Ghost Ship (1952)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1952
Running Time	69:26
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Vernon Sewell
Studio Distributor	Lippert Pictures Warner Vision	Starring	Hazel Court Dermot Walsh Hugh Burden John Robinson Joss Ambler Joan Carol Hugh Latimer Laidman Browne Mignon O'Doherty Meadows White Pat McGrath Joss Ackland John King-Kelly
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Eric Spear

    Ghost Ship should not be confused with the 1943 Val Lewton chiller or the recent horror film. This film is a low budget British film of 1952 with a fairly short running time.

    The story tells of a couple just returned from America, Guy (Dermot Walsh) and Margaret Thornton (Hazel Court), who want to buy a derelict steam yacht that no-one else wants.

    The port manager (Joss Ambler) tells them the story of how the yacht was found abandoned on the sea, with no sign of the owner, his wife or his engineer. Undeterred, the couple purchase the yacht. But they have trouble keeping their crew due to mysterious happenings...

    If you want to know more about the story, just read the back cover blurb, which gives the entire story including the ending.

    Ghost Ship was written, produced and directed by Vernon Sewell. Not only was Sewell a director of low budget horror films, he was also a qualified engineer and enthusiastic yachtsman. This imbues his screenplay with little details which add to the believability of the background story, which would have made the central supernatural elements more frightening had he had the luxury of a bigger budget. In the end it is the cheapness of the production and the short running time which defeats this attempt at a shocker.

Video

    As usual from this source, the video is of lesser quality, though not as bad as others I have reviewed.

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, close to the original ratio of 1.37:1, and is of course not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is not very sharp, though sufficient detail has been captured from the source material to allow undistracted viewing. Shadow detail is almost non-existent due to the overly contrasted source print. It is difficult to discern any low-level noise due to the significant amount of grain present. There is noticeable edge enhancement from time to time, 54:56 and 59:08 being severe examples.

    The black and white source print was in less than average condition with a lot of film artefacts present. These take the form of scratches, small spots and flecks, and reel change marks. While these artefacts are present throughout the film, they are not severe, and this looks like an average TV print of a film of this vintage.

    The film is presented on a single-layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio on this disc is comparable to a VHS version of a film of this vintage.

    There is a single English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, though the source material was mono.

    Dialogue is generally easy to understand and relatively clear. Some background hiss is present but is not annoying.

    Audio sync is an issue during the early part of the film, from 1:40 onwards for about 5 minutes. I suspect that this emanated from the source material, due to missing frames in the print.

    The music score by Eric Spear is quite banal, and is typical of low budget British films of this period.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Apart from a static menu, there are no extras. For a film of this type and vintage, it seems hardly necessary to bother with extras.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    As far as I can tell, this film has only been released on DVD in Region 4.

    This is a minor effort, which would probably only interest collectors of this sort of material. It might be worth a rental if you have nothing better to do.

    The video quality is below average.

    The audio quality is adequate.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall