One of the lesser known Val Lewton films, partly because it was out of circulation for so long because of a plagiarism dispute. A third officer joins a ship captained by Richard Dix, who is soft spoken and seems kind (he stops the officer from killing a moth) and to have a crush on the officer. But it soon becomes apparent the captain is a bit of a nutter – to a homicidal degree.
This features several of the Lewton staples – lots of wind blowing on the soundtrack, literary allusions, one of the characters quotes Latin, Sir Lancelot plays a crew member and sings a song.
But it’s not very interesting. All the soft speaking gets irritating after a while; it’s also annoying how none of the other crew think Dix is weird. Dix’s character isn’t particularly interesting (he’s no Captain Queeg) and neither is the theme of “we must look out for each other” or whatever it is – something to do with no one believing the officer.
There is however an exciting fight at the end between Dix and a mute character.
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