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11 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Not historically accurate but a good movie., 13 February 2005
6/10
Author: Chuck Straub from Mansfield, CT USA

The Mary Celeste was a real ship that was found adrift in good condition, with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic with no one aboard and no record of what happened to them. It's one of histories great mysteries of the sea. This film is very loosely based on this event but it has many of the facts wrong. The film cannot be viewed as a historically correct movie about the real Mary Celeste's voyage. As an example, the captain gets married just before they sail. In reality the Captain was married for some time and had a child that was on the voyage. The child was absent from the movie. There are many more inaccuracies. The accuracy of the personalities of the ship's crew is also very questionable. The movie has taken huge liberties with the facts. Ignoring that this is supposed to take place on the Mary Celeste, this is still a pretty good drama/mystery. I was happily surprised to find that this is one of the very early films from Hammer studios. The atmosphere and settings were great and the characters interesting. Overall the acting is good. Bela Lugosi really stands out with a great dramatic performance and is excellent in his role. The quality of the film and sound are not the greatest but acceptable considering it's age. This USA version is what remains of an earlier and longer British version which I presume is lost but it's still a decent movie. Hammer studios, Bela Lugosi, 1935, isn't that enough to have you take a look at this movie?

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Bela Lugosi at his best!, 17 April 2005
8/10
Author: ivinia from United States

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.

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Rare Lugosi!, 23 June 1999
6/10
Author: Norm Vogel (norm3vog@blast.net) from S. Bound Brook, NJ

This fictional story is based on true event -- the finding of a ship with no one on it.....and gives a plausible "explanation" of what MIGHT have happened.

This film is notable for Lugosi's dramatic performance; it's one of the (very) few films that he was able to show his dramatic (as opposed to horror) side.

This is a VERY difficult film to find.....but worth watching for Lugosi's performance alone!

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Lugosi In A Great, Though Atypical Role, 18 April 2007
8/10
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

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

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The Mary Celeste's mystery is like "and then there were none", 18 July 2001
5/10
Author: jcholguin (jcholguin@lycos.com) from los angeles

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.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Phantom Ship, 20 June 2007
7/10
Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A film which takes a stab at providing a story of why the Mary Celeste yielded a vanished crew. Bela Lugosi stars as weary and browbeaten Anton Lorenzen whose mental state has been devoured after having been shanghaied on board the Mary Celeste many years prior to another invite aboard that damned ship. He seeks revenge on the man who roped him and threw him overboard for the sharks, Capt. Benjamen Briggs' assistant Toby Bilson(Edmund Willard)and will change his name joining the crew(he has only one arm which might serve as an example of that ill-fated day). Briggs(Arthur Margetson)has on board his soon-to-be bride Sarah(Shirley Grey)as they sail for another location on the plans of matrimony, but someone on board is killing the crew one by one. Briggs will have to find the madman before there's no one left to guide the Mary Celeste. Clasping the bible into his bosom, Anton seems trustworthy, if a bit off-kilter..he does save Briggs' wife from a near-rape by a member of the captain's crew and seems sorrowful for the taking of a life. But, when someone tries to shoot Briggs, the film really becomes a series of bodies being found until nearly everyone is gone..including several leads who just disappear from the screen. Soon it's down to three people and we get a clear indication who it just might be.

We're not far removed from the silent era and that transition truly shows in the poor delivery of dialogue by many of the cast members. It wasn't a quality print that I watched, but it didn't detract too much from the experience. The film never lost my interest thanks to the mind-boggling performance from Lugosi..I can't put his performance into words. Lugosi's all over the map leaping from trustworthy sea-farer to complete loony in a single take. He's always interesting, that's for sure. I'm not sure I'd call him awful, but it's almost hard to describe..certainly a change-of-pace role where he has an opportunity to take his character into depths of sorrow and madness at a moment's notice. I didn't think it was that well directed or acted, I did feel the film should've showed more action than is shown particularly the fates of leads Arthur Margetson and Shirley Grey as the proposed couple to be wed. I'd say this is a film best recommended to Lugosi enthusiasts and the curious in general.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
PHANTOM SHIP (Denison Clift, 1935) **, 9 March 2007
4/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

I had always been interested in checking out this seafaring thriller due to Bela Lugosi's involvement; still, now I can't help feeling that the over-age star was miscast in the role of a hapless 'old man of the sea' who bears an Ahab-like grudge against the "Mary Celeste" and is also something of a religious fanatic (the inspiration for this was, perhaps, Boris Karloff's impressive turn in John Ford's desert adventure THE LOST PATROL [1934]). That said, his final descent into madness (uncommonly vicious for the time but, then, the film is based on a factual incident!) is fairly well handled.

Ultimately, however, the British-made picture fails to rise above its 'quota quickie' status - Lugosi himself fared much better with the later DARK EYES OF London (1939) - and can't honestly compare with the similar Val Lewton-produced THE GHOST SHIP (1943); moreover, it is fatally compromised by the director's baffling decision to keep much of the central action off-screen (either due to budgetary limitations or he must have been an admirer of Tod Browning)! Considering some of the choppy editing involved, though, I'm inclined to believe the film's official length as given by the IMDb - i.e. 80 minutes, rather than the 62-minute version I saw (culled from the Image DVD).

There's also the insipid - but mandatory - romantic interest to contend with here, to say nothing of various songs by the leading lady (with piano accompaniment) and an organ-playing sailor, which are a chore to sit through...but the latter musical instrument's come-uppance at the hands of the angry first mate does provide some unintended hilarity!

