Aitken (Huddlestone), Harry Northrup (Northmuir), Jack McDonald, Janis Wilson (Clara)
Screenplay: Jules Furthman, John Gilbert
[“maintains S’s melodramatic plot and features several of its most dramatic moments” but of “uneven quality”, N]1961, State of Seige (Maverick episode, season 4)
Director: Robert B. SInclair
Production: Waner Bros. TV
Cast: Jack Kelley (Bart Maverick), Ray Danton (Don Felipe), Lisa Gaye (Soledad)
Screenplay: Larry Welch
[loosely based on ‘The Pavilion on the Links’: hero visits isolated hacienda of an acquaintance, Don Felipe,

and finds it under siege by Mexican revolutionaries who want revenge for land lost by Don Felipe]

THE RAJAH’S DIAMOND

1971 The Rajah’s Diamond / Le Diamant du Rajah (Checinski)
Director: Sylwester Checinski
Cast: Wladyslaw Hancza, Ewa Wisniewska
[Polish TV dramatization]

1979 The Rajah’s Diamond (BBC)
Production: J. Mervyn Williams / BBC Wales
Libretto: Myfanwy Piper
Music: Alun Hoddinott
[TV opera]

THE SILVERADO SQUATTERS

1948 Adventures in Silverado
Director: Phil Karlson
Production: Columbia
Cast: Edgar Barrier (Stevenson)
[includes Stevenson as a character in a Western story “suggested by a few paragraphs in chapter two”, N]

1977 The Silverado Squatters
Production: BBC Scotland

THE SIRE DE MALETROIT’S DOOR

1951 The Strange Door
Director: Joseph Pevney
Production: Universal International
Cast: Charles Laughton (Alain de Maletroit), Boris Karloff (Voltan), Sally Forrest (Blanche de Maletroit), Richard Wyler (Dennis de Beaulieu), William Cottrell (Corbeau), Alan Napier (Count Grassan), Morgan Farley (Renville), Paul Cavanagh (Edmond de Maletroit), Michael Pate (Talon)
Screenplay: Jerry Sackheim
Photography: Irving Glassberg
[adapted as a mediocre gothic horror film with added tortured brother (father of Blanche) in the cellar etc.; 81 mins.]

ST. IVES

1949 The Secret of St. Ives (Rosen)
Director: Philip Rosen
Production: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Cast: Richard Ney (St Ives), Vanessa Brown (Floria [sic] Gilchrist), Jean Del Val (Count St. Ives), Phyllis Morris (Annie Gilchrist), Douglas Walton (Allan St. Ives), Henry Daniell (Maj. Edward Chevenish)
Screenplay: Eric Taylor
Photography: Henry Freulich
[“tedious low-budget effort”, N; 75 mins.]

1955 St. Ives
Production: BBC
Cast: Willaim Russell (St. Ives), Noelle Middleton (Flora), Douglas Wilmer (Alain)
[6-part TV serial]

1960 St. Ives
Production: BBC
Cast: Willaim Russell (St. Ives), Audrey Nicholason (Flora), Denic Goacher (Alain)
Screenplay: Rex Tucker
[6-part TV serial; William Russell plays the part for the second time]

1967 St. Ives
Production: BBC
Cast: David Sumner (St. Ives), Gay Hamilton (Flora Gilchrist). Mark Eden (Alain)
Screenplay: Rex Tucker
[6-part TV serial; same script as for the 1960 production]

[1976 St. Ives (Lee Thompson) with Charles Bronson: unrelated US feature film]]

1998 St.Ives / All for Love / Saint-Yves
Director: Harry Hook
Production: BBC / Compagnie Des Phares et Balises / Columbus Films
Cast: Jean-Marc Barr (St Ives), Miranda Richardson (Miss Gilcrist), Richard E. Grant (Major Chevening), Anna Friel (Flora Gilchrist), Michael Gough (Count of St Ives)
Screenplay: Allan Cubitt
[“an old-fashioned swashbuckling, romantic comedy”, N, only loosely based on Stevenson’s story; 90 mins]

THE SUICIDE CLUB

1909 The Suicide Club
Director: D.W. Griffith
Production: American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.
Cast: Herbert Yost (The Chosen One)
Screenplay: Frank E. Woods
[no prints are known to exist, N; 4 mins.]

