"The Ghost Ship" has Russell Wade as a naval captain, Tom, who boards a ship in San Pedro, only to find that something seems odd about the captain, Will Stone. Strange occurrences plague his time on the sea, and soon Tom becomes convinced that the captain is a homicidal maniac who has the entire crew under his thumb.
This downbeat and tightly-written psychological thriller was Mark Robson's second collaboration with producer Val Lewton, the first being the phenomenal Satanic horror noir "The Seventh Victim". This film feels lighter in tone than the former and packs a bit less of a punch— it is free from the nihilistic streak of "The Seventh Victim," though it still implements a fair amount of commentary on matters such as the nature of authority and questions about power. The more philosophical bits of dialogue feel somewhat hokey, though they are relatively few and far between.
Looked at from a contemporary standpoint, it's a film that may have been ahead of its time, as it stands as an early example of the "paranoid protagonist" trope, in which the audience comes to question the reliability of the character's potentially unfounded fears about a person or place. As Tom's fears of the captain and his wielding of power grow, the reliability of his perspective is called into question; Robson screenwriter Donald Clarke play up this tension magnificently. Wade is a solid sympathetic protagonist, while Richard Dix is fittingly aloof. The dialogue between the two ranges from somewhat weak to fantastic, but in general, they play off one another nicely.
The film has a thrilling, unexpectedly violent and grim finale, which punctuates what is overall a mellow psychological drama. Overall, "The Ghost Ship" is a modest but well-made thriller; while it's not one of Lewton's greatest collaborations, it's a claustrophobic, fine film that is lifted up by atmospheric set pieces, some very nicely-orchestrate scenes, and a consistent feeling of unrelenting paranoia. 7/10.
This downbeat and tightly-written psychological thriller was Mark Robson's second collaboration with producer Val Lewton, the first being the phenomenal Satanic horror noir "The Seventh Victim". This film feels lighter in tone than the former and packs a bit less of a punch— it is free from the nihilistic streak of "The Seventh Victim," though it still implements a fair amount of commentary on matters such as the nature of authority and questions about power. The more philosophical bits of dialogue feel somewhat hokey, though they are relatively few and far between.
Looked at from a contemporary standpoint, it's a film that may have been ahead of its time, as it stands as an early example of the "paranoid protagonist" trope, in which the audience comes to question the reliability of the character's potentially unfounded fears about a person or place. As Tom's fears of the captain and his wielding of power grow, the reliability of his perspective is called into question; Robson screenwriter Donald Clarke play up this tension magnificently. Wade is a solid sympathetic protagonist, while Richard Dix is fittingly aloof. The dialogue between the two ranges from somewhat weak to fantastic, but in general, they play off one another nicely.
The film has a thrilling, unexpectedly violent and grim finale, which punctuates what is overall a mellow psychological drama. Overall, "The Ghost Ship" is a modest but well-made thriller; while it's not one of Lewton's greatest collaborations, it's a claustrophobic, fine film that is lifted up by atmospheric set pieces, some very nicely-orchestrate scenes, and a consistent feeling of unrelenting paranoia. 7/10.