Ghost Ship features one of the least threatening ghosts in movie history - he appears, smoking a cigar, and then vanishes - and yet those in the know are still so scared of him that they refuse to step foot on the steamer yacht that he haunts. Despite learning of the vessel's supernatural inhabitant, married couple Guy and Margaret Thornton (Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court) buy the boat and spruce it up, unconvinced by stories of the cigar-smoking spook. However, when Guy actually sees the ghost in the ship's engine room (standing and smoking his Havana), his wife calls in some experts to help find out why the boat is haunted.
This has got to be one of the most tepid horror movies I have ever seen: it's not in the least bit scary, the film too bright and breezy to conjure up any atmosphere or chills. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the film - leads Walsh and Court are just too darn chipper not to like and the film has that affable post-war positivity and charm that typified many films of the era. As a horror, Ghost Ship sinks like a stone, but as an easy-going slice of British B-movie entertainment, it's plain sailing all the way.
