The Mystery of the Mary Celeste

Watching this film one wonders if the scene of the discovery of the Mary Celeste was actually supposed to come at the beginning rather than at the end, since as a whole it would have worked far better in flashback.

Film historians often regard old movies with the benefit of hindsight; and this little curiosity has always caught the eye of researchers since it represents the intersection of the careers of Bela Lugosi and Hammer Films (Gibson Gowland even plays a character called 'Gilling'). Watching the thing is another matter however, since for most of it's length - apart a few outdoor scenes shot in Folkestone - it consists almost entirely of talk, obviously shot in a studio.

Shirley Grey wears a sleek thirties bob totally wrong for film set in 1872. Lugosi spends the entire film looking and sounding as if he's just woken up; but when it eventually comes his final scene is a beaut!

In history the crew of the Mary Celeste disappeared and this film attempts to show a possible recreation. Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Anton Lorenzen, a mad crazed man seeking revenge against the crew of the Mary Celeste is wonderful. None of the crew can remember what Lorenzen looks like so he is able to join the new crew. One by one crew members are murdered or just disappear until one person remains. But when the floating ship is found there is no one aboard. An interesting tale to watch even if predictable.

Denison Clift's "The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" aka. "Phantom Ship" of 1935 is a great movie starring Bela Lugosi in a great though atypical role. Many people seem to dislike this movie and I don't really see why. Maybe some people have mixed feelings about "Phantom Ship" because Lugosi's character is not the ingenious super-villain he often played, but an unshaven and scruffy sailor. In my opinion, however, Lugosi's role not being typical doesn't downgrade his excellent performance, and "The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" is a highly atmospheric Horror Mystery and, by the way, one of the first movies produced by the legendary Hammer Film Productions.

The fictional story, which was inspired by the tragic case of the real-life ghost-ship 'Mary Celeste', is of course not historically accurate. Some characters have the names of real-life members of the "Mary Celeste" crew, but the rest of the story is pure fiction. I don't see this as negative either, however. First of all, movies don't always have to be historically accurate to be good. Second, this movie doesn't claim historical accuracy, the beginning clearly says that the story was only inspired by the tragedy of the Mary Celeste.

The great Bela Lugosi is, once again, brilliant in his role, and some of the other cast members, such as Edmund Willard or the heavily tattooed Gunner Moir also deliver great performances."The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" is impressively filmed, and the dark, sometimes haunting atmosphere and menacing character of the sea are excellently brought to screen. The film's musical score is also great, occasional songs sung by characters contribute to the movie's atmosphere, and the background score in some other scenes contributes to the suspense.

"The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste" is a highly atmospheric, excellently shot and vastly underrated movie. Lugosi fans can't afford to miss this. Highly Recommended! 8/10

The MARY CELESTE sets sail with a rather undistinguished-looking crew -- unless you're into tattooed accordionists, or think an unshaven Bela Lugosi is prepossessing. There's also Shirley Grey as a passenger. Odd things happen, like someone trying to shoot Miss Grey through a porthole, and soon the entire cast is going to pot.

This movie has the distinction of being the second production of Hammer Films, and the first to be distributed in the United States. There's some nice shipboard camerawork by Geoffrey Faithfull and Eric Cross, and one nice stunt, but that's about the limit of its excellence. It's the last movie directed by writer Denison Clift, who wrote the story it was based on. If the dialogue was particularly interesting .... the soundtrack of the copy I looked at was pretty poor, and I couldn't tell.

This movie has recently been released as a cult classic for $1. Yes, ONE dollar. Didn't come in a standard DVD case, but a thick card-stock 'envelope'. It's packaged as 'Phantom Ship'. I couldn't pass that up and quickly added it to my collection...

The movie was of surprisingly good quality. Usually movies from this era (mid 30's) suffer from static and there is difficulty understanding the dialog at times because of the bad sound quality. Visually, the sets were extremely realistic and detailed. You could tell when the occasional stock footage was used, but it fit well with the movie.

The story is based on an possible answer to the mystery of the Mary Celeste. The Mary Celeste was a sailing ship loaded with 1,700 barrels of alcohol that left New York on November 7, 1872 bound for Genoa, Italy. On board were the captain, his wife, their young daughter, and a crew of eight. The ship was later found drifting at sea - no one on board.

The movie seems to deviate from the story in that the captain is single and has his fiancée with him. There is no daughter. One by one, people start to disappear as the crew realizes there is a murderer aboard the ship. The writer tried to build up a cast suspects.

Was it the crew member sent by the captain of another ship who had also proposed to the captains fiancée? When he sent that crew member on board, he told him to do whatever he needed to do...and maybe he could be a second mate someday.

Was it the sadistic second mate on the Mary Celeste? He seemed to love beating and torturing people.

Maybe it was one of the shanghaied (kidnapped) members of the crew. One of which threatened to kill the second mate and made it clear he was going to get even.

Maybe Bela Lugosi's character. A man who had been shanghaied years before on the Mary Celeste and wanted revenge for the brutality he had suffered.

One by one, people were killed. Each time the remaining crew would grow more paranoid and suspicious. I must confess that I was never quite sure who exactly was guilty until the very end. There were just too many possibilities. This made the movie unpredictable and enjoyable. The acting was superb throughout. The interaction between crew members and the atmosphere were extremely well done.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a scary mystery, any Bela Lugosi fan, or anyone who enjoys movies from the 30's.