The Ghost Ship
“The Ghost Ship” has so many possibilities to it as a title, and, no surprise, there are many films that carry that title over the years. No doubt, because of the budgets he was working with, producer Val Lewton went on the smaller side when developing a project with the title. The film he and director Mark Robson made is not about ghosts or the supernatural, but about madness and the potential for real-world terror, and it is an effective thriller as an exploration of those subjects.
The film begins, and ends, on the sound of a blind man singing “Blow the Man Down” by the docks. Each time, 3rd Officer Tom Merriam (Russell Wade) interacts with him- the first time, when he’s ready to go out to sea, the second, when he has returned. Merriam is the new 3rd Officer on the ship of Captain Will Stone (Richard Dix), who, initially, sees a lot of himself in Merriam. But as the voyage progresses, some seeming accidents occur on the ship that have Merriam questioning the sanity of Captain Stone, and looking to find allies on the ship before he’s next.
Donald Henderson Clarke’s screenplay, from a story by Leo Mittler, is not one for depth of motive in delving into the psychological anxieties Merriam is going through, and Stone might be experiencing himself. The film follows more along with films about ships at sea, loyalty to a Captain, and a newcomer on board who has doubts about him. With the exception of the ominous sounds of a chain swinging, or being pulled into the chain locker, and the occasional cinematic flourish of shadows and camera angles, there is not much in this that strikes one of the same style of production of other Lewton thrillers. It’s much more about the interpersonal relationships between the characters than building a sense of dread, and it’s fairly successful, in that respect- Dix and Wade are a compelling pair of co-leads for this film.
Because of the film’s lack of a true, supernatural edge, it is probably my least favorite of the Lewton productions in this vein- it’s a good thriller, but if I want this type of drama, Tony Scott’s “Crimson Tide” is much more effective. Like all of Lewton’s films, however, it is worth watching, to see how a producer managed to tell a series of like-minded stories, in a variety of low-budget productions that did point to some important, long-lasting shifts in what the horror genre was capable of, even if “The Ghost Ship” is not a particularly strong example of that.
