MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
Humaira Grant
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Cheryl
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
bkoganbing
The famous legend of the Mary Celeste which set sail from New York harbor in 1872 and was found in the Atlantic adrift with no one on board is given a speculative tale in Phantom Ship. If the cat could only have talked he could have given witness to what really happened.There has been all kinds of speculation and in such a situation your imagination can run wild. In the original Dr. Who series with William Hartnell as the Doctor the TARDIS lands on the Mary Celeste and finds that Daleks are busy slaughtering all.In any event for the suspicious mind the presence of a black cat on the ship and a woman in the person of Shirley Grey, wife of Captain Arthur Margetson would violate two ancient taboos of the sea.I'm not going to go into the plot, but the presence of Bela Lugosi in the cast would give you some indication as to who might be at the bottom of everything. Lugosi turns in a fine performance as a religious fanatic sailor who has a big grudge against the ship.Phantom Ship is a must for fans of Bela Lugosi.
Cristi_Ciopron
A '35 tale of nautical horror, THE PHANTOM SHIP, directed by the practically unknown Denison Clift, brings us to the beginnings of the HAMMER movies. The events are based on an 1872 maritime enigma.THE PHANTOM SHIP (yeah, I know it, pals, I have seen the American, shorter version) is a very curious and mixed movie—if some of the performances are atrocious and infra—wooden, there are also moments, whole scenes of pure cinematographic brio, gusto, joy and fun. A ship, whose name makes the humblest mariners shrink, sails with a shanghaied crew; the captain is played by an execrable actor. On board the ship the captain travels with his bride; the crew is especially colorful, and the scenes from the mariners' lives are well made. The sea thriller motifs are present—the dreadful lives of the seamen, the anger and tension, the mystical wanderer; so, some of the scenes are surprisingly good, and the movie has gusto and brio, interesting outing.Lugosi's role, especially, is very good—though he occasionally slips into regular overacting—anyway, his first scenes are impressive, he makes an awesome entrance in this movie …. Arthur Margetson is the very annoying captain; Edmund Willard does an excellent role as Bilson. The characters generally have interesting—sounding names.
capkronos
On November 1872, a brigantine merchant ship by the name of The Mary Celeste set sail from New York Harbor carrying a supply of commercial alcohol to be dropped off in Europe. On board were the captain, his wife and 2-year-old daughter and an experienced seven-man crew. Around a month later, the ship was discovered abandoned and floating in the Atlantic Ocean. Everyone on board was gone and none of them were ever seen or heard from again. This eerie tale would go on to become a famous ghost ship legend, inspire stories or be directly referenced by everyone from Arthur Conan Doyle to Stephen King to Dean R. Koontz, be the subject of an article published in Strand Magazine (supposedly written the ship's sole survivor - a stowaway not even listed on the log - and commonly written off as a literary hoax now) and also be the basis for this low-budget British film, which doesn't exactly stick to all the facts. This one drops the child from the story, adds additional crew members and a jilted lover subplot, changes nationalities and eventually provides an explanation for the events on board. It is also noteworthy as the first genre picture from Hammer Film Productions, as well as containing a pretty good performance from classic horror star Bela Lugosi.As for this film, it begins as Capt. Benjamin Briggs (Arthur Margetson) wins over the affections of Sarah (Shirley Grey) from his friend Capt. Jim Morehead (Clifford McLaglen). Fuming, Jim agrees to help Benjamin fill a vacant spot on the crew with one of his men, and then secretly promises a crewman money and advancement if he causes some trouble on board. Also on board the ship is depressed, penniless, one-armed, hard-drinking Anton Lorenzen (Bela Lugosi), who seems to have fallen on hard times and had a tragic experience last time he was out at sea. The captain, his wife, Anton, gruff first mate Toby Bilson (Edmund Willard) some seaman and a cook/steward all set off to sea and one-by-one end up being mysteriously murdered (most off-screen) until all is explained at the finale. The storyline itself is pretty muddled and confusing and the dark, grimy photography, overbearing lighting and choppy editing splices mix to keep this in "Poverty Row" territory. However, it's still interesting at times, entertaining enough to pass an hour of your time and the confined ship setting creates a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere. The film also has flogging, an attempted rape, suicide, a (hard to make out) shark attack and corpses casually thrown overboard by various crewman, which makes it a bit grittier than usual for this time.One thing that has harmed the film (other than the highly uneven technical credits) is that many scenes have been removed. Apparently, some court room scenes bookended the film, and footage was also shot of some of the characters escaping to an island. All of that is now missing and believed to be lost, but it may have helped clarify some of the muddier plot points. The fact that the two lead characters simply vanish from the film, only to be briefly discussed later as if of little importance, is also pretty unsatisfying. Fans of Lugosi will definitely enjoy his work here though, and this movie will likely be of most interest to the actor's fans.
chrismartonuk-1
Despite securing the star role - Bela is almost a background figure for almost the first half of this film. He is okay in what he does but it took Ygor to show he could do more than stand imperiously around with a commanding stare. He certainly brings pathos to Anton's last moments as he staggers about the abandoned ship shouting for his missing shipmates. The bulk of the narrative is held by a convincingly authoritative Arthur Margetson as captain Briggs. His upper class accent lends a subtle air of class conflict to the proceedings. George Mozart looks very much the Michael Ripper of his day with some nice comic touches at the card game and it is genuinely sad to see him so indifferently disposed of by the script. Many have complained about Harbens's sea shanty's but they help enliven an otherwise grim storyline and have the ring of authenticity about them. Denison Clift's direction varies with some fine moody photography to too many ill-handled stagy action sequences such as the murder of Grot and Lugosi slaying Dennis Hoey. Edmund Wllard steals the film as the brutal Bilson - you certainly wouldn't want to get on his wrong side on a sea voyage. The splendid book VAMPIRE OVER London: BELA LUGOSI IN Britain supplied an excellent account of the filming of Mystery of the Mary Celeste. In particular - it brings to light the missing scenes such as the Court of Inquiry in Gibralter and the twist ending which reveals that Briggs and Sarah survived to make it to a tropical island. Without it, it could be argued that the film lacks symmetry as Briggs and Sarah are the narrative centre of the plot only to be abruptly eliminated off-screen. This leads to an obvious bit of dubbing as Bela explains the swift changes to the plot to the helpless Bilson. Perhaps Karloff or Chaney jr might have been better cast in the role of Anton but Bela got himself a rare good payday for his working holiday in England. Lateon, Christopher Lee would complain about being poorly re numerated by Hammer. Ironic to think they would reward Universal's Dracula better than they would their own.
