The Ninth Guest

This movie just became available on YouTube. This is an adaptation of the book The Invisible Guest, and follows a similar plot to Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, while predating it by almost ten years. The plot is simple - people have been invited to a party by an unknown host, and are being killed off for their 'crimes.' In an interesting twist on the genre, this story is set in a modern penthouse apartment rather than a dark old house. And while the 'second butler' is introduced for laughs, he is on the screen for a mercifully short time.

Don't expect a lot here - I gave it a '6', thinking it's just above neutral. I did watch it to the end, but I wasn't always engaged, and the clunky romance element didn't help it much. Also in its favor, in a negative sense, there was no bumbling police to spoil what there is of drama. Worth a watch for those who like the genre, but not something you'll watch a second time.

The best thing about this movie is its basic premise - eight people are invited by an unknown person to attend a party in an Art Deco designed penthouse. Once there, through a radio, they are informed by the "ninth guest" that it is impossible for them to leave because all the exits have been electrified and the phones disabled. The radio voice then informs them that each one of the guests will die. And one by one, the guests do start to die. It is fascinating how reminiscent this plot is of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None,' her most famous book published five years after this movie. Of course, her book and the films later based on it are far superior to this movie. The two leads, Donald Cook and Genvieve Tobin really aren't given much to do and their characters are pretty bland. Even so, the 'Ninth Guest' is intriguing and sufficiently entertaining to be worth a watch.

A group of folks arrive at a mansion for a party. Each has received an unsigned invitation and are expecting an exciting night...and boy are they in for a surprise! It turns out some maniac has worked incredibly hard to create the setting and plans on killing off the guests...one by one. The guy communicates to everyone using a record player and no one is sure who the unknown host is...or if, perhaps, he's among the guests. Regardless, folks begin dying in the most diabolical manner...including poisonings and electrocutions! All, according to the machine, because these people are evil and deserve to be punished!

While the cast are mostly unknown actors and it's a B-movie from Columbia, don't think that it's just another schlocky B-film. No, instead it's very intelligently written and exciting...more so than many of the A-pictures. Well worth your time and amazingly good.

I'm not sure how or why I haven't seen this one before. The 9th Guest is an incredibly enjoyable discovery on my part. As any number of comments online will point out, the movie plays out much like Agatha Christie's better known And Then There Were None. Though The 9th Guest isn't a comedy, I'd be shocked to discover that this film wasn't at least a partial inspiration behind the wickedly funny Murder by Death and/or Clue.

In the film, eight guests have been invited to a mysterious party where they are promised a memorable evening. Each guest has a closet full of skeletons and most are quite vocal in their feelings toward the other members of the party. We later learn that the titular 9th guest is "Death". The party's host makes his presence known via a radio in the main room. He promises that throughout the night, one-by-one, each member of the party will be killed. With no means of escape, who will survive the night?

The acting in The 9th Guest is first rate. I'm not sure I was overly familiar with most of the cast, but all are outstanding. The writing is also worth noting. The dialogue is especially sharp. But I think the biggest kudos for the success of The 9th Guest have to go to director Roy William Neill (oddly credited as R. William Neill). It takes a masterful hand to wring this much atmosphere out of a film. Add to that the fact Neill does this without the usual gothic trappings I generally consider necessary to an atmospheric film. Instead of an old, dark Victorian mansion or some ancient, crumbling gothic abbey, The 9th Guest features a thoroughly modern (for its time) art deco penthouse setting I wouldn't normally associate with a film like this. The movie is only let down by how ridiculous some of the characters act when faced with death. Had they just kept a level head, more might have survived. But how fun would that have been?

8/10

This is a very tough-to-find classic studio horror film from the golden age of horror films. Above all, it deserves to be seen by more fans of the films of that era. While it is very obvious from the beginning as to who the killer is (fans of this type of film will know based on formula), the film is consistently entertaining and very well-directed. Unlike many slow and stagy productions from the early 30s, this one is very fluid and Roy William Neill, who would later direct many of the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, has an excellent grasp on how to effectively move his camera. It is refreshingly unpretentious and almost sickly stylish at times and not stagy as a Monogram and Mascot feature almost inherently at some level must be. It is Grand Guignol fun with a stylish Art-Deco apartment where eight guests are trapped by the titular "ninth guest", a voice from the radio that commands their ill-fated party. It is reminiscent of Ulmer's 'The Black Cat' from the same year, in how it uses a modern design to decorate its' house of horror. The cast is very good and includes Donald Cook, who next year made a fine Ellery Queen and Edwin Maxwell and Samuel S. Hinds lend their usual solid performances for this type of film. It was made by Colombia Pictures.