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As Good As It Gets

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The famous legend of the Mary Celeste which set sail from New York harbor in 1872 and was found in the Atlantic adrift with no one on board is given a speculative tale in Phantom Ship. If the cat could only have talked he could have given witness to what really happened.There has been all kinds of speculation and in such a situation your imagination can run wild. In the original Dr. Who series with William Hartnell as the Doctor the TARDIS lands on the Mary Celeste and finds that Daleks are busy slaughtering all.In any event for the suspicious mind the presence of a black cat on the ship and a woman in the person of Shirley Grey, wife of Captain Arthur Margetson would violate two ancient taboos of the sea.I'm not going to go into the plot, but the presence of Bela Lugosi in the cast would give you some indication as to who might be at the bottom of everything. Lugosi turns in a fine performance as a religious fanatic sailor who has a big grudge against the ship.Phantom Ship is a must for fans of Bela Lugosi.

A '35 tale of nautical horror, THE PHANTOM SHIP, directed by the practically unknown Denison Clift, brings us to the beginnings of the HAMMER movies. The events are based on an 1872 maritime enigma.THE PHANTOM SHIP (yeah, I know it, pals, I have seen the American, shorter version) is a very curious and mixed movie—if some of the performances are atrocious and infra—wooden, there are also moments, whole scenes of pure cinematographic brio, gusto, joy and fun. A ship, whose name makes the humblest mariners shrink, sails with a shanghaied crew; the captain is played by an execrable actor. On board the ship the captain travels with his bride; the crew is especially colorful, and the scenes from the mariners' lives are well made. The sea thriller motifs are present—the dreadful lives of the seamen, the anger and tension, the mystical wanderer; so, some of the scenes are surprisingly good, and the movie has gusto and brio, interesting outing.Lugosi's role, especially, is very good—though he occasionally slips into regular overacting—anyway, his first scenes are impressive, he makes an awesome entrance in this movie …. Arthur Margetson is the very annoying captain; Edmund Willard does an excellent role as Bilson. The characters generally have interesting—sounding names.

Based on the bizarre circumstances of the American ship "Marie Celeste" found in 1837 loaded with a cargo of barrels of alcohol, but not a soul on board. Capt. Benjamin Briggs(Arthur Margetson)takes a motley crew and his new wife(Shirley Grey)to sea. It is not the cargo that is so concerning; the Captain realizes that there is a murderer among the crew that is killing them off one by one. More than enough exciting scenes thanks to the rolling sea(and some stock footage). Bela Lugosi plays Anton Lorenzen, a critical character to the movie with a definite horrid past hard to forget. Lugosi is excellent. Also in the cast: Edmund Willard, Ben Welden, Dennis Hoey and Clifford McLaglen.

Phantom Ship (1935) *** (out of 4) The bad reputation of the Mary Celeste means that the ship has a hard time finding a crew. The Captain is finally able to come up with the crew and soon afterwards the ship is discovered with no survivors.The legend of the Mary Celeste is one of the greatest shockers and unsolved crimes in history so it's a little surprising that the story has been told more times than it has. This early film from Hammer isn't the greatest thing ever produced but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching. As I said, the story of what happened is still a mystery so this film comes up with its own story as to what happened on board.If you're expecting a flat out horror movie then you'll probably be disappointed as there aren't any monsters, ghouls or ghosts here. Instead we're given a more psychological movie with the viewer going into the film already knowing about the mystery so the film lets your mind wonder as to what really happened. I must admit that the film should have came up with a better theory but I don't think what's on display here is too bad.The highlight of the film is certainly the performance by Bela Lugosi who plays a drunk on board the ship. I thought he gave a pretty darn good performance and he certainly kept you entertained with everything going on. The red herring aspect doesn't really work but it's still a fine performance. Arthur Margetson is also good in his role as the Captain.PHANTOM SHIP is certainly a flawed movie but if you're a fan of this period's "old dark house" movies then you should enjoy this as it contains the same sort of atmosphere and look.