THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE is one of five films made by the fledgling Hammer Films back in the 1930s before they stopped making movies for over a decade, only returning to full-time film production in 1947. Some of those five films are now lost, but this one remains, albeit in a shortened version in the form of the American print entitled PHANTOM SHIP. It's a story of a seabound mystery in which a number of sailors go missing, one by one, while the captain tries to figure out which of the crew is responsible. Oddly, this is a straightforward murder mystery, eschewing the supernatural solution you might expect from the subject matter. It's a bit dated and creaky overall, but it benefits from a nice performance from Bela Lugosi as the salty old sea dog along for the voyage, and it has a little of the Hammer magic that would come to the fore over twenty years later.
Review of Phantom Ship
