Paranoia and murder on a merchant marine ship. A young sailor (Russell Wade) takes a position on a boat only to gradually figure out that the captain (Richard Dix) is insane. This gets to a slow start, but becomes a real nail-biter in the second half. Also look for great B-movie stalwarts Lawrence Tierney and Skelton Knaggs in small, but pivotal, roles.
The relative obscurity of this one, compared to the other Val Lewton-produced films from the same period such as Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie, is because writers Samuel R. Golding and Norbert Faulkner sued RKO shortly after its release, claiming that The Ghost Ship screenplay was plagiarized from one of their unproduced works. RKO lost the suit and relinquished all rights to the film. It fell out of circulation until fifty years later when it reached public domain status.