[1913 Der Geheimnisvolle Klub Director: Joseph Delmont; Cast: Joseph Delmont, Fred Sauer, Ilse Bois; sometimes described as an adaptation of “the Suicide Club”, but it is in fact an adaptation of Chesterton’s The Club of Queer Trades; 46 mins]

1914 The Suicide Club (Elvey)
Director: Maurice Elvey
Production: British & Colonial Kinematograph Co.
Cast: Montagu Love (Florizel), Elizabeth Risdon, Fred Groves, M. Gray Murray
[“no prints are known to exist”, N]

1919 Unheimliche Geschichten / Weird Tales / Five Sinister Stories / Tales of Horror / Tales of the Uncanny / Un Affare misterioso
Director: Richard Oswald
Production: Richard-Oswald-Produktion
Cast: Anita Berber, Conrad Veidt (Club President)
Screenplay: Richard Oswald
Photography: Carl Hoffmann
[“Der Sebstmörderklub” is the fourth of five linked stories; 112 mins.]

1932 Unheimliche Geschichten / Five Sinister Stories / Unholy Tales / Tales of the Uncanny / Asylum of Horror / The Living Dead / Ghastly Tales / Un Affare misterioso
Director: Richard Oswald
Production: Roto-G.P., Germany
Cast: Paul Wegener, Hans Behal, etc.
Screenplay: Heinz Goldberg, Richard Oswald
Photography: Heinrich Gärtner
[A talkie remake of the same five linked stories, including “Der Sebstmörderklub”, by the same director as the 1919 version; 89 mins. Released in the USA in a badly-edited version as The Living Dead in 1940. Footage from this film was later edited into Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1943)]

[1932 “The Suicide Club” (Universal) a film planned for Bella Lugosi and Boris Karloff in 1932 and mentioned again in 1933 before being abandoned (Gary Don Rhodes, Lugosi (McFarland, 1997), p. 218). Listed by S as an actual film]

1936 Trouble for Two / The Suicide Club (Ruben)
Director: J. Walter Ruben
Production: MGM
Cast: Robert Montgomery (Prince Florizel), Rosalind Russell (Miss Vandeleur/Princess Brenda), Frank Morgan (Colonel Geraldine), Reginald Owen (President of Club), Louis Hayward (Young Man With Cream Tarts)
Screenplay: Edward E. Paramore Jr., Manuel Seff
Photography: Charles G. Clarke
[loosely based on “Cream Tarts” and “Hansom Cab” episodes, adds love interest for prince Florizel, a female member of the club who is his chosen assassin; “Hollywood hokum… arrant nonsense… parade of clichés”, N; 80 mins.]

1946 La Dama de la muerte
Director: Carlos Hugo Christensen
Production: Chile Film, Chile
Cast: Carlos Cores (Roberto Brown), Guillermo Battaglia (Clifford)
[Brown gets the queen of hearts, then wins money and wants to live; Clifford has been dealt the ace of hearts; loosely based on S’s story with many intriguing twists and turns and lots of “atmosphere” provided by London fog and a fine sinister performance from Battaglia; sequences re-used in the 1964 Curse of the Stone Hand (below)]

1950 Suspense: The Suicide Club (Stevens)
Director: Robert Stevens
Production: CBS
Cast: Ralph Bell (Florizel) and Richard Fraser (Club President)
[season 2, episode 24, 14 February 1950]

1955 Theatre Royal: The Suicide Club (Vance)
Director: Dennis Vance
Production: Towers of London / ITPC, UK
Cast: Derrick De Marney (Florizel) and Carl Bernard (Club President)
[adapatation in a TV drama series; broadcast on NBC in the “Lilli Palmer Theatre” 1956]

1960 The Chevy Mystery Show: The Suicide Club (NBC)
Production: NBC
Cast: Cesar Romero and Everett Sloane
[adapatation in a TV drama series; episode 17, 18 September 1960]

1964 Curse of the Stone Hand
Director: Jerry Warren, using footage from Carlos Hugo Christensen (“Suicide Club” sequences), Carlos Schlieper (“House of Gloom” sequences)
Production: ADP Pictures Inc. / Chile Films S.A.
Cast: Carlos Cores, Guillermo Battaglia
Screenplay: Jerry Warren
[“patchwork film” by inferior B-movie horror-film producer Jerry Warren; the “Suicide Club” segment consists of about 35 minutes lifted from the “brilliantly atmospheric” La dama de la muerte (1946, see above) filled out with “nonsense Hollywood-filmed sequences” starring John Carradine and Katherine Victor (the “House of Gloom” sequences are from Schlieper’s La casa esta vacia); information kindly supplied by Jean-Claude Michel; see Will Laughlin’s Braineater horror-movie site]

1970 Mystery and Imagination: The Suicide Club (Vardy)
Production: Thames Television
Director: Mike Vardy
Cast: Alan Dobie (Florizel), Eric Woofe (Geraldine), Bernard Archard (Club President)
[adapatation in a TV drama series; season 5, episode 1, 9 February 1970]

1970 El Club de los suicidas
Director: Rogelio A. González
Cast: Enrique Guzmán
[contemporary setting for RLS’s story]

1973 Wide World of Mystery: The Suicide Club (Glenn)
Director: Bill Glenn
Production: ABC
Cast: Peter Haskell (Florizel), Margot Kidder (young woman), Joseph Wiseman (Club President)
[adapatation in a TV drama series; 73 mins.]

