| The Ghost Ship | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster by William Rose | |
| Directed by | Mark Robson |
| Screenplay by | Donald Henderson Clarke |
| Story by | Leo Mittler |
| Produced by | Val Lewton |
| Starring | Richard Dix |
| Cinematography | Nicholas Musuraca |
| Edited by | John Lockert |
| Music by | Roy Webb |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150,000 |
The Ghost Ship is a 1943 American black-and-white psychological thriller film starring Richard Dix and directed by Mark Robson. It was produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures as part of a series of low-budget horror films. The film can be seen as a "low-key psychological thriller",[1] a "suspense drama",[2] and a "waterlogged melodrama".[3] Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard and Edmund Glover appear in support.
The film is about a young merchant marine officer who begins to suspect that his ship's captain is mentally unbalanced and endangering the lives of the ship's crew. The ship's crew, however, believes the vessel to be haunted and cursed and several mysterious deaths occur.
Upon its theatrical release on Christmas Eve, 1943, the film was a box office success but received a mixed critical reception. In February 1944, Lewton was sued for plagiarism by playwrights Samuel R. Golding and Norbert Faulkner, who claimed that the script was based on a play that was submitted to Lewton for a possible film. Because of the suit, The Ghost Ship was withdrawn from theatrical release and not shown for nearly 50 years. It was not until the film's copyright was not renewed and it entered the public domain in the 1990s,[4] that it began to be available again, and was released as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection DVD set in 2005.
- ^ Hutchings (2009), p. 201
- ^ Bodeen (1976), p. 314
- ^ Meehan (2010), p. 69
- ^ Shirley, Eric. "December 10: Val Lewton's 'The Ghost Ship' Sets Sail" on Yahoo.com (December 10, 2011)