I had never seen it, went out and rented it and had great time watching it. Been listening to the commentary by Heston's son, who directed it. They sailed the Bounty down to Jamaica where they filmed the island portion. Rest done in England on location or at Pinewood studios. Heston read the book to his son many times when he was a boy so he chose it to film as his debut effort. Said he remembered his father reading about Pew's tap tap tapping stick instilling a sense of dread. I can relate. The song "15 men" which Stevenson wrote only the two verses that appear in the book, was fleshed out into a long poem by Young Ewing Allison called "Derelict" in 1891. Dead Man's Chest is thought to be Caribbean island, small with no water, on which Blackbeard marooned a number of crew leaving them only with a supply of rum believing they would all kill each other, but 15 survived. Stevenson supposedly read the phrase "dead mans chest" in a previous pirate novel and that became his inspiration for his story, published as a serial in a popular journal in 1881/2. There are a number of historical references in the novel as Stevenson was familiar with both pirate history and fictional treatments. A classic.
A big thanks to blak bart for this thread.