1979 Priklyucheniya printsa Florizelya / Adventures of Prince Florisel
Director: Yevgeni Tatarsky
Production: Lenfilm Studio, USSR
Cast: Oleg Dal (Florizel), Donatas Banionis (Club Chairman), Igor Dmitriyev (Colonel Geraldine)
Screenplay: Edgar Dubrovsky
Photography: Konstantin Ryzhov
[TV production; 206 mins.]

1987 The Suicide Club / Sill Life
Director: Bruce James
Production: Anjelica Films
Cast: Muriel Hemingway
Screenplay: Susan Kouguell and Carl Capotorto
[IMD lists this as 1988, BFI as 1987; “borrows Stevenson’s title but does not incorporate any significant literary material”, N; seems to follow the main lines of the story with the lead taken by “Sasha Michaels, a world-weary heiress”, BFI]

2000 Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Suicide Club / The Game of Death
Director: Rachel Samuels
Production: Roger Corman / New Concorde
Cast: David Morrissey (Henry Joyce=Florizel), Neil Stuke (Capt. May=Geraldine), Paul Bettany (Shaw=Young Man), Jonathan Pryce (Mr. Bourne=Club President), Catherine Siggins (Sarah Wolverton, female club-member)
Screenplay: Lev L. Spiro
[retains the basic elements of S’s story with added elements including a female member of the club, as in Trouble for Two (1936); generally judged a disappointing film despite production by Roger Corman; 89 mins.]

[2002 El club del suicidio (Zambrano): unrelated Colombian short]

2003 Bankrotári
Director: Zdenek Zelenka
Production: Ceská Televize
Cast: Miroslav Donutil (Alfred Cechura) and Jirina Bohdalová (Spisovatelka Colinsova)
[a Czech TV movie broadcast 26 December 2003; 99 mins.]

2007 El club de los suicidas / The Suicide Club (Santiago)
Director: Roberto Santiago
Production: Tornasol Films, Spain
Cast: Fernando Tejero (master of ceremonies)
[A group of men and women in present-day Madrid who would like to commit suicide for various reasons come across a copy of Stevenson’s “Suicide Club” and decide to imitate it. But they find it is more difficult than they thought. 104 mins.]

[2007 The Suicide Club (Montierth) with Jason Marsden: unrelated US short]

[2010 The Suicide Club (Olaf Saumer): unrelated German low-budget film]TREASURE ISLAND

See separate page

THE TREASURE OF FRANCHARD

1951 The Treasure of Lost Canyon
Director: Ted Tetzlaff
Production: Universal International
Cast: William Powell (Doc Homer Brown), Tommy Ivo (David), Rosemary De Camp (doctor’s wife)
[Western based on Stevenson’s story; “includes a simplistic outline of Stevenson’s story”, “fabricated Hollywood mediocrity”, N]

WEIR OF HERMISTON

1973 Weir of Hermiston
Director: Tima Wakerell
Production: BBC Scotland
Cast: Tom Fleming (Adam Weir), David Rintoul (archie Weir), Edith MacArthur (Kirstie Elliott)
Screenplay: Tom Wright
[4-part TV serial; the text of the filmed ending is in in Tom Wright (ed), Weir of Hermiston (Edinburgh: Holmes McDougall, 1973); camera scripts in NLS Acc. 5812; previously-listed 1977 BBC Scotland production looks as if it might be a re-broadcasting of this work – more information required]

THE WRECKER

THE WRONG BOX

1913 The Wrong Box
Production: Solax Film Company, USA

1966 The Wrong Box
Director: Bryan Forbes
Production: Salamander-Columbia
Cast: John Mills (Masterman Finsbury), Ralph Richardson (Joseph Finsbury), Michael Caine (Michael Finsbury), Dudley Moore (John Finsbury), Peter Cook (Morris Finsbury), Peter Sellers (Dr Pratt)
Screenplay: Larry Gelbart, Burt Shevelove
Photography: Gerry Turpin
[N praises the performance of Ralph Richardson and the fluid cinematography but finds the rest “disappointing and tasteless” with “overblown theatrics”, and an unsuccessful attempt to imitate silent comedy techniques”; a black British comedy that combines Ealing Studio subtlety with a 1960’s era cynicism and detachment”, Answers.com]