Ghost ship One of the earliest films of the cult British studio Hammer Film Productions is based on the true story of the sailboat "Maria Celeste", which for an unknown reason was abandoned by the crew and passengers while sailing. The ship was discovered on the high seas on December 4, 1872, near Gibraltar. It is believed that this is a classic story of a ghost ship.
Captains Briggs and Morehead are best friends. They are both in love with the same girl, Sarah. As a result, Sarah chooses Briggs and goes with him to sail on the Maria Celeste. Morehead is jealous and doesn’t want Sarah and Briggs back home.
Meanwhile, Captain Toby Bilson's brutal assistant recruits a crew of dubious personalities. Among them is the one-armed Anton Lorenzen (Bela Lugosi), a sailor with a very difficult fate and a terrible secret in his eyes. When the Maria Celeste goes to sea, strange events begin to occur. It soon becomes clear that there is a killer among the team. But who is it and how to calculate it?
There are several versions of the disappearance of the crew of the “Maria Celeste”, including the curse of the Bermuda Triangle, the intervention of aliens, the collision with a floating island. But the writers chose the detective version, turning the story into a kind of “10 Negroes” by Agatha Christie. Due to the limited budget of Hammer Studios, the surroundings are more like theatrical scenery. The actors also play very theatrically, diligently pronouncing short lines of their characters.
The strength of the film is that the attacker is well disguised. Therefore, even the main star of the painting by Bela Lugosi does not look the most demonic figure. But in his mouth there is a single philosophical phrase: “Do not be afraid of death, because it sails on this ship.”
In the United States, the film was released under the name “Phantom Ship”, and it is believed that this copy survived to this day.
6 out of 10