Clips from the eerie sea thriller THE GHOST SHIP made at RKO in 1943 by Val Lewton. This film was out of circulation in the US for decades over some lawyer squabble, but it screened often in Australia on late night TV in the same decades. While someone has bunched the sea shanty scenes in this YouTube piece, it is the horrifying and very violent knife fight I wish to draw your attention to. Fought totally in silence for added nightmare sense, it is the climactic sequence of the film. 1943 films generally are not this vicious and explicit and this one certainly got away with some startling scenes. I believe the RKO-Lawton thrillers of the mid 40s are now in a boxed set from WarnerArchive, and I encourage you to find them and be amazed.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:40:23 +0000