The Phantom Light

This atmospheric comedy-thriller set in a remote and apparently haunted lighthouse on the Welsh coast is perfect entertainment for those cold and rainy nights in!

An early effort (1935 to be precise) from director Michael Powell, this spooky tale of wreckers who pose as ‘ghosts’ combines laughs, thrills and chills – not to mention some fab photography, courtesy of Roy Kellino.
The opening credits see a terrified man crawling up the steps into the abandoned North Stack Lighthouse. Cut to a scenic railway route, and a steam train rolls into the station of Tan-y-bwlch, a remote and peculiar little village along the Welsh coast. Enter Sam Higgins (Gordon Harker), who has just arrived to take over the job of lighthouse keeper after several of his predecessors have either mysteriously vanished or gone hopelessly mad. At the train station he asks an old woman (Louie Emery) some directions, however, not only is she dressed in garb that suggests either local weirdo, fortune teller, or witchy witch… but she jabbers away in Welsh and thus Higgins is left none the wiser.
The scene cleverly establishes the three main components of the film we are about to see: comedy, thriller, and possibly a tale of the supernatural. As he walks on, Higgins makes the acquaintance of another female in the shape of attractive and bubbly blonde Alice Bright (Binnie Hale) who claims she is a member of some Historical Society interested in writing about the goings-on at the lighthouse. Higgins makes it clear that it is against regulations to take anyone along to the island who is not directly involved with the upkeep of the tower. In to time she’s managed to bamboozle dashing but wooden Jim Pearce (Ian Hunter), who also has business to do at North Stack, to take her along – much to the chagrin of Higgins. Over the course of the film, Alice claims to be a number of things – from investigating journalist to fugitive on the run to female detective! This turns out to be an on-going joke as we never actually find out who or what she really is.

Soon it becomes clear that all is not as it should be in the lighthouse, and even the seemingly down-to-earth Higgins has to admit that spooks might be at work when current outpost crew member Tom Evan (Reggie Tate) seems to have lost his marbles. Indeed, lights flicker and come and go, as do strange noises and threatening silhouettes. As the wind and rain increase, everyone’s fragile nerves are about to snap – but our brave investigating trio soon have suspicions that the apparent ghosts are nothing more than unscrupulous wreckers in ‘business’ with some of the locals… and the next ship nearing the lighthouse comes dangerously close…
Based on the novel ‘The Haunted Light’ by Evadne Price, this is good old-fashioned fun to watch, though make sure you enjoy it with a glass of grog!

The DVD, part of the British Film Collection, offers an ‘Image Gallery’ as bonus.