“But he is right light keeper. It was the light that drown them all. Everybody knows it is a haunted light.”
Sam Higgins (Gordon Harker) is the new chief lighthouse keeper for the North Stack lighthouse near the little village of Tan-Y-Bwlch in Wales. At the station is Alice Bright (Binnie Hale). Alice is trying to find a way to get to the village but the station mistress only speaks Welsh. Sam finds a porter that will get a car to take him and Alice to the village. Sam tells the porter that he is the new lighthouse keeper. The porter tells Sam that the lighthouse is said to be haunted and that the last keeper either killed himself or was killed by the ghosts.
Alice asks Higgins to take her with him to the lighthouse. She gives him a line about belonging to a psychic society. She says she’s heard about a notorious phantom lighthouse and she wants to investigate the phenomenon for her society. Higgins turns her down. The car drops Alice at the local pub where she can get a room for the night. Higgins heads down to the harbor master’s office to get a boat out to the lighthouse.
At the harbor master’s office is Jim Pearce (Ian Hunter). He wants to go out to the lighthouse as well but the harbor master, David Owen (Donald Calthrop), tells him it is against regulations. They assume he is a reporter looking for a story on the former light keeper. Before the others head out to the lighthouse they wait for Dr. Carey (Milton Rosmer) and Sergeant Jones (Edgar K. Bruce). The sergeant needs to finish his report on the previous keeper that disappeared. Higgins learns that the keeper before the last one also disappeared. The doctor is going to treat Tom Evans (Reginald Tate). It seems Evans went mad seeing what happened to the previous light keeper. He also learns that there was a shipwreck the year before. The lighthouse light went out and a phantom light shone on the cliffs. The ship crashed on the rocks. Everything is attributed to ghosts.
Jim and Alice are determined to get to the lighthouse. Jim takes a boat out and pretends to be out of gas not realizing that he has a stowaway in the form of Alice. Also tending the lighthouse are Claff Owen (Herbert Lomas) and Bob Peters (Mickey Brantford). What Higgins doesn’t know is that there is more going on at the lighthouse than just ghosts. There is something sinister going on and Higgins doesn’t know who is friend and who is foe.
“The Phantom Light” was released in 1935 and was directed by Michael Powell. It is a rather obscure mystery thriller with comedy undertones. Produced by Gainsborough Pictures it is a British quota quickie.
There is something about dry British humor that is engaging and quite droll. There is actually a lot of humor here but it is subtle. The story itself is different than most mysteries. Instead of an old dark house you have a lighthouse. The atmosphere of isolation with giant waves crashing on the rocks and gulls screeching in the dark is quite off-putting. I liked the movie a lot. The characters were unique and the acting good. Binnie’s gotten a lot of flak for her performance being over the top but she fit in as a nice change from all the crusty locals.
The opening scenes of the film are location shots of the Festiniog Railway in Wales. The highlight is the Garnedd Tunnel, about a half a mile east of Tan-y-Bwlch station. Tan-y-Bwlch means under the pass in Welsh. The tunnel was constructed in 1851 and is about 180 feet long. The lighthouse in the movie is called North Stack Lighthouse. North Stack is an island off the coast of Anglesey which is off the coast of Wales. Technically there is no North Stack lighthouse but there is a lighthouse called South Stack. It looks as if a lot of the film was made in Wales using a lot of local settings. It made the film a lot more appealing. If you’re a railway fan or a lighthouse fan you may find it interesting.