The Ghost Ship is a 1943 American black-and-white psychological thriller film starring Richard Dix and directed by Mark Robson.

Upon its theatrical release on Christmas Eve, 1943, the film was a box office success but received a mixed critical reception.

It was not until the film's copyright was not renewed and it entered the public domain in the 1990s,[4] that it began to be available again, and was released as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection DVD set in 2005.

Instead, Merriam successfully removes the sailor's appendix, but – feeling he should be loyal to the captain and spare him embarrassment – swears the radio operator to secrecy.

When they dock at the fictional Caribbean island of "San Sebastian" Merriam attempts to expose the Captain's madness at a board of inquiry.

As the two walk side-by-side, Winslow drops the captain's radiogram to the deck, and it is picked up by an illiterate crewman, Finn the Mute (Skelton Knaggs), whose internal monologues serve as a sort of one-man Greek chorus throughout the film.

Captain Stone now orders Merriam to send a radio message to the corporate office advising them that Winslow has been washed overboard.

[5] RKO wanted to move quickly on a sequel to build on the success of Cat People, but producer Val Lewton wished to make the fantasy-comedy story "The Amorous Ghost" instead.

Cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, art directors Albert S. D'Agostino and Walter E. Keller, and composer Roy Webb all regularly worked with Lewton, and did so on The Ghost Ship as well.

[6] Future film noir star Lawrence Tierney, whom Lewton had seen modeling clothing in a Sears, Roebuck catalog, made his motion picture debut in the movie.

[6] Sir Lancelot, a well-known calypso singer, who later influenced the career of Harry Belafonte,[21] had already appeared in singing roles in three prior films (including I Walked with a Zombie).

[15] Dr. Jared Criswell, former pastor of the Fifth Avenue Spiritualist Church of New York City, served as a technical consultant on the film regarding psychic phenomena.

[27] RKO paid the authors $25,000 in damages and attorney fees of $5,000, and lost all future booking residuals and the right to sell the film for airing on television.

[11] Elliot Lavine, a film historian, says that losing the lawsuit deeply disturbed Lewton, leaving him depressed for a significant period of time.

[28][36] Other critics have pointed out that Stone and Merriam seem to have a father-son relationship, but that the perverseness of the script is that the father-figure becomes so enraged at his "son's" failings that he seeks to murder him.

Actor Richard Dix is almost uniformly praised for bringing a depth of character, moodiness, and pathos to the role of Captain Stone.

Robson creates a dynamic sense of menace from a physical object: a massive giant hook hanging from upon an enormous chain, pendulumlike, inches above the deck.

The vagueness leaves the audience unsure whether to believe Merriam's accusations against the Captain, and builds an atmosphere of paranoia and doubt which is critical to the picture's success.

[42] Contemporary critic Gary Giddins has pointed out that the film incorporates classic Lewton scare tactics but in new ways.

"His trademark scare tactic, a high point in practically all of his films, is a long, dark, nightmarish walk, where every sound is magnified and every object threatening.

In The Ghost Ship, that "walk" is transferred to the cabin of the victimized third officer ..."[36] Others have pointed out another Lewton device, the gradual stalking of a main character by a murderer, as another deft touch in the film.

[28] Modern critics have also pointed out that the film, unlike so many motion pictures of the 1940s, has an almost exclusively male cast and avoids the trope of a man "redeemed by the love of a good woman.

"[43] The picture is "entirely concerned with male conflict", one critic noted, and at the end of the film a woman appears only in shadow and fog "as the possibility of salvation" rather than bringing emotional closure.

[46] When The Ghost Ship was shown on French cable television in the late 1990s, it was introduced as a prime example of Val Lewton's genius at presenting "unseen horror."