IMDb RATING
6.6/10
3.8K
YOUR RATING
Third Officer Tom Merriam accuses Captain Will Stone of being a homicidal maniac, but no one believes him.Third Officer Tom Merriam accuses Captain Will Stone of being a homicidal maniac, but no one believes him.Third Officer Tom Merriam accuses Captain Will Stone of being a homicidal maniac, but no one believes him.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Robert Bice
- Raphael
- (uncredited)
Eddie Borden
- Crew Member
- (uncredited)
John Burford
- Crew Member
- (uncredited)
Tom Burton
- William Benson
- (uncredited)
Harry Clay
- Tom McCall
- (uncredited)
Alec Craig
- Blind Beggar
- (uncredited)
Boyd Davis
- Charles Roberts
- (uncredited)
George DeNormand
- John Corbin
- (uncredited)
Cliff Edwards
- Officer
- (uncredited)
Skelton Knaggs
- Finn
- (uncredited)
Mike Lally
- Crew Member
- (uncredited)
Sir Lancelot
- Billy Radd
- (uncredited)
Nolan Leary
- Stenographer
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRKO had built an expensive ship set for their 1938 production Pacific Liner (1939). Val Lewton was given instructions to come up with a film that could use the still-existing set. According to Robert Wise, a longtime collaborator with Lewton, it was this set that gave Lewton the idea for the film. "He would find what we call a 'standing set,' and then tailor his script to the set, whatever it was. That's how he made The Ghost Ship. He walked onto a set and saw a tanker, then cooked up the idea for this ship with a murderous captain." One scholar has suggested that Lewton accepted the assignment in part because, as an amateur sailor himself, the ship captain's behavior mirrored Lewton's own views on how to manage a ship, but also because Lewton saw the plot as a way of criticizing his micro-managing superiors at RKO. The budget, as with all of Lewton's films, was set at $150,000.
- GoofsOne shot of the boat traveling toward camera shows the name of the boat on the bow is backwards. The backwards name reads Venture, indicating it's a shot reused from King Kong (1933) that has been horizontally flipped.
- ConnectionsEdited from King Kong (1933)
Featured review
Creepy craftsman-ship!
Perhaps not as mesmerizing as "Cat People" or as disturbing as "The Body Snatcher", but this still definitely is a genuinely creepy golden oldie horror gem like only the great Val Lewton could produce them back in the 1940's. This dark and atmospheric chiller takes us aboard a giant ship in order to examine the mysterious deaths of several crew members. They all seem like unfortunate accidents, but pretty soon the young and ambitious officer Tom Merriam suspects that Captain Will Stone abuses his power in order to get rid of rebellious personnel. The film is terrifically cut in half when the ship sets ashore and Merriam prosecutes the influential and highly respected captain. From then on, the nemesis between the two is frighteningly illustrated and a drama on-board the ship seems inevitable. Richard Dix is outstanding as the tormented Captain Will Stone! He looks naturally eerie and definitely not man to argue with. The black and white photography is stunning and the constantly sung sailor-song will remain stuck in your head, even long after you finished watching the movie. The Val Lewton horror of course isn't very explicit (considering the time and budget) but this movie does contain at least one truly unsettling sequence; when a giant chain crushes a crew member. My advise is to watch this classic as soon as you can, if it were only for the ultra-eerie mute in the supportive cast!
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $150,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 9 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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