Ghost Diver (1957) User Reviews

Solid little adventure film about greed and lust and lost treasure is the sort of thing that used to play on the Late Late Show

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 12 October 2008]

TV Adventure show host goes to South America to recover a lost native treasure after an stone guardian turns up. Hooking up with local native (who we know is a bad guy because he killed the diver who found the statue so he could sell it himself), the host, his son and secretary end up in the middle of an adventure closely akin to film noir.

Picked up on a whim at a nostalgia show this is actually a very good adventure film. Decidedly low budget, there are six characters and very few sets (and a great deal of underwater photography), which is fine since this is a small scale story.The story moves along at a good clip with not a great many twists or turns. Its the sort of film that used to play late at night before cable gave us 500 channels of infomercials. If the film has any real flaws its that some of the underwater sequences can get a bit confusing as to who is doing what. The film is also probably over long at 77 minutes since the film doesn't have enough plot to cover it all.

Worth a look see if you run across it, especially if its at say 2am and you have insomnia. (Oh how I miss those days)

A Cave Diving movie

[ONenslo · 5/10 · 2 March 2019]

The star of a TV adventure show promises his viewers he will recover a lost treasure, and accompanied by his secretary (the brains of the operation) and his son (struggling to live up to his father's reputation) encounter an unscrupulous and deadly adversary in the person of their native guide, and an exotic love interest and manhood test for the son. A pair of romances, some jealous scuffles and similar domestic struggles liven things up a bit, but you know if it is a diving movie you can expect a lot of scenes of people in scuba gear swimming past the camera. That is exactly what you get. In addition to cave diving there is also cliff diving to add novelty appeal. People scuba dive in caves, and dive off cliffs into the ocean, but not at the same time. There is some puzzle solving with the placement of an idol in an underwater temple to reveal the hidden treasure, and a sort of a ghost diver maybe, but the grand finale comes completely out of left field and caused this viewer the most excitement, bafflement and consternation of anything in the film. No, you have to sit through this yourself if you want to know what it was but believe me it is a real surprise. A fairly okay B movie is made weird by its semiprofessional co-writers/directors' ideas of where a plot ought to go, and it seems they never did it again. This occupies the time fairly well, but rarely gets exciting until that one minute or so of "what the heck is THIS?" that almost makes the preceding events worth sitting through. Not a real recommendation, I know, but if you are the type who likes this sort of challenge, it is okay to see once.

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1964

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 31 March 2019]

1957's "Ghost Diver" was among the few entries done by 20th Century-Fox's low budget Regal outfit, sporting two directors who also scripted, minor producer Richard Einfeld and veteran editor Merrill G. White, neither of whom returned to the director's chair. A rather ordinary diving adventure with no horror elements, a small cast of six struggling to keep things afloat, starring James Craig as TV host Roger Bristol, who has promised his audience that he would find the sunken treasure of South America's Paracan Indians, the deep sea diver who discovered it being killed by his greedy partner, telling the dead man's daughter that he fell victim to sharks. Bristol is joined by his secretary and son, enlisting the killer and the daughter as local guides, a great deal of underwater photography but no real drama. The lack of incident is particularly fatal, as the characters prove incredibly slow to catch on to the covetous murderer, who seems to have a superhuman ability to hold his breath underwater forever, battling our heroes at knifepoint beneath the waves while they struggle in their diving gear. Everything plays out as expected, with the actual 'Ghost Diver' revealed as the corpse of the murder victim still wearing his gear.

Most disappointing!

[JohnHowardReid · 2/10 · 20 November 2016]

Copyright 1957 by Regal Films, Inc. Released through 20th Century- Fox Film Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: October 1957. U.K. release: No recorded release date. Reviewed in the Monthly Film Bulletin: February 1958. Australian release: 24 April 1958. 6,875 feet. 76 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A TV adventurer searches for hidden treasure off the coast of South America.

NOTES: The dean of American film editors, Merrill G. White was known by his peers as "The Wizard of the Cutting-Room".

COMMENT: Despite the credits announcement that this Regal effort was co-written and directed by none other than Merrill G. White, this is a most disappointing support. To my utmost surprise, "the wizard of the cutting-room" (as he was often titled) betrays not the slightest hint of talent in any of his writing, directing and editing capacities (except for one single, totally irrelevant shot in a swimming pool with the camera half-submerged beneath the water).

However, there is an unconscionable amount of aimless threshing about in the studio tank. 2nd unit director Paul Stader's instructions doubtless included such items as: Ten shots of a man diving overboard from the rigging of a skiff.

Something might have been made of the ghost diver, but the directors approach even this incident not only with a conspicuous lack of imagination, but even of elementary know-how.