Although they are renowned today for the series of horror films made between 1954 and 1976, Hammer Films actually got their start back in the 1930s. They only made a few films before going on hiatus until after World War II when they reemerged with a series of low budget film noirs before embarking on the horror films that would make them world famous. The most successful of these 1930s films was the 1935 MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE which would be released here a year later as THE PHANTOM SHIP (beginning a trend which would last until the 1970s of Hammer Film titles being changed in the U.S.) and shorn of 18 minutes. The missing footage deals with courtroom scenes which open and close the picture. The film is of primary interest today as an early Hammer offering and for the casting of Bela Lugosi in an important role.
Lugosi had come to England following in the wake of Boris Karloff who had come over in 1933 to make THE GHOUL, but by 1935 an outright ban on horror films in Britain had been enacted thanks to the Lugosi/Karloff vehicle THE RAVEN and so Lugosi winds up with a role that really shows his capabilities as an actor not just a screen presence. The film is based on one of the all time great maritime mysteries concerning the ship MARY CELESTE which left New York in 1872 and was found sometime later completely derelict. A lifeboat and a few items were missing but almost everything else was where it should have been including provisions and the crew’s belongings. What happened? No one really knows or will know but that didn’t stop people from speculating. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a story about it and this movie came up with its own scenario.
Overall the film is good but not great and it’s a real curio. While the principal photography (shot on a real ship) and the lighting are very effective, the editing is perfunctory, the script is rather stilted and some of the performances are rather weak especially Shirley Grey although she sings a good sea shanty (if that was her). In fact the musical sequences are a highlight of the film. The scenes in the waterfront bar in the beginning look as if they came straight out of THE THREEPENNY OPERA. But the movie belongs to Lugosi as a broken down sailor who exhibits a surprising depth of emotion concerning his plight and the fate of others. If you’re a fan of his, then you need to have this as a testament to what he could do.. If you purchase THE PHANTOM SHIP, make sure you get the Image version. Others are from poor quality prints which are only a waste of money.
The Capsule Critic 