The Ghost Ship is a black-and-white 1943 film starring Richard Dix. The film was directed by Mark Robson and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures.
A young officer joins the crew of a ship. At first, the captain (Dix) seems OK, but as the cruise goes forward a few deaths of crewmen occur. The young officer comes to believe that the captain, who is obsessed with authority, is responsible. At the first port, he attempts to reveal the captain as a madman but no one believes him and the young officer is fired. Unfortunately, while walking the streets he becomes involved in a fight and one of his old crew members, not knowing he was kicked off the ship, returns the unconsious man back on the ship before it steams from port. The officer wakes up on the ship and now realizes that the crazy captain may try to kill him out of revenge.
Trivia
- RKO tasked producer Lewton to make a sea-based film because the studio had a ship set already built after the making of the film Pacific Liner in 1938.
- The films producer Lewton was sued for plagiarism when it was claimed that the script was based on a play that was submitted to Lewton for a possible film. Lewton desputed the claim, but after a court case, the court ruled against him. The Ghost Ship was withdrawn from circulation and the film was unavailable for viewing for fifty years.
- The film was released as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection DVD set in 2005, despite the fact that the film is not a horror movie.
Cast
- Richard Dix as Captain Will Stone
- Russell Wade as Tom Merriam, 3rd Officer
- Edith Barrett as Ellen Roberts
See also
Ghost Ship is an unrelated 2002 horror film.