Treasure Island is a 1934 movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and lives.

Rum-craving sailor Billy Bones (Lionel Barrymore) arrives at the inn of Jim Hawkins and his mother (Dorothy Peterson) one dark and stormy night. It soon becomes evident that Bill is a hunted man. Shortly after sundown, a blind man delivers Bill “The Black Spot,” a death sentence. Overcome, Bill later dies of a stroke, and Jim and his mother break into Bill’s sea-chest to recover what they are owed. Jim grabs a map and escapes with his mother before a small group of men break into the inn, looking for that very item.

Jim takes his discovery to Squire Trelawney (Nigel Bruce) and Dr. Livesey (Otto Kruger). It is found to show the location of the buried treasure of the notorious pirate Captain Flint. They decide to seek it out. The naïve squire leaves to hire a ship and crew. He does well in choosing a fine ship, the Hispaniola, and a trustworthy Captain Smollett (Lewis Stone), but makes a grave mistake in hiring one-legged Long John Silver as ship’s cook and allowing him to recruit many other crewmen. Silver is the leader of the cutthroats who broke into the inn.

As the voyage goes on, Silver tries to persuade the rest of the crew to join him; any who refuse to join meet with fatal "accidents". Finally, the island is sighted. That night, Jim overhears Silver's plot to mutiny while hidden inside an enormous apple barrel. Realizing they are now outnumbered, Captain Smollett decides to seize the ship if enough of the crew go ashore. Jim, though, sets foot on the island too. He wanders into the jungle, where he runs into Ben Gunn (Charles 'Chic' Sale), a little unhinged after being marooned alone on the island for years.

Meanwhile, too many pirates are left aboard, so the captain and his few trustworthy men go ashore to make a stand in Flint's old stockade. Jim is reunited with them there. The mutineers attack, but are repulsed, with casualties on both sides. After Smollett expresses his fear that Silver will have a cannon brought from the ship to blow them up, Jim slips off into the night to cut the ship loose from its mooring. He manages to part the anchor rope, but loses his boat, forcing him to board the Hispaniola. Luck is with him. The two men left on guard have quarreled; one is dead and the other, Israel Hands (Douglass Dumbrille), is injured. Jim grounds the ship at another spot on the island. Hands then tries to kill Jim with a throwing knife, but is shot and killed.

Jim returns to the blockhouse only to find it now held by Silver and his brigands. Silver had allowed Smollett and his men to leave in exchange for the map. The pirates want to kill Jim when he tells them what he has done, but Silver admires his spirit and stops them. They set out for the treasure, but when they reach the spot, they find only a few coins. As the disgruntled men are about to turn against Silver, Smollett and his men launch a surprise attack and kill or drive off the remaining cutthroats.

Jim’s disappointment quickly turns to delight when he goes with the others to Ben Gunn’s cave, where Ben has moved the treasure. Jim and the rest set sail for Jamaica, leaving the few surviving pirates marooned. Silver is imprisoned and certain to hang. While anchored at Jamaica, however, Jim "can’t stand it". He helps his friend escape in a dinghy.

Wallace Beery had originally been cast as Israel Hands in director Maurice Tourneur's silent production, Treasure Island made for Paramount in 1920. Beery would be replaced by Joseph Singleton but would appear that year in another of Tourneur's masterpiece silent films, Last of the Mohicans. The 1920 silent production of Treasure Island is today a lost film.

Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950) is a pirate film directed by Gordon Douglas. Based on the famous Captain Blood depicted in the novel by Rafael Sabatini, Fortunes was produced by Columbia Pictures as yet another remake about the notorious swashbuckler. Complete with daring sword fights, sensational sea battles, intrigue, and a vivacious love interest, Douglas breathed new life into this successful remake of the 1935 Captain Blood that starred Errol Flynn. It later spawned a sequel from the same cast and crew only two years later entitled Captain Pirate.

The film follows the standard story about Captain Blood. An Irishman banished for his treatment on a wounded rebel during the Monmouth Rebellion, Dr. Peter Blood has become a feared buccaneer on the high seas. King Charles II of Spain (Curt Bois) thus calls upon the Marquis de Riconete to capture the evasive Captain Blood and end his attacks upon Spanish ships. Blood is safe until he docks to resupply his crew; while his men are out they are betrayed by their supplier, the slave trader George Fairfax. Once captured, the pirates are tortured by the Marquis to find Blood's whereabouts. Blood then disguises himself as a fruit seller to find and rescue his loyal crew, who have not revealed the location of their beloved captain. During his search he befriends Pepita Rosados (Patricia Medina), a beautiful flirt who reveals to Blood that many of Fairfax's slaves are dying. Blood then confronts Fairfax about the deplorable situation, and finds that Fairfax is having troubles with Isabelita Sotomayor, the niece of the Marquis. The Marquis then decides to arrest Fairfax for his supposed involvement with Blood, so his troops secretly follow Isabelita to his house. She pleads with Fairfax to alleviate her boredom with the island, offering him money to sail to Spain. After their discussion, the troops enter and a fight ensues. Still disguised as a fruit seller, Blood treats the wounded Fairfax in a nearby tavern and offers to Isabelita a trip to Spain if she convinces her uncle to pardon Fairfax. She agrees, and using his newfound insider information Blood discovers the seal of the Marquis. Unfortunately, he mistakes the forgery and after revealing his mistaken note to the prison guard a battle ensues.

Blood and his men escape, however the Marquis is not willing to abandon his search. Isabelita is shocked to discover that her uncle plans to torture the local tavern owner to find the captain, so she reveals his location, thinking he has already set sail. Unfortunately, the incoming tide had prevented his hasty exit, and the Marquis confronts Blood at sea. A fiery battle ensues, with the flaming boat of the Marquis ultimately trying to ram Captain Blood. Luckily, Blood's crew managed to destroy the entire vessel before the deadly flames could reach them. After the pirates ensured their victory, Blood sails away and Isabelita vows to stay on the island and create a new government without slavery.