Released on April 27th, 1936, Mystery of the Mary Celeste was Bela Lugosi’s first British film.
Consider this part two of my coverage of the mystery of the MARY CELESTE, the ship found adrift without a soul aboard, and showing signs that they had all vanished quite suddenly. The final entry in the ship’s log, recorded at 8:00 am on November 25, 1872, noted nothing unusual. It is estimated that the crew and passengers disappeared mere hours afterward. What happened to them? That question is perfect fodder for the imagination, so it isn’t surprising that the ship has appeared, and her crew DISappeared, again and again in fiction.
One of the earliest efforts of Hammer Studios, made in the years before that company would become synonymous with full-color, quality Horror films and the names Lee and Cushing, is the little gem PHANTOM SHIP. Anybody seen it? It recounts the fateful story of the MARY CELESTE, and pins the blame on Bela “Dracula” Lugosi at his villainous best. A murderer aboard ship is as plausible an explanation as any for what happened to the crew and guests, provided the killer struck with great suddenness, and if you’re in need of a menacing murderer type, you really can’t do better than Lugosi. I just wish the film had been longer.
