The Ship That Died (1938) User Reviews

So what happened to the Mary Celeste?

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 24 November 2018]

One of the great mysteries of the sea is given documentary treatment in this short subject. The Mary Celeste, a cargo ship bound for the South Seas sets sail from New York in 1872. The ship with cargo intact in the holds and no signs of any kind of struggle at all, the food still in the galley and warm. Just no people on it.

Somebody made a nice salvage haul of it. Bur speculation abounds to this day.

I even saw an early Dr. Who episode that said it was the Daleks who were responsible. Wait a minute, that was the Hesperus. That's how far afield the speculation goes to this day.

See the film and see if you can come up with an explanation.

Rather Pompous Speculation

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 27 November 2018]

This short film by Jacques Tourneur tells the story of the Mary Celeste, the famous ghost ship. It tell of her voyage, leading up to the disappearance of all on board and speculation of what happened. It is a mere presentation of the usual thoughts as to what happened. It lacks a whole lot of new material. Still, it was interesting to watch.

The Mary Celeste

[boblipton · 5/10 · 11 September 2019]

It's been almost a century and a half since the Mary Celeste was found floating, deserted but in good operating order, by the Canadian ship the Del Gratia. No one is sure what happened to her, although that has not stopped endless pontificating on what must have happened. Given that it's not known what the passenger list was -- there may have been a child on board; maybe not, and everyone is long dead, who can say?

John Nesbitt sounds hysterical in this episode of his long-running MGM series, THE PASSING PARADE. Given the subject and its mystery, that's not terribly surprising. Given that he usually wrote his own copy for the series -- or at least took credit for it -- he probably misjudged.

Companion piece to The Phantom Ship

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

Ship That Died, The (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Interesting and mildly amusing short film from director Jacques Tourneur about the mystery surrounding the Mary Celeste, which was a ship found in 1872 without a trace of its crew. Hammer's film The Phantom Ship did a better job at showing one possibility of what might have happened but this film is pretty good. It shows two different things that might have happened to the crew but the too cheerful narration doesn't help the subject matter.

This one here shows up on Turner Classic Movies a couple times each year so keep your eyes open.

What happened on board of the Mary Celeste?

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 5 December 2018]

MGM's "The Ship That Died" is an American 10-minute short film from 1938, with sound of course, but still in black-and-white. Director Jacques Tourneur is mostly forgotten now, but probably not as much as writer George Sayer for whom it is the only career effort as a screenplay creator I think. John Nesbitt is perhaps a name some might have heard. So yeah, as for this one here, we got the story of an abandoned ship and the mystery what happened to its crew when the ship is found by another ship. In the second half we get 3 theories presented to us and you as an audience member can decide which one seems most plausible to you, if any of these three at all. I personally kinda liked the film. The torn book sheet was a highlight and I also liked the final idea of the guy presented as a bit of a fool about a mysterious ghost ship scaring the away the Mary Celeste crew. Nice inclusion of creepy horror moments in my opinion. Yes admittedly, the film is not a revelation visually, but lets not forget it was the 1930s, briefly before World War II, and yu reallly should not expect a visual quality like from those works back then that can be seen today as part of the Golden Age of Animation. Live action was far behind back then. Still, all in all, the positive here is more frequent than the negative and I believe you should check this film out. Go see it if you get the chance.

unsatisfying real-life mystery

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 29 October 2022]

This is MGM presents An Historical Mystery from John Nesbitt. The Mary Celeste sails off in 1872 from the port of old New York City. Whether it's the superstition of a woman on board or something more sinister, the ship is found fourteen days later without a soul in sight. The crew has simply vanished.

This short is ten minutes long. It asks a few questions, but it has no good answers. It's a real-life mystery without an easy fictional solution. It's unsatisfying. My theory is space aliens. That's where this should have gone. Space aliens teleported the crew onto their spaceship. Where? I know.

This examination of a famous maritime mystery . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 29 November 2018]

. . . was released in 1938, well before Space Aliens were discovered in Roswell, NM. Any thinking person alive Today will be able to conclude that this so-called "puzzle" as to what happened to the handful of crew and passengers about the Marie Celeste in 1872 is a clear-cut case of Group Alien Abduction well before THE SHIP THAT DIED reenacts the three lame theories put forth by a contemporary "inquiry board." One of the main motivations to give modern cruise ships the capacity to carry about 10,000 passengers and crew combined is to make it impractical for the Little Green and Gray Men to ferry up every human soul from a vessel for their diabolical vivisection experiments in the Future. Just as modern airliners were made hijacker-proof in the wake of that Ground Zero Incident, 21st Century folks expect that the Cruise Industry will build in safeguards against the "Beam up everyone!" sort of shenanigan that doomed all aboard the Marie Celeste (aka, THE SHIP THAT DIED). Some nuts yearn for "the good old days" of tiny specks tackling the vast blue seas, such as the Marie Celeste or the Titanic. However, most of us will choose to go by the Big Rigs of the Oceans every time that we sail!