Phantom Ship

In history the crew of the Mary Celeste disappeared and this film attempts to show a possible recreation. Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Anton Lorenzen, a mad crazed man seeking revenge against the crew of the Mary Celeste is wonderful. None of the crew can remember what Lorenzen looks like so he is able to join the new crew. One by one crew members are murdered or just disappear until one person remains. But when the floating ship is found there is no one aboard. An interesting tale to watch even if predictable.

Denison Clift's "The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" aka. "Phantom Ship" of 1935 is a great movie starring Bela Lugosi in a great though atypical role. Many people seem to dislike this movie and I don't really see why. Maybe some people have mixed feelings about "Phantom Ship" because Lugosi's character is not the ingenious super-villain he often played, but an unshaven and scruffy sailor. In my opinion, however, Lugosi's role not being typical doesn't downgrade his excellent performance, and "The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" is a highly atmospheric Horror Mystery and, by the way, one of the first movies produced by the legendary Hammer Film Productions.

The fictional story, which was inspired by the tragic case of the real-life ghost-ship 'Mary Celeste', is of course not historically accurate. Some characters have the names of real-life members of the "Mary Celeste" crew, but the rest of the story is pure fiction. I don't see this as negative either, however. First of all, movies don't always have to be historically accurate to be good. Second, this movie doesn't claim historical accuracy, the beginning clearly says that the story was only inspired by the tragedy of the Mary Celeste.

The great Bela Lugosi is, once again, brilliant in his role, and some of the other cast members, such as Edmund Willard or the heavily tattooed Gunner Moir also deliver great performances."The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" is impressively filmed, and the dark, sometimes haunting atmosphere and menacing character of the sea are excellently brought to screen. The film's musical score is also great, occasional songs sung by characters contribute to the movie's atmosphere, and the background score in some other scenes contributes to the suspense.

"The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" is a highly atmospheric, excellently shot and vastly underrated movie. Lugosi fans can't afford to miss this. Highly Recommended! 8/10

The Mary Celeste was a real ship that was found adrift in good condition, with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic with no one aboard and no record of what happened to them. It's one of histories great mysteries of the sea. This film is very loosely based on this event but it has many of the facts wrong. The film cannot be viewed as a historically correct movie about the real Mary Celeste's voyage. As an example, the captain gets married just before they sail. In reality the Captain was married for some time and had a child that was on the voyage. The child was absent from the movie. There are many more inaccuracies. The accuracy of the personalities of the ship's crew is also very questionable. The movie has taken huge liberties with the facts. Ignoring that this is supposed to take place on the Mary Celeste, this is still a pretty good drama/mystery. I was happily surprised to find that this is one of the very early films from Hammer studios. The atmosphere and settings were great and the characters interesting. Overall the acting is good. Bela Lugosi really stands out with a great dramatic performance and is excellent in his role. The quality of the film and sound are not the greatest but acceptable considering it's age. This USA version is what remains of an earlier and longer British version which I presume is lost but it's still a decent movie. Hammer studios, Bela Lugosi, 1935, isn't that enough to have you take a look at this movie?

I had always been interested in checking out this seafaring thriller due to Bela Lugosi's involvement; still, now I can't help feeling that the over-age star was miscast in the role of a hapless 'old man of the sea' who bears an Ahab-like grudge against the "Mary Celeste" and is also something of a religious fanatic (the inspiration for this was, perhaps, Boris Karloff's impressive turn in John Ford's desert adventure THE LOST PATROL [1934]). That said, his final descent into madness (uncommonly vicious for the time but, then, the film is based on a factual incident!) is fairly well handled.

Ultimately, however, the British-made picture fails to rise above its 'quota quickie' status - Lugosi himself fared much better with the later DARK EYES OF London (1939) - and can't honestly compare with the similar Val Lewton-produced THE GHOST SHIP (1943); moreover, it is fatally compromised by the director's baffling decision to keep much of the central action off-screen (either due to budgetary limitations or he must have been an admirer of Tod Browning)! Considering some of the choppy editing involved, though, I'm inclined to believe the film's official length as given by the IMDb - i.e. 80 minutes, rather than the 62-minute version I saw (culled from the Image DVD).

There's also the insipid - but mandatory - romantic interest to contend with here, to say nothing of various songs by the leading lady (with piano accompaniment) and an organ-playing sailor, which are a chore to sit through...but the latter musical instrument's come-uppance at the hands of the angry first mate does provide some unintended hilarity!

P.S. Though it hadn't been officially named as yet, the company that made this film is actually Hammer Films; as a matter of fact, I first came upon PHANTOM SHIP (under its original title of THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE) via a still in an article about the famed British "House Of Horror" in an early 1980s periodical...

Watching this film one wonders if the scene of the discovery of the Mary Celeste was actually supposed to come at the beginning rather than at the end, since as a whole it would have worked far better in flashback.

Film historians often regard old movies with the benefit of hindsight; and this little curiosity has always caught the eye of researchers since it represents the intersection of the careers of Bela Lugosi and Hammer Films (Gibson Gowland even plays a character called 'Gilling'). Watching the thing is another matter however, since for most of it's length - apart a few outdoor scenes shot in Folkestone - it consists almost entirely of talk, obviously shot in a studio.

Shirley Grey wears a sleek thirties bob totally wrong for film set in 1872. Lugosi spends the entire film looking and sounding as if he's just woken up; but when it eventually comes his final scene is a beaut!