The Captain Sails to Crazy Town

 

Richard Dix really should be better known as an actor. A few years ago, I reviewed a series of movies based on The Whistler radio show. All but one of these starred Dix as the main character--sometimes a good guy, sometimes a villain. And he was very effective in each of those roles.

In 1943, he starred in one of the series of superb horror movies produced by Val Lewton for RKO studios. In The Ghost Ship, his character is Will Stone, the captain of the merchant ship Altair, which sails to ports in the Caribbean. A newly-qualified young officer named Tom Merriam (Russell Wade) comes aboard and soon proves himself capable. 

In fact, when one of the crew suffers from appendicitis while the Altair is at sea, it's Merriam who performs a life-saving operation while instructions are sent by radio. This happens after Captain Stone tries to operate but freezes up. Merriam, concerned about hurting the captain's image with the crew, allows Stone to take the credit.

But, in the meanwhile, the movie begin to give us hints that all isn't well with Captain Stone. Aside from his self-serving explanation to Merriam about why he couldn't perform the operation, there are other indications that he might not always be rational. 

Then things come to a head. A sailor comes to the captain to complain about the crew being short-handed. The next day, the sailor dies in an "accident" in the ship's chain locker.

But Merriam knows it was no accident. When they reach their next port, he makes a public accusation against Stone. This doesn't go well. He has no proof and the crew thinks the captain bravely saved the sailor who had appendicitis. 

Merriam is out of a job and off the Altair. Before the ship leaves port, though, Merriam is knocked out in a fist fight and brought aboard by a sailor who didn't know he was no longer part of the crew. 

This leaves Merriam aboard a ship at sea, cut off from the rest of the world, with an insane captain who wants to kill him and a crew who won't believe him.

As I mentioned, Dix's performance is excellent--subtle when it needs to be and more overt when that is called for. He even generates a modicum of sympathy for himself when he talks to a lady friend, telling her of his fears that he is going insane without realizing that he's already there.

The direction (by Mark Robson) is sharp and the black-and-white cinematography (by Nicolas Musuraca) is downright beautiful. Most of the film is set aboard the ship and, of course, an old-school tramp merchantman is an inherently cool setting. The Ghost Ship is suspenseful and creepy, leading us forward to a brutal and superlative climax.