nickenchuggets Review of The Ghost Ship

The Ghost Ship (1943)

He who does not heed the rudder shall meet the rock

[7/10 · 15 October 2023]

While I feel I got duped into watching this movie as it was made by Val Lewton (but isn't really horror oriented), it's about time I started discussing his films again. Lewton had the ability to make great movies even on shoestring budgets, and was part of the elite when it came to making the most out of what he had at hand. The Ghost Ship is a good instance of this, even if its lack of supernatural elements wasn't what I was expecting from him. This movie follows Tom Merriam (Russell Wade), a soon to be officer on a ship called the Altair, commanded by Captain Stone (Richard Dix). During Merriam's first talk with the captain, he learns that the latter values authority above everything and is a rigid follower of hierarchy and order, explaining that he holds the fate of everyone onboard in his hands. Later on, the ship almost loses a crew member because he develops appendicitis, and Stone is tasked with surgically fixing him. Stone is afraid he might accidentally kill the person, so he gets Merriam to do it. Merriam doesn't tell anyone Stone didn't remove the appendix. The crew gets a taste of Stone's ruthlessness when he intentionally locks the door to the chain locker while a crew mate named Louie is still inside. When the anchor chain is pulled in, he is crushed to death by it. Merriam is certain Stone did this on purpose because he hated Louie and goes to confront him about it. When the ship docks in the Caribbean, Merriam reports the incident but all the other crew members speak up in defense of Stone. This incident causes the crew to dislike Merriam and Stone has a vendetta against him now. Merriam decides to leave the crew permanently, but is involved in a fight and knocked out. Someone who doesn't know he's no longer part of the crew puts him back on the Altair. Merriam is now stuck on a ship with a captain he is convinced is a murderer, and he's worried he is next. He tries getting the crew to help him, but they all turn their backs. The ship's radio operator Winslow later gets a message asking if Merriam is on the ship, and Stone tells him to say he isn't. Winslow is now on Merriam's side against Stone, but as Winslow leaves Merriam's cabin, he encounters the captain outside. He drops the message on the deck and it is picked up by a mute crew mate named Finn. Some time later, Stone approaches Merriam and asks him to send a message to an office saying Winslow has been knocked over the side of the ship. Merriam calls the captain a liar and says he killed Winslow on purpose and is now trying to cover it up. Stone has his men restrain Merriam and inject him with a sleep inducing drug. Finn shows the message to the first officer, and word spreads that the captain is insane. While the crew is out on the deck singing one night, Stone sneaks into Merriam's cabin with a huge knife and is about to stab him to death, but is attacked by Finn, who has a knife of his own. The two men fight and Finn manages to kill Stone. The Altair then sails back to its home of San Pedro and Merriam disembarks. Having seen a few other films Lewton produced already, I was quite impressed with this one, but it's probably my least favorite of the ones I've seen already. I wasn't expecting it to be noir-like and it doesn't even have one of the hallmarks of that genre; a dangerous female character. In fact, I think there's only 1 woman in this movie (if you don't count the unseen one that meets Merriam at the end) and it's someone to whom Stone confides his insecurities regarding his mental state. She could have been removed from the film and it wouldn't have changed a thing. Dix's performance as Stone reminds me a lot of Edward G Robinson in The Sea Wolf, in which he too plays a brutal ship captain who abuses the men under him. An interesting fact about this movie has to do with its backstory. When it was about to be released, Lewton was sued by a pair of playwrights who said his script for this movie bore an uncanny resemblance to something they put out. Despite Lewton saying he didn't even read the script for the play they had sent him and thus couldn't have known about it, courts sided with the playwrights and RKO pulled the movie out of theaters. Eventually in the 90s, this film was made public domain and you can now watch it. The copy of it that I own is part of a box set of discs which also include such classics as Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. Unfortunately, the disc that has this movie is glitched for me and won't start (DVDs in a nutshell). Overall, I liked The Ghost Ship and it wasn't overly long either, but I still think Lewton has done better tales of horror than this.