The Thirteenth Guest

Years ago there was a dinner at an old dark house with thirteen guests invited. Only twelve showed up. Flash forward to the future and murders are being committed at that same house with the original twelve guests. Something about an inheritance. Honestly it's a confusing old creaker. It's never as much fun as you would hope from this type of movie. Notable for being an early Ginger Rogers film and for being based on the only other novel by the guy who wrote Scarface. It's watchable enough I suppose but very dry and a bit of a chore at times. Avid fans of the period and genre will likely enjoy it more.

Monogram Pictures was a very low-budget studio that specialized in cheap and exciting films. They were NOT a studio to make operettas or Shakespeare--that's for sure. Some of there films hold up well after all of these years--many of them don't. I have not yet seen a Monogram film I would consider great but they were often quite fun. Fun, cheap and entertaining is how I would describe "The Thirteenth Guest". While the film has many plot holes and problems, the overall film is pretty good for a B-movie. The film is one of those ridiculously impossible and complex murder films that is fun to watch but dumb when you actually think about it. Only in this sort of film or a Charlie Chan film (many of which were also made by Monogram) film would do.

The film begins with a lady being horribly electrocuted by some maniac--though who did it is uncertain. Oddly, instead of the police heading the investigation, they ask a private detective (Lyle Talbot) to run things--a plot element that makes not one bit of sense. Eventually, Talbot and the police learn that the murder (and subsequent murders) are probably related to a weird dinner that had happened many years earlier. The man who threw the dinner party was very rich and he died during the dinner! His will incredibly stated that the thirteenth guest to arrive would inherit his fortunate--but only twelve show. His wife was odd, as she left the house and the room where the rich guy died exactly as it was during the party--and the killer would then prop the bodies of each victim in their original seats from the party!! Weird stuff alright and the killer turns out to be the one who looked like a killer the first time I saw them! Make of that what you will.

A nice fast-paced plot with some cool murders cannot completely undo the ridiculousness of it all as well as some plot problems. Other than having a private citizen lead the investigation, there is a plastic surgery angle that makes no sense as well as some overly obnoxious suspects--too obnoxious to be real. Worth watching (especially since it's in the public domain) but not one to rush out to see--unless you are dying to see Ginger Rogers in one of her earliest roles (though, unfortunately, her acting and character are both a bit rough).

This poverty row thriller has a similar storyline to "The Cat and the Canary" - haunted house, frightened heiress, a disguised killer, secret passages etc. Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot, who plays Phil Winston were not a romantic couple in this film (although they did date briefly in real life) until the last five minutes - he being very keen on solving the murders.

The film starts imaginatively with a clutching hand pulling down each title card. Marie Morgan (or Lela) (Ginger Rogers) arrives at her old family home - one that hasn't been occupied for 13 years to find a telephone has been installed!!! After reading a cryptic message left by her father, she remembers back to a dinner party of 13 years before. The thirteenth guest did not arrive. When her father died he left the bulk of his estate to the 13th guest who never came forward. Thirteen years later the police are called to view a girls body, they believe has been electrocuted.

There is a "hooded terror" roaming and controlling the house through an "electrified" phone - when people answer it, a lever is pushed and the victim dies. It seems that the killer wanted the police to believe that Marie was the victim but it is really an unknown woman who has had a complete facial reconstruction to look like Marie. Then the family lawyer is found dead. Winston is convinced one of the original guests is the killer and invites them all to his apartment to show them that Marie is very much alive!!!

This is a pretty good film with lots of twists and turns. Being a pre- code some of the comments are surprising. Eddie Philips being referred to as Marie's brother's "boyfriend". When Paul Hurst as a bumbling detective looks down at his shoes, realises that they are on the wrong feet and then says "Well, you told me to tail her" everyone laughs!!

Recommended.

THE THIRTEENTH GUEST (Monogram, 1932), directed by Albert Ray, from the novel by Armitage Trail, is an acceptable 70 minute programmer murder mystery that stands very well on its own merits. Starring Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot, both of whom would be reunited once more under Ray's direction in A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT (Allied, 1933), another mystery thriller, THE THIRTEENTH GUEST ranks the better of the two, in spite of its current lack of television broadcasts in comparison to the frequent revivals of A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT during the early years of cable TV during most of the 1980s. As with A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT, THE THIRTEENTH GUEST includes no underscoring, with the exception of a Johannes Brahms composition, "Academic Festival Overture," heard during its opening screen credits.

