The Mystery of the Marie Celeste

The famous abandoned ship is given a plethora of plausibilities (captain’s wife on board, black cat, shanghaied mutineers, psychopath, etc.) which are winnowed down until the ultimate result is found in a climax which strikingly prefigures The Ladykillers. One sequence responds to The Battleship Potemkin, there are a good deal of actual shipboard shots, and the last of the crew is seen in a long take of an empty gangway followed by a cut to a splash on the ocean.