Jan 17, 2024
The Ghost Ship (1943)
"The man is dead. With his death, the waters of the sea are open to us. But there will be other deaths, and the agony of dying, before we come to land again."
#the ghost ship#1943#american cinema#horror film#val lewton#mark robson#donald henderson clarke#leo mittler#richard dix#russell wade#edith barrett#ben bard#edmund glover#robert bice#skelton knaggs#dewey robinson#lawrence tierney#tom burton#harry clay#boyd davis#paul marion#charles lung#fun little rko horror flick‚ as Captain Tricky Dicky Dix sails us on the high seas of astonishment (or at least of mild entertainment)#Dix is very laid back and mild in performance up until the final ten mins or so when he goes absolutely ham‚ all sweaty and raving#fun to spot a v young Tierney (and he gets the nastiest death too‚ squished to bits in a small compartment by a rapidly recoiling great#big ship's chain‚ an astonishingly effective little scene which really sells the terror and the gruesomeness of the situation without#showing a single speck of blood). having a mute character whose inner thoughts are narrated for the audience is.. a choice‚ particularly as#said character isn't really a focus until the very end. it's weird but i didn't hate it. this does all end slightly anticlimacticly tho#with our hero tied up and unconscious for the final showdown and then a rapid (and unconvincing) bit of exposition for the very end#but elsewhere this is atmospheric‚ nicely handled stuff with an interesting array of characters and some good nautical thrills