The story begins with a young woman (Ginger Rogers) coming out of a taxi which stops in front of 122 Old Mill Road, and asking the driver to wait for her. She enters the house, which has stood vacant for thirteen years. Noticing the abandoned estate still has telephone service and electric lights, she finds and opens the envelope which reads, "To be handled to my daughter, Marie Morgan, on her 21st birthday." Envisioning the dinner party that was to have taken place 13 years ago, by which her father had died and the mysterious thirteenth guest had never arrived, the girl, after hearing a noise, suddenly screams. The cab driver leaves to notify the police. Called to the case are Captain Ryan (J. Farrell MacDonald, Hollywood's resident cop), and Gump (Paul Hurst), his stooge detective. Ryan summons Phil Winston (Lyle Talbot), a private investigator and womanizer whose catch phrase is "Ah, you go to the devil," (the frequent remark used by Talbot in A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT). Winston finds the girl in question, apparently Marie Morgan, whose cause of death was electrocution, although there are no wires found connected to the seat where she was sitting. While going through the usual channels of investigation, and finding out that Morgan Sr. had written a will leaving a fortune to the 13th guest, John Barksdale (Robert Klein), is also found dead through electrocution. More mystery follows when a hooded mystery man wearing a black cloak is seen (by the avid movie viewer) stalking about the mansion behind the walls pulling a switch that electrocutes any his victims as well as the arrival of Marie Morgan (Ginger Rogers), very much alive, leaving more questions to be answered as to who was that other girl who was killed earlier? Who is this person with the intentions of murdering the former thirteen dinner guests one by one? Is the killer one of the thirteen guests? And what does the slip of paper found reading 13-13-13 mean?

The supporting cast in this production includes: James Eagles as Bud Morgan, Marie's brother; Erville Alderson as Uncle John Adams; Frances Rich as Marjorie Thornton; Ethel Wales as Joan Thornton; William B. Davidson as Captain Browne; Eddie Phillips as Thor Jensen; and Phillips Smalley as Dick Thornton.

While THE THIRTEENTH GUEST is a low-budget production, it was obviously a profitable little item for Monogram because of several imitators in later years, along with the studio's very own 1943 remake, retitled THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRTEENTH GUEST, starring Helen Parrish, Dick Purcell and Tim Ryan in the Rogers, Talbot and MacDonald roles. It's been noted that Monogram frequently revived THE THIRTEENTH GUEST in theaters over the years due the strength of the popularity of its leading star, Ginger Rogers, who was by then just a featured performer. Concentrating more on its creepy atmosphere and unusual occurrences to keep the action going and audiences guessing, the movie does takes time for humor, intentional or otherwise, compliments of Paul Hurst as a comical stupid cop, who could be, at times, more annoying than amusing; as well as one scene which finds the wealthy members of the family being sent to jail and sharing the cell with an assortment of people beneath their class, in other words, low-lifes.

THE THIRTEENTH GUEST, an interesting curio for some and a yawner for others, once considered a "lost" film, was formerly available on video cassette through several distributors, including Matinée Classics and Video Dimensions. Video transfers from each are satisfactory, although picture restoration is evident. Be aware DVD prints from Alpha Video doesn't include original 1932 opening titles, actually a latter 1940s reissue print credited by Equity Studios instead of Monogram. (**1/2)

A young woman named Marie Morgan (Ginger Rogers) arrives at night at a presumably vacant old house, and is quickly murdered by person unknown. A private detective named Phil Winston (Lyle Talbot) proceeds to investigate, with the help of an annoyingly grumpy cop and his bumbling sidekick.

As the whodunit plot moves along, various characters reveal the backstory, involving a rich old man who invites thirteen guests to a dinner party at which time he will announce who inherits his estate; problem is the old man dies at the dinner without revealing his secret.

The main problem is a script that is so convoluted that it's almost impossible to figure out the puzzle's solution. Once known, the solution is not remotely believable, and there are significant plot holes. Still, there's enough suspense to keep the viewer watching despite a substandard script. Dialogue comes across as stiff and stilted at times but there are a few good lines.

Before the killer's identity is known, this person appears in a few scenes wearing bizarre garb that covers his/her body completely; the costume makes the person look a little like spider man. The film's prod design is cheap looking. Most of the action takes place indoors and mostly at night.

Casting is acceptable except for the presence of Lyle Talbot who just doesn't have the mystery persona of someone like Sidney Toler or Warner Oland. Indeed, if the film had been made as a Charlie Chan thriller, I think it would have been better.

For all its faults, "The Thirteenth Guest" is worth watching once, owing to adequate suspense in a spooky old house with hidden rooms and a masked killer. Overall, it's an average whodunit for the era in which it was made.