Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

mark.waltz Bela Lugosi was an actor of few dimensions. As much as he dominated the screen when he was on thanks to those searing eyes and those clenched hands reaching out for a victim, he could also make you roll your eyes with his hamminess and his slow reading of dialog. Coming off such Universal horror classics as "Dracula", "The Black Cat" and "The Raven", Lugosi was mixing in poverty row melodramas and mysteries, and with the British made "The Mystery of the Mary Celeste" (re-titled and greatly edited for American release), he was able to give one of his best performances. The compassion for his world-weary character, shanghaied years before and abused by the captain of the Mary Celeste, he has returned home, only to find that the ship is about to sail again. So with great subtlety, he signs on as a crew member, and one by one, the other crew members start disappearing. Lugosi seems the least likely suspect, but as bodies are dumped overboard and Lugosi and only a few others remain, the likelihood of his being the culprit increases. The reason is how and why, and for the people who discover the empty ship sailing past them, it truly is a mystery.Many poverty row films have not been saved by the ravages of time, but fortunately, the DVD print of this melodrama has been greatly restored with excellent picture quality and pretty good sound. It moves quickly too, even if the presence of Shirley Grey as the captain's new wife aboard isn't really at all believable. Her recurring singing also gets a little bit in the way, but that's a truly minor complaint. No Lugosi film would be complete without his mad scene, and he delivers it here with gusto, not a mustache twirling Tod Slaughter type, but one which shows that the mind can only take so much before snapping into madness from which there is no escape.

Uriah43 In desperate need of a crew "Captain Benjamin Briggs" (Arthur Margetson) tells his First Mate "Toby Bilson" (Edmond Willard) that he needs sailors to man his ship and he doesn't care how he gets them. So some are "shanghaied" while others "volunteer" very reluctantly. Unfortunately, among the crew is a psychotic murderer who then begins to kill his shipmates one by one. Obviously, since I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it I won't reveal who the killer is. However, I will say that for such a short movie (62 min.) this film leaves much to the imagination. And in this particular case it is both good and bad. For example, in between the stock footage of the ship at sea there are several murders that are not shown. In one particular case the members of the crew are looking into a room and registering their disgust at what they see. But the camera never actually shows the dead body. So in one sense the audience might feel short-changed. But on the other hand, perhaps it's best to let the audience fill in the blanks on their own. Especially since Bela Legosia (as "A. Gottleib") is on hand and does such a magnificent job of setting the stage. Having said that though, other than the attractive presence of Shirley Grey (as "Sarah Briggs") none of the other actors really caught my eye. That said, in spite of the artistic approach to leaving some things understated or completely left out, I felt that this film could—and should—have shown more. Certainly the ending left much to be desired. And that's the reason I didn't score this film higher.

zardoz-13 Bela Lugosi steals the show in "Taxi for Two" director Denison Clift's atmospheric sea-faring yarn "The Phantom Ship." This British-produced, what-if epic appropriates the ill-fated, real-life tragedy of the sailing vessel the Mary Celeste as its subject matter. The elements revolving around the Mary Celeste, which was found in the Atlantic Ocean, near Portugal, without a single member of its crew on board and no indication about their fate lends itself to a scary saga. Nobody has ever figured out the fate of the crew, but several films have been lensed about this strange incident. Clift and freshman scenarist Charles Larkworthy exercise maximum use of dramatic license as they suggest what might have occurred. The claustrophobic setting-the action primarily takes place aboard the ship—and the paranoia that this static setting evokes as too many corpses pile up generates a modicum of atmosphere. Once a motley crew has been assembled for the Mary Celeste, the ensuing voyage turns into an Agatha Christie murder mystery as one crewman after another is killed in cold blood or commits suicide. Indeed, the plot foreshadows all those slasher chillers of the 1970s and 1980s where one individual stalks and kills a number of helpless victims. Revenge plays a prime motive in Clift's film, and Lugosi is cast as the wronged man who exacts his pound of flesh. Mind you, as one-armed sailor Anton Lorenzen, Lugosi has the plum role, while an above-average cast of convincing looking maritimers surround him with their brawny looks. One briny fellow is covered in tattoos that reflect the time of the story in the 1870s, particularly his Queen Victoria tat. Unfortunately, despite the eerie setting and subject matter as well as Lugosi bravura performance, "The Phantom Ship" could straighten the hairs on your forearms. Of course, it doesn't hurt matters that this was an early example of Hammer horror. In all probability, anything that might have sent a chill down your spine was excised by the British Board of Censors. If it proves nothing else, "The Phantom Ship" proves that a man with one-arm can be a challenging adversary. Lugosi lunatic here has suffered from too many years at sea under horrible circumstances. He regales his fellow seamen with the story about how a shark got his arm. Meantime, Clift and Larkworthy retain some bits of history; the skipper takes his wife on the voyage because he plans to marry her. Nevertheless, he runs a taut ship and empowers his subordinates to make believers out of his coerced crew. Aside from the sailor sent to obtain a crew, the Lugosi character appears to be the only man who wants to be on-board. Happily, Clift keeps everything down to 62 minutes, but the revelation that "Phantom Ship" existed at one time as "The Mystery of the Mary Celeste" with a running time of 80 minutes. The scenes aboard the ship look credible and filmmakers maintain the mystery right up to the final moments before another ship finds the Mary Celeste and they sell her for salvage. Along with the Lugosi character's appetite for revenge, the only other notable complication is the romantic rivalry between Captain Benjamin Briggs (Arthur Margetson of "Random Harvest") and Captain Jim Morehead (Clifford McLaglen of "Call of the Sea) over Sarah (Shirley Grey) who winds up wedding Briggs rather than Morehead. Bad blood erupts over this turn of events and Morehead dispatches a sailor to sail for Briggs who will see that a little harm comes to him. "The Phantom Ship" is more hardcore Bela Lugosi completists and Hammer fans

Michael_Elliott Phantom Ship (1935) *** (out of 4) The bad reputation of the Mary Celeste means that the ship has a hard time finding a crew. The Captain is finally able to come up with the crew and soon afterwards the ship is discovered with no survivors.The legend of the Mary Celeste is one of the greatest shockers and unsolved crimes in history so it's a little surprising that the story has been told more times than it has. This early film from Hammer isn't the greatest thing ever produced but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching. As I said, the story of what happened is still a mystery so this film comes up with its own story as to what happened on board.If you're expecting a flat out horror movie then you'll probably be disappointed as there aren't any monsters, ghouls or ghosts here. Instead we're given a more psychological movie with the viewer going into the film already knowing about the mystery so the film lets your mind wonder as to what really happened. I must admit that the film should have came up with a better theory but I don't think what's on display here is too bad.The highlight of the film is certainly the performance by Bela Lugosi who plays a drunk on board the ship. I thought he gave a pretty darn good performance and he certainly kept you entertained with everything going on. The red herring aspect doesn't really work but it's still a fine performance. Arthur Margetson is also good in his role as the Captain.PHANTOM SHIP is certainly a flawed movie but if you're a fan of this period's "old dark house" movies then you should enjoy this as it contains the same sort of atmosphere and look.