Cheap, badly written and not very well directed, Dangerous Voyage (aka Terror Ship) is the classic British B movie, directed by Vernon Sewell, a journeyman who knocked out a lot of films like this. The actors gabble, the plot isn’t particularly convincing and psychologically it never quite adds up.
But, if nothing else, Sewell has an eye for a lovely image, and there are plenty of those in a plot that starts on the British South Coast before venturing into the English Channel and then on to France, from where Sewell sends us one picture postcard after another: of Trouville, of Deauville, of Paris, of Honfleur and from many a charming spot along France’s north coast.
There’s also the almost-obligatory American actor no one has ever heard of, in the shape of William Lundigan, who plays a mystery writer on vacation in England. Peter Duncan is looking for a plot for his latest book and think he’s come across one when he hears about a boat in distress recently towed into harbour at Shoreham-by-Sea. Two men were on board when the boat was first found adrift, but by the time it had been tied up both had disappeared, according to the brother and sister who towed the boat in, at any rate.
Initially mistrustful of the American, John (Vincent Ball) and Joan (Naomi Chance) are won over after Peter waves a few dollar bills under their noses and soon they’ve joined him in an investigation. Where did the boat come from and where have the crew gone? And what, Joan and John wonder, is Peter’s interest in this all about?
This is where the film, such as it is, takes wing, in largely static but nicely composed snapshots from France, as Peter, Joan and John go from place to place trying to get their questions answered. Joan has been leaning towards Peter since the first moment she clapped eyes on him, so it’s no surprise that a little romance gets going between them, something that helps spice things up a bit.
Sewell directs as if this were still the age of the Lumiere brother when audiences could still be wowed with a static image. He struggles to generate visual drama and wastes his scant running time in overlong scenes in which not much happens at all.
Some of the shortcomings are budgetary. People literally bump into the furniture in this movie and there is obviously not enough money or time to reshoot. Others are baked into the script, like the way towards the end the gears suddenly shift and we’re in the middle of a sci-fi story about deadly gamma rays and a radioactive ship’s mast.
Comedy French coppers are included to give the homegrown audience something to feel superior about, and they’re necessary because, on this showing, France looks very nice indeed – sunny and picturesque and a lot prettier than the fairly drab UK.
Allan Gray, who did a lot of composing for Powell & Pressburger, delivers a strident score insisting everything is much more dramatic than it really is. Cinematographer Josef Ambor also comes out of it well, with some nicely stark imagery injecting what little drama there is to the visuals.
This is one of those films where all the Brits are plummy voices. Lundigan, meanwhle, tries to compensate for his bland mid-century-American face by smoking in the Humphrey Bogart, tough-guy style. It’s touching but it doesn’t really work.
Listen out for the moment when it’s explained what the difference is between a ketch and sloop. It will turn out to be incredibly salient, if you’re following the mystery, though on the whole this is more about admiring the nice views rather than being caught up in the plot.
Sewell loved the sea and had a steam yacht. It featured in Ghost Ship, the more-successful precursor to Dangerous Voyage but it doesn’t turn up here. Maybe it would have been better if it had.
Dangerous Voyage aka Terror Ship – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
