Excellent but underrated film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The acting in this movie is really good.

Never theatrically released and never broadcast in the U.S.A. U.K. release through Gaumont British: February-March 1935. Australian release through Gaumont British: 26 June 1935. 75 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A new lighthouse keeper has to contend with wreckers, zombies, superstitious locals, a pushy girl and a mysterious yet overly persistent "reporter".COMMENT: Binnie Hale's performance may be a bit over the top so far as theatricality goes - as some critics have complained - but you must admit she's a most fetching heroine just the same. And she isn't in the movie all that much anyway. Gordon Harker has the star part, and a sterling job he makes of it, delivering his sharp Cockney lines with his usual witty relish and amusingly expletive exasperation. Yet he can be seriously practical when the going gets rough. It's a tailor-made role which will delight his fans. The fine support cast includes Herbert Lomas (a "must" for this sort of spooky affair), Donald Calthrop, Milton Rosmer, many others, and last and certainly least Ian Hunter - though even he is bearable.A lighthouse of course is an ideal setting for murder, mystery and mayhem. Director Powell not only makes the most of his setting, but he has done more. The background not only becomes an integral part of the action, not only an atmospheric adjunct, but a fascinating vista in itself. Powell's eye for the pictorial effectiveness of his real locations and the dramatic possibilities of real people employed as background extras, is constantly apparent. In fact it's not going too far to say that the movie is often semi-documentary in approach, effectively anticipating this 20th Century-Fox style of the middle and late 40s. Aided by superlative camerawork, The Phantom Light is a most entertaining comedy-chiller, limited only by a few obvious budgetary constraints during its action climax

Michael Powell made about 15 quota quickies in seven years during the Thirties. These quota quickies meant two things: First, a lot of second-rate British movies were made. Second, a lot of British filmmakers, like Michael Powell, learned their craft making these things. Poor Sam Higgins (Gordon Harker, a fine, funny character actor who specialized in blokes). He arrives in the tiny Welsh coastal village of Tan-y-bwlch to take charge of the North Stack lighthouse. He gets more than he wanted. Harker learns from the villagers that two previous light keepers disappeared and the man he's going to replace at the lighthouse is still out there, gone barmy. Sam also hears about the ships that have gone up on the rocks…when the light goes out…and a phantom light on the cliffs goes on. By the time Sam gets out to the lighthouse it's pitch black with heavy fog. The mad man he replaced has had to stay put because he's too sick to be moved. It's not long before there are more people in the lighthouse than Sam wants, and not all of them he knows about. The Phantom Light is funny, dark and dangerous, with a wonderful performance by Gordon Harker, all working class shrewdness and exasperation. The movie is stuffed full of the things Michael Powell loved in a movie…a wild countryside with beautifully photographed cliffs, rocky shores and heavy waves; the mysteries of mechanisms; extra time spent with quirkiness; lilting speech; and characters he makes amusing without looking down on them. If you admire Powell & Pressburger's mature films, you might enjoy having this example of Powell's earlier steps. Said Powell much later, "'I said 'yes' to this one right away, and never regretted it. I enjoyed every minute." I did, too.

Very funny British Gainsborough Picture from 1935 with plenty of No-code 'damn' 'ruddy' and 'cor-blimey' -ies along with Binnie Hale's long legs and keen 'how about it' frankness, THE PHANTOM LIGHT is a bookend GHOST TRAIN fog bound mystery set on the shrouded eerie Welsh coast. The photography and settings particularly in the quaint railway scenes in reel one and the village scenes near the end offer the viewer genuine storybook pleasure in that they look completely fake but are not at all. It just happens to naturally all look like some plaster model. Lead actor, music hall star Gordon Harker has some hilarious lines - particularly the closing one: "Lummy! what a night" which would have rocked any Odeon theatre with gales of laughter. Binnie Hale is the Brit Joan Blondell, all perky and silly and ready to cut up her trousers all ready to gad about the lighthouse stairways in hotpants and high heels. Local Welsh eccentricness is on full display with plenty of Popeye style gnarling and eyeball flexing. I thought it was hilarious as (later famous) Director Michael Powell was clearly getting his actors to have fun with their roles. The local policeman is exactly like Constable Plod from the Noddy kids books..all tubby and bug eyed. It is all silly and very funny. The Warner bros pic SHH! THE OCTOPUS of 1935 is a good counterpart from the USA.

There is certainly more humour than horror in this rather slow moving offering from Michael Powell. The acting is, in general, on the wooden side, although Gordon Harker as Sam Higgins does his best to lift the pace. The plot is predictable after the first 15 minutes, although there are enough twists to keep the interest. I was surprised at the number of people required to run a lighthouse only half a mile offshore, and the apparent number of hiding places on a bare rock, but this is just a detail. Overall, nothing special, but pleasant enough not to be considered a waste of time.