Ghost Ship

You can't look at this movie and compare to the blockbusters, but as a B flick it's pretty good, even up at the top (in my mind). The story of the ghost is told in flashbacks and through a séance. The acting is pretty good, though the stars are not memorable. It's almost like watching an old TV show, though I more liken it to "The Woman Who Came Back" (1945). Someone just wrote a nice little mystery with some adequately spooky moments, and that is about all there is to it.

It starts out with a couple trying to buy an older steamboat. The man selling it to them warns them of its haunting. You see moments of the inquiry and story that led to the haunting, but it is not until the séance that you start to get a clue as to what caused the haunting.

This movie has nothing to do with movies of the same title, one from the forties and one from a few years ago.

Ghost Ship features one of the least threatening ghosts in movie history - he appears, smoking a cigar, and then vanishes - and yet those in the know are still so scared of him that they refuse to step foot on the steamer yacht that he haunts. Despite learning of the vessel's supernatural inhabitant, married couple Guy and Margaret Thornton (Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court) buy the boat and spruce it up, unconvinced by stories of the cigar-smoking spook. However, when Guy actually sees the ghost in the ship's engine room (standing and smoking his Havana), his wife calls in some experts to help find out why the boat is haunted.

This has got to be one of the most tepid horror movies I have ever seen: it's not in the least bit scary, the film too bright and breezy to conjure up any atmosphere or chills. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the film - leads Walsh and Court are just too darn chipper not to like and the film has that affable post-war positivity and charm that typified many films of the era. As a horror, Ghost Ship sinks like a stone, but as an easy-going slice of British B-movie entertainment, it's plain sailing all the way.

At sea on a haunted boat sounds terrifying. Nowhere to go except overboard!

This isn't a scary film at all but it does have an interesting story and there are good segments, especially once paranormal expert Hugh Burden (Dr Fawcett) appears. He has a good scene explaining sound vibrations with his collection of tuning forks. Did you know that a sound pitch inaudible to the human ear can be heard by drinking a glass of water which acts as a conductor for the sound. This is fascinating stuff! Once medium Mignon O'Doherty turns up we get to the crux of the story as things unravel.

Unfortunately, the story takes a while to get going and more use should have been made of general spookiness. We needed some scares and more ghostly shenanigans. The film lacked that spooky atmosphere and ended rather abruptly. Still, it is an ok film - a ghost story that isn't scary but is still an interesting watch.

Not to be confused with "The Ghost Ship," one of four (!) classic Val Lewton films from 1943, OR the 2002 horror fest "Ghost Ship," 1952's "Ghost Ship" is an obscure little British picture that should just manage to please. In it, real-life husband and wife Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court play Guy and Margaret Thornton, a Canadian couple living in England, who buy the Cyclops, a 40-year-old steamer yacht, and realize, after a series of freakish incidents, that the darn thing really might be haunted. An aged biddy of a medium (a pale knockoff of the marvelous character brought to indelible life by Margaret Rutherford in 1945's "Blithe Spirit") holds a seance on board and, via a series of flashbacks, the viewer is allowed to witness the events that led to the ship's current state, culminating in a surprise ending of sorts. A fast-paced 72 minutes, "Ghost Ship"'s major lure for modern-day audiences is perhaps Hazel Court, who over the next 10 years would become one of British cinema's reigning queens of horror. With a perfectly shaped mouth that might make Angelina Jolie envious and a pair of zygomatic bones that could turn Deborah Harry green with envy, Hazel was indeed luscious to look at on screen, especially in this relatively early role; sadly, her striking red hair and green eyes cannot be appreciated in this B&W film. The picture in question is a lighthearted affair that is not a bit scary (even an initial glimpse of the ship's ghost fails to raise any hackles) but always engaging, thanks to some pleasant performances, a crackling, no-nonsense script from director Vernon Sewell, and a sprightly score by Eric Spear. In all, a minor affair, but an entertaining one, presented here on a surprisingly crisp-looking DVD courtesy of Wham! USA.

Ghost Ship (1952)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This forgotten British "B" picture isn't the greatest film out there but it's unique enough to make it worth viewing by those who enjoy stories dealing with ghosts. Guy and Margaret Thornton (Dermot Walsh, Hazel Court) buy an old ship that has the reputation of being haunted because years earlier three people went missing aboard it. The duo don't pay any attention to the stories until one day the husband actually sees the spirit of a man and soon they call in a paranormal expert. GHOST SHIP has pretty much been forgotten by everyone over the last several decades except for fans of Court who will search out everything the cult actress has appeared in. While the movie isn't a complete success it does feature enough interesting moments and a rather nice story to make it worth viewing. With that said, there are still some major problems in the film including one very big one. The film runs just 71-minutes but it actually feels a tad bit longer due to some pacing issues. I think part of the problem could have been avoided how two very bad scenes been left on the cutting room floor. One sequence involves a party on the boat where we get a rather long sequence dealing with a drunk. I'm going to guess this was meant to be comic relief but it's just really bad. Another horrible sequence is when the couple invite the paranormal expert on the boat and we get a long sequence where the man tries to explain various "sounds" that we can't hear. I believe this entire sequence is meant to make the viewer believe in ghosts but I think this could have been achieved in a much better way. I do think the best thing going for its film is the actual backstory to the hauntings. Early on we get a sequence showing the court hearings, which explain what happened to the ship and how it was discovered after being thought to have sunk. Another sequence happens at the end when we learn what actually took place on the ship and the twist in the story is actually pretty effective. Another major plus is that both Walsh and Court are very good in their parts as they're easy to believe and both are effective. The actual hauntings in the picture are kept quite low and I will admit that the first time we see the ghost it's rather unspectacular and it really doesn't stand out. However, it almost seems as if director Vernon Sewell has no intention on building up any type of atmosphere instead it seems as if he just wants to tell a good story, get it on the screen and do very little else. GHOST SHIP isn't a masterpiece and it's easy to see why it has been forgotten but fans of the genre should enjoy it.