Ghost Ship * (1952, Dermot Walsh, Hazel Court, Hugh Burden, John Robinson, Hugh Latimer, Patricia Owens, Melissa Stribling, Joan Carol) – Classic Movie Review 12,660

The soggy, cheap-looking 1952 British B-movie horror thriller film Ghost Ship stars the real-life husband and wife team of Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court. Incredibly, it is the third of four times Vernon Sewell filmed the story.

Writer/ producer/ director Vernon Sewell’s 1952 Anglo-Amalgamated black and white British film Ghost Ship is a soggy, cheap-looking B-movie horror thriller, starring the real-life husband and wife team of Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court. Incredibly, it is the third of four times Vernon Sewell filmed the story.

Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court play the young newly-wed married couple Guy and Margret, who take over an old yacht called The Cyclops with a spooky past.

The ghostly presence turns out to be the spirits of the last owner of the tub’s murdered wife and lover. A clairvoyant tells Court that the old owner killed the pair, and this leads Walsh to round up the ghost, which turns out to be all too human.

Ghost Ship is an interesting try, creepy in places, and worth a look for the cast, with several Fifties favourites, but overall the result is perhaps rather more ghastly than it is ghostly, mostly thanks to the low budget filming.

Vernon Sewell bought the film rights to the French Grand Guignol stage play L’Angoisse by Pierre Mills and Celia de Vilyars, and liked it so much that he filmed it four times: The Medium (1934), Latin Quarter (1945), Ghost Ship (1952) and House of Mystery (1961).

It was shot at Merton Park Studios as a second feature, with exteriors shot on Vernon Sewell’s yacht Gelert in the English Channel. There are also views of Shoreham Harbour canal, Southwick Town Hall, and Lady Bee Marina.

The 2002 film of the same title Ghost Ship is unrelated.

It is Melissa Stribling’s first film, aged 25, as a Party Girl named Vera. Upcoming star Patricia Owens plays another Party Girl called Joyce. Upcoming star Ian Carmichael appears briefly as a drunken guest called Bernard.

Also in the cast are Hugh Burden, John Robinson, Hugh Latimer, Patricia Owens, Melissa Stribling, Joan Carol, Mignon O’Doherty, Joss Ambler, Laidman Browne, Meadows White, Pat McGrath, Joss Ackland, John King-Kelly, Colin Douglas, Ian Carmichael, Ewen Solon, Jack Stewart, Anthony Marlowe, Geoffrey Dunn, Anthony Hayes, Barry Phelps, Robert Moore, Jock Finlay, Madoline Thomas, Graham Stuart, and Gordon Bell.

It runs just 75 minutes.

It resurfaced in the UK in October 2023 on TPTV.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,660

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