P.S. Though it hadn't been officially named as yet, the company that made this film is actually Hammer Films; as a matter of fact, I first came upon PHANTOM SHIP (under its original title of THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE) via a still in an article about the famed British "House Of Horror" in an early 1980s periodical...

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
"When this ship sails, death sails on her.", 9 October 2006
4/10
Author: classicsoncall from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Reading some of the positive posts on this film leads me to wonder whether I watched the same movie. There's probably only one reason to catch this picture, that being the presence of Bela Lugosi. However with the bad editing of what survives in the American release of "Phantom Ship", even Lugosi's performance raises eye brows at times.

The story attempts to portray what might have happened on board the 'Mary Celeste', a ship out of New York harbor in 1872 bound for Italy, and found adrift and derelict in the mid Atlantic on December 5th of the same year. The speculation left this viewer disinterested as soon as the body count started to mount, especially when the ship's Captain Briggs (Arthur Margetson) attempted to pin down the whereabouts of his crew and who 'might' have possessed a gun when a bullet was fired into his stateroom. There's no time to build empathy with with any of the crew members, primarily because no one's around long enough. Ultimately, Lugosi's character confesses to murdering the crew over having been shanghaied aboard the same ship six years earlier. Then, in a moment of crazed paranoia, he jumps overboard to seal the deal.

Besides Lugosi, the only other character bringing any gusto to the proceedings is first mate Bilson (Edmund Willard), and he does so by flogging his own men. A side story involves Captain Briggs as a newlywed with his wife Sarah aboard, but his leadership turns out highly ineffective. Apparently, the couple were allowed to escape the ship in the scenario presented, so Lugosi could complete his mission.

Devotees of films of the 1930's through the '50's will recognize Ben Welden as one of the men on board ship. He usually played cheap hoods in gangster films and early TV shows. The best though had to be the tattooed fat guy who almost made it to the end; watching him prompts one to get up and take a shower as soon as the film is over.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Bela Lugosi's finest hour, 16 May 2006
8/10
Author: José Luis Rivera Mendoza (jluis1984) from Mexico

Hammer Film Productions is famous for the production of Gothic horror during the 60s and 70s; however, way before becoming the legendary horror house, the company had a brief but brilliant encounter with the genre. The film was an ambitious entry in the horror/mystery genre starring horror icon Bela Lugosi and based on the famous case of the abandoned ship, the "Marie Celeste".

"The Mystery of the Marie Celeste" (or as it is known in the U.S., "The Phantom Ship") presents a fictional theory on the mysterious disappearance of the entire crew (complete with the captain's family) of the tragically famous ship. The plot deals with a mysterious murderer who is killing the crew one by one. Arthur Margetson is Captain Benjamin Briggs, who is taking his bride Sarah (Shirley Grey) in his tragic last trip. The crew includes Bela Lugosi and Edmund Willard among others, all of them possible victims, or killers.

The film is very well done for a low budget, and it is very well written, with very interesting characters and a perfectly crafted mystery. Sadly, several minutes of film were cut for the American release and it's the only version that has survived. The original British version (with a runtime of approximately 80 minutes) is apparently lost. The movie still works with the cuts, but one is left to wonder how deep the development of the characters was in the original.

Director Denison Clift had a small career as a director (he was primarily a writer), but he manages to create great atmospheres and builds up the suspense and the mystery with good care. Clift focuses more on the story than in the visual composition and lets the actors do the trick, they are without a doubt the film's highlight. The superb performances of the cast give life to the story and make the experience even more enjoyable.

Arthur Margetson is very good as the stubborn and stoic Capt. Briggs, but Shirley Grey is a bit weak as the romantic interest (contrary to the real story, in the film the couple has no children). Edmund Willard and Bela Lugosi steal the show, the first one as the violent Tobey Bilson, and Lugosi as the mysterious Anton Lorenzen. The two of them give outstanding performances and are the soul of the movie. While Bela Lugosi will always be remembered as Dracula, is in this movie where he can display his dramatic talent in a very demanding role as the emotional Lorenzen.

The film feels claustrophobic at times being that the only location is the ship, but this adds to the feeling of paranoia and suspense that grows among the crew. The lack of flamboyant visual imagery may turn off horror fans not used to the slow pace of older films but the films moves at a perfect rhythm. Another small flaw is that the rest of the cast is at times either unconvincing or over-the-top; however, Lugosi, Willard and Margetson make up for this.

While "The Mystery of the Marie Celeste" is not the classic film that "Dracula" or "White Zombie" are, it is a fine film that successfully mixes horror and mystery and displays the great talent Lugosi had, a talent that was sadly forgotten and went underused during most of his career. This film is an often forgotten shiny spot in the stories of both Lugosi and Hammer Productions, and therefore a must-see for anyone interested in Lugosi's life or in Hammer's history, as it is probably the finest performance of an iconic figure. 8/10

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A mystery at sea, 13 March 2008
6/10
Author: lastliberal from Florida

Despite the fact that this film is of poor quality (actually it is supposedly the remains of a longer film), it is still a good mystery.

The Mary Celeste was actually found at sea with no crew left.

What happened to them? The Captain (Arthur Margetson) married a woman (Shirley Grey) loved by another Captain. he paid a crew member to dispatch the Captain at the first opportunity. Did he succeed?

Or was it Bela Lugosi (in his only Hammer film) as Anton Lorenzen, a man who was shanghaied six years earlier and wanted revenge?

This film may not be historically accurate, but it is a good story. It is also a chance to see Bela Lugosi in a dramatic, non-horror role. After who really knows what happened?

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