Scalawag

Well accustomed to losing bits of his anatomy for his art (an eye in The Vikings, an ear in Lust for Life, a finger in The Big Sky), Kirk Douglas quite naturally appears in his own directorial debut, a kids' treasure hunt yarn based on Robert Louis Stevenson, as a one-legged pirate. Having set up a potential stablemate to A High Wind in Jamaica, though, he blows it conclusively with an increasingly treacly performance and erratic direction. The involvement of veteran 'Hollywood Ten' screenwriter Albert Maltz seems as incongruous as the decision to have Yugoslavian locations doubling for Mexico and California.