The Thirteenth Chair

This has to be my favorite seance movie. Dame May Whitty is in her one and only main lead feature role here. She plays a medium of humble background who is sought by society people for her 'powers.' She enters a big grand house and has to endure all the skeptical jokes bandied upon her. However she is able to rebound jokes back at her well-heeled customers. Henry Daniell plays the man who believes in her powers. He has instigated the seance in order to find the name of a murderer. Rather than wondering about the whodunit aspect of the story, I found myself more concerned for the proven innocence of one of the suspects. It's revealed that the medium is more involved with one of the suspects than we know at the beginning. After the first seance produces another murder, a second seance is held. The medium finds true inspiration at last and fetches out the murderer at her second attempt.

Inspector Marney (Lewis Stone) investigates the murder of a man in Calcutta. When John Wales (Henry Daniell), a friend of the dead man, decides to hold a seance with the suspects, Marney finds himself with another murder on his hands.

Coming in at a brisk 66 minutes, The Thirteenth Chair is an entertaining mystery film. It shows its stage origins, mainly taking place on the same two or three sets, but the director keeps things moving at a good pace. May Whitty is the standout among the cast, but Lewis Stone is good as the police inspector. 3.5/5

The description of the plot given by TCM on its cable showing of this little MGM movie from 1937 made me want to watch it--something about a woman holding a seance to prove that her daughter is not the murderer and with a setting in Colonial India. Then I saw the cast names: DAME MAY Witty, LEWIS STONE, MADGE EVANS, RALPH FORBES, ROBERT COOTE...and immediately I decided to watch it.

Not disappointed. It's a tidy little mystery, nothing original or approaching the wit and wisdom of Agatha Christite's tales, but interesting nevertheless. Dame May Witty is the protective mother who helps inspector LEWIS STONE solve the case--and, happily for me, it turned out to be someone I suspected all along.

A crisp one hour and six minute programmer from MGM given all the polish one would expect from a major studio. The elaborate sets add the necessary atmosphere, except for the seance itself which is held in total darkness and is just a black blur on the screen during which a voice is heard. This is the only flaw in an otherwise smoothly made B-picture.

Silver-haired gentleman CHARLES TROWBRIDGE is seen in many movies from the '30s and '40s and does a smooth job as Dr. Mason.

Well worth watching.

Hard to believe that "The Thirteenth Chair" was made in 1937, as for some reason it feels like it was made much earlier. The film stars Dame May Witty, Lewis Stone, Ralph Forbes, Madge Evans, Elissa Landi, and Holmes Herbert.

The police, led by Lewis Stone, are investigating the murder of one Lionel Leigh; his best friend (Henry Daniell) suggests a séance, which will be led by Rosalie LaGrange (Dame May Witty). Unfortunately a death occurs.

This is a short programmer; not only is it a decent mystery, but it was fun to see some séance "tricks" revealed as well.

Good cast of old-timers.

Madame La Grange, psychic medium, admits that "Most of the time it's a fake" when she gives a reading. Tonight, however, she insists that she will play no tricks: she's at the English governor's residence in Calcutta, summoned to assist in investigating the murder of a most unpopular man.

Dame May Witty plays the medium with appropriate gravity and mystery. Madge Evans wears a worried look as the beautiful secretary who is in love with the governor's son. She also, we soon learn, is the mysterious medium's daughter.

Henry Daniell is moody and edgy as a friend of the murder victim. He wants answers from the police, who are represented by Lewis Stone, a Scotland Yard man who's been shipped in specially to look into the case.

A couple of spooky séance scenes succeed in sending some shivers down the spine. Particularly effective is a bit when the lights are off and the screen is totally black for a long moment: we hear voices, then Daniell asking "Who killed you?"—and then just perfect silence and darkness for what seems an exceptionally long stretch. (When they do finally turn on the lights, there's another dead body.)

It's a solid if not brilliant plot; it builds nicely to an exciting climax and a surprising solution.

Witty has the most colorful role and is clearly the featured performer here; she is quite good. Lewis Stone's role, I have to say, I found annoying – he is one sententious police detective but not exactly the smartest. (Judge Hardy would never have come so close to totally blowing a case.)

This one won't cause any nightmares but it is atmospheric, fast-moving, and plenty entertaining.