The Phantom Light *** (1935, Binnie Hale, Gordon Harker, Ian Hunter, Donald Calthrop, Milton Rosmer, Herbert Lomas) – Classic Movie Review 7957

In his minor 1935 early effort The Phantom Light, director Michael Powell injects a strong, haunting atmosphere into a jovial suspense comedy-thriller yarn set around a supposedly haunted Welsh lighthouse, whose keeper has earlier been murdered, lighting ships to their doom.

Gordon Harker, Binnie Hale, Ian Hunter and Donald Calthrop offer bright performances, while Powell films a rough-and-ready script with youthful vigour and infectious enthusiasm. The screenplay by talented writers Austin Melford, Ralph Smart and J Jefferson Farjeon is based on Evadne Price and Joan Roy Byford’s play The Haunted Light.

Also in the cast are Milton Rosmer, Herbert Lomas, Reginald Tate, Mickey Brantford, Alice O’Day as Mrs Owen, Edgar K Bruce as Sergeant Owen , Louie Emery as Station Mistress, Barry O’Neill as Captain Pearce, Mickey Brantford as Bob Peters, and Fewlass Llewellyn as Griffith Owen.

The Phantom Light is directed by Michael Powell, runs 76 minutes, is made by Gaumont-British is released by Gainsborough Pictures, is written by Ralph Smart (scenario), Austin Melford (dialogue) and J Jefferson Farjeon (dialogue), is shot in black and white by Roy Kellino, is produced by Michael Balcon and Jerome Jackson (associate producer) and is scored by Louis Levy.

The opening scenes were filmed at Tan y Bwlch station on the Festiniog Railway, 7.5 miles from the coast.

The Phantom Light is released on Region 1 DVD by MPI along with Red Ensign (1934) and The Upturned Glass (1947)..

With his first screen credit as director on the missing believed lost thriller Two Crowded Hours (1931), Powell directed 23 films from 1931 to 1936, including the critically well received Red Ensign (1934) and The Phantom Light (1935).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7957

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