The Sea Ghost

Another "B" that's worth a look – especially for fans of Laura La Plante – is the 1931 The Sea Ghost (later re-issued as U 67). The movie stars Alan Hale as a disgraced skipper (courtesy of the stock footage library) and German actor, Peter Erkelenz (in what turned out to be the second of only two Hollywood movies). The plot (propelled by Clarence Wilson's sneaky lawyer) moves from one creaky situation to the next and is certainly not helped by Claud Allister's typical British-to-the-backbone comic relief. Nonetheless, director William Nigh handles a bit of location footage with finesse. As for Miss La Plante's blonde bombshell, she certainly looks great (thanks to ace photographer, Sid Hickox, on loan from Warner Brothers)) but her voice seems both a little too soft and too cultured for a hard-boiled heroine.

A dull sea drama with the lifeless texture of something tossed off to fulfil a quota. Chunky Alan Hale stars as a military sea captain who finds himself involved in a financial scam after he is drummed out of the service, while Laura La Plante is the beneficiary of a will which her sneaky lawyer Clarence Wilson has designs on. It was to be Hale's last starring role before settling into a prolific career as a character actor, and it's no surprise that his status declined if this is an example of the kind of movie he was fronting. It would also be silent star La Plante's last US role for 15 years. Comic relief is supplied by the God-awful Claud 'Silly Arse' Allister.

This (1931) movie has gone by several names. The one I watched is the U. S. release as "Phantom Submarine U-67" (1931), Alpha Video, Action & Adventure. In some places it is just "U 67". In other places it is called "The Sea Ghost."

We start out with a forward that explains the film best. It covers the use of U-Boats in general and shows authentic exploits of the U 67 which actually take place before our story begins.

U. S. Navy skipper Greg Winters (Alan Hale) is dismissed from the service for hesitating in the attack to instead pick up victims of a torpedo strike. Later through a set of coincidences, he meets up with his nemesis, the U-Boat captain that got away. Now before you think this is a straight-out revenge story think twice as the story gets convoluted and is hard to tell the good, from the bad, and from the ugly.

Cast: Alan Hale, Claude Allister, Laura La Plante, Tom London, Peter Erkeleng, William Nestell, and Jack Richardson.

IMDb lists the date for this as 1939. However, Netflix says 1931. Well, judging by the lady's hairstyle and clothes, 1931 looks to be about right and 1939 cannot possibly be the date. Perhaps the film was made in 1931 (or so) and sat on the shelf for most of the decade--only to be released in '39. Who knows? Regardless of the date, one thing that is hard to deny is that this is a cheap and pretty lame movie. It begins with a prologue that tells us that they're using a lot of crappy stock footage in the first portion of the film. Well, they didn't say 'crappy', but at least they acknowledged the film was original--and very grainy. It shows the sinking of an Allied ship by a German sub. And, because a ship's captain (Alan Hale) disobeyed orders and stopped to look for survivors, he got himself in HUGE trouble and was drummed out of the US Navy.

Years pass. Now Hale is hired for a job, but there is LOTS of trickery and deceit going on--and it's hard to know exactly who's working for who. You know that Hale MUST be a good guy (it's the formula), the skinny skeletal guy is the villain and, here's the ridiculously unbelievable part, the captain of the sub who sank the boat at the beginning of the film is also aboard!! And, it all has to do with a silly plot involving cheating a lady out of her inheritance.

None of "Phantom Submarine U67" makes a lot of sense, and the lady is a TERRIBLE actress. The film also is pretty talky and dull as well. As for the other merits of the film, the direction was static and the scene involving divers early in the film is hilariously bad! That's because it is VERY obvious that they superimposed the actors on an 'expensive underwater set'--which was, in reality, a cheap 10 gallon aquarium!! You can even see the tropical fish swimming about in this home aquarium!! Overall, dumb and silly from start to finish--but not quite bad enough to satisfy bad movie buffs!

I watched because of my love of old war movies it was much better then expected. Pulled up on u-tube as U-67.