Synopsis:
"Phantom Ship", also known as "The Mystery of the Marie Celeste" is
one of the early films from Hammer Film Productions and was directed by
Denison Clift. The leading actor is Béla Lugosi. The story is based on
the history of the ship Mary Celeste. The ship was found floating near
Portugal in 1872 without a crew. The film is an attempt at a rather
unspectacular explanation of the events around the well-known spirit
ship, without supernatural occurrences.
Captain Briggs (Arthur
Margetson) and Captain Morehead (Clifford McLaglen) are best friends.
Capt. Morehead is in love with Sarah (Shirley Grey). He brings Briggs to
New York to meet her. Briggs himself falls in love with her. Sarah also
falls in love with Briggs. Both men propose to her the same day. Sarah
chooses Briggs. Sarah and Briggs open their marriage plans to Morehead
and he gets furious with jealousy. He's also mad with Briggs for going
behind his back. But Briggs tells him that he will marry Sarah even if
that means the end of their friendship. As the couple plans to sail, the
husband - Briggs is short on crew. He asks Morehead to forgive him and
help. Morehead agrees and sends a man, Volkerk Grot (Herbert Cameron),
not to help, but to do something to the ship. Briggs also recruits some
other men, including Anton Lorenzen (Béla Lugosi) who is a sailor who
has suffered a lot and is about to break down.
As the sail
begins, the crew realizes that there is a murderer among them who is
killing them off one by one. Meanwhile a crewmember tries to rape Sarah,
but Lorenzen saves her by killing the man. But then he cries because he
can't stand the pain of killing a man.
Soon, everybody has died or
disappeared except 1st mate Bilson, Lorenzen and a third crewmember,
Ponta Katz (Gunner Moir). They decide that one of them is a killer and
they will soon find out. Katz realizes that Lorenzen could not kill, he
was too soft, so he runs after Bilson. Bilson shoots Katz and then
celebrates with Lorenzen on becoming the new Captain of Ship, making
plans for future.
Lorenzen gets mad and tells Bilson that it is
he who was shanghaied 6 years before, on the same ship. And he was doing
all this to get revenge. Then he shoots Bilson and throws him into the
sea. Just after killing Bilson, Lorenzen is hit on the head by the boom.
He runs everywhere on ship in hope of finding Bilson, and in his
madness he jumps off the ship.
The ship drifts with the wind until it
is spotted by another ship. The ship is totally abandoned - except for a
black cat! A final scene shows Morehead handing money to his man Grot,
commenting "I am thinking of Briggs and her, dead!"
Starring:
Béla Lugosi as Anton Lorenzen
Shirley Grey as Sarah Briggs
Arthur Margetson as Capt. Benjamin Briggs
Edmund Willard as Toby
Bilson
Dennis Hoey as Tom Goodschard
George Mozart as Tommy Duggan
Johnnie Schofield as Peter Tooley
Gunner Moir as Ponta Katz
Ben Welden
as 'Sailor' Hoffman
Clifford McLaglen as Capt. Jim Morehead
Tom
Bastable as Olly Deveau
Matt Ramage as Andy Gilling
Terence De Marney
as Charlie Kaye
Edgar Pierce as Arian Harbens
Herbert Cameron as
Volkerk Grot
Wilfred Essex as Horatio Sprague
James Carew as James
Winchester
Monti DeLyle as Portunato
Alec Fraser as Commander Mahon
Mary B and Mitchell as the ship Marie Celeste
Director: Denison Clift
