The second release from an early incarnation of Hammer Films is something of a precursor to their TechniColored horror relaunches of FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA in the late ‘50s.* This one's speculative fiction on a never-solved sea mystery: the legend of The Mary Celeste, a small freighter found off coast, perfectly intact, utterly crewless. The film theorizes a killer on board, methodically bumping off mates (and in this telling the captain’s wife) with bodies turning up regularly (Agatha Christie style) amid blasts of disorienting sea storms. The real mystery is how well-made & effective it is. Bitty-budgeted British indies (often ‘quota quickies’ to meet official demands for British-made product) aren’t exactly loaded with spit, polish & style. Yet here, silent film journeyman Denison Clift, who hadn’t directed in years (and never would again), manages tone, character, action, story arc, pacing . . . the works. Of course, the main reason you’re here is for Stateside ‘ringer’ Bela Lugosi, cast to help sell U.S. distribution rights, fitting this in between the usual Hollywood drek he grabbed when Universal wasn’t calling on his services. He’s good, too, playing a broken ‘tar,’ eager for any job on any ship, then finding himself in the midst of a death voyage. But victim or perpetrator? Exclude his surprisingly good supporting role for Ernst Lubitsch in NINOTCHKA, and this must be the best work Lugosi did away from Universal.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The original British cut (now lost?) apparently used a courtroom framing device to surround the main action. Look for the hour-long Stateside cut under the title PHANTOM SHIP, all over the internet. Just beware of subfusc copies; decent prints posted if you look around. *Why Denison Clift never got another shot at helming is just one more mystery.
DOUBLE-BILL: *It also compares nicely with a Val Lewton film like THE GHOST SHIP/’43.
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