''Ghost of the China Sea'' is a 1958 American

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

co-written by

Charles B. Griffith Charles Byron Griffith (September 23, 1930 – September 28, 2007) was an American screenwriter, actor and film director, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of ''Myrt and Marge'', along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known ...

set during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was the last movie directed by Fred F. Sears.

Plot

During World War II, Japanese troops over-run a sugar cane plantation in the Philippines. Some survivors take over a small boat called the USS Frankenstein and attempt to sail to safety.

Cast

David Brian Brian James Davis (August 5, 1914 – July 15, 1993), better known as David Brian, was an American actor. He is best known for his role in ''Intruder in the Dust'' (1949), for which he received critical acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination. ...

as Martin French * Lynn Bernay as Justine Woolf *

Jonathan Haze Jonathan Haze (born Jack Schachter; April 1, 1929) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic, ''The Little Shop of Horrors'', in which he p ...

as Larry Peters *Norman Wright as Darby Edwards *Harry Chang as Hito Matsumo *Gene Bergman as Sabatio Trinidad *Kam Fong Chun as Pvt. Hakashima * Mel Prestidge as Gaetano Gato *Jamie Del Rosario *Dan Taba as Capt. Zaikaku *Bud Pente as Col. McCutcheon

Production

Following his success with Corman,

signed Griffith to a contract as producer and director. The film was the first of what was meant to be five movies made by Griffith for Columbia Pictures, but he ended up only making two - this and ''

Forbidden Island ''Forbidden Island'' is a 1959 American adventure crime film directed by Charles B. Griffith starring Jon Hall. It was his debut as director, although he had directed second unit on ''Attack of the Crab Monsters''. A young Don Preston from the ...

''.Dennis Fischer, 'Charles B. Griffith: Not of this Earth', McGilligan, Patrick. Ed ''Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 60s'' Berkeley: University of California Press, c1997 1997
retrieved 22 June 2012 Both were shot on location in Hawaii. Jonathan Haze later recalled:

Chuck had a friend who was a lawyer, Art Sherman, who had met Gordon Stolberg, then vice-president of Columbia Pictures. Art sold Stolberg on the idea that Chuck was the talent behind Roger Corman. At that point, Columbia was making a lot of
Sam Katzman Sam Katzman (July 7, 1901 – August 4, 1973) was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers. Ea ...
movies and Art sold Columbia on the idea that Chuck could do better than Katzman, and cheaper. So, they gave him a two-picture deal.Had he come through and he had really done what he said he was going to do. Chuck would have had it really made. Both pictures ran over-budget and were not that hot. His casting was bad.

According to Charles Griffith, "They told me to make a list of 100 titles to see if I could do it. Once I did that, they picked out two that would send me on a distant location in Hawaii because they knew I couldn't make a picture out of the promised budgets: $85,000/black and white and $90,000/color."Aaron W. Graham, 'Little Shop of Genres: An interview with Charles B. Griffith', ''Senses of Cinema'', 15 April, 2005
accessed 25 June 2012 The two films were meant to cost $150,000. ''Forbidden Island'' was meant to be filmed in ten days, starting 4 November 1957, but Griffith went over schedule. According to ''Variety'' "Columbia noted that Griffith seemed to be having continuing production difficulties" and sent out one of its contract directors, Fred Sears, to direct the second movie, ''Ghost of the China Sea''.

References

External links

*
''Ghost of the China Sea''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

''Ghost of the China Sea''
at

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Review of film
at Variety {{Charles B. Griffith 1950s English-language films Films set in the Philippines Films with screenplays by Charles B. Griffith Columbia Pictures films 1950s war films American war films Films directed by Fred F. Sears 1950s American films