By now there must be dozens of movies and series with titles like "Ghost Ship", "Ghost Boat", "Phantom Ship", and so on. What we've got here is a modest black-and-white movie from 1952, about a charming young couple who buy a yacht and discover they've received more than they bargained for. It's probably best described as a mix of thriller and horror/fantasy.
The movie can be watched with a certain degree of pleasure : it was made with care and tells a coherent story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It also contains some sailing or shipyard scenes likely to appeal to people who like pottering about in boats / ships / vessels / whatever one may call them. However, it isn't all that spooky, scary or uncanny. The paranormal element is treated in such a sober and matter-of-fact way that it loses much of its impact, rather raising the question of why it was introduced in the first place. What's the use of providing, say, a séance which is as boring and mundane as a trustees' meeting of some long-established charity ? It's like adding garlic to a dish, and then going out of your way to disguise both the smell and the taste.
In other words : "Ghost Ship" is not as spine-tingling as it could or should have been. This feels like a lost opportunity, especially since a yacht (as an isolated and self-contained little universe) makes an excellent setting for tales of panic and claustrophobia.
At one point in the movie, one of the characters offers a pseudo-scientific explanation about the link between warm temperatures and the perception of paranormal events : so THAT is why weird things happen in hot countries ! It's a strange remark, which seems to betray a rather unlovely prejudice. ("We Europeans are a hard-working and rational bunch, but the darker races go around dancing the rumba, climbing phantom ropes and waking the dead from their graves. But we shouldn't be too hard on them, it's just the outside temperature messing with their brains.")
The movie can be watched with a certain degree of pleasure : it was made with care and tells a coherent story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It also contains some sailing or shipyard scenes likely to appeal to people who like pottering about in boats / ships / vessels / whatever one may call them. However, it isn't all that spooky, scary or uncanny. The paranormal element is treated in such a sober and matter-of-fact way that it loses much of its impact, rather raising the question of why it was introduced in the first place. What's the use of providing, say, a séance which is as boring and mundane as a trustees' meeting of some long-established charity ? It's like adding garlic to a dish, and then going out of your way to disguise both the smell and the taste.
In other words : "Ghost Ship" is not as spine-tingling as it could or should have been. This feels like a lost opportunity, especially since a yacht (as an isolated and self-contained little universe) makes an excellent setting for tales of panic and claustrophobia.
At one point in the movie, one of the characters offers a pseudo-scientific explanation about the link between warm temperatures and the perception of paranormal events : so THAT is why weird things happen in hot countries ! It's a strange remark, which seems to betray a rather unlovely prejudice. ("We Europeans are a hard-working and rational bunch, but the darker races go around dancing the rumba, climbing phantom ropes and waking the dead from their graves. But we shouldn't be too hard on them, it's just the outside temperature messing with their brains.")