The Thirteenth Guest

A Ginger Rogers movie from 1932 that played well into the 1940's on her name alone.

The story concerns the deaths thirteen years after a dinner party where the host died and the 13th guest never showed up. The mystery concerns attempts of persons to unlock the mystery of the will read at that fateful dinner party.

The movie is old time and not bad. The dialog is mostly well done and the acting and direction is more realistic then one would expect from an independent production. Interestingly two of the characters are all but named as gay lovers, something that I find incredible simply because I've never seen this listed in a gay friendly histories of Hollywood and Hollywood films.(Then Again I haven't really looked) I liked it I didn't love it. Its not a bad time passer but its not something you want to search out, but its not something to turn off if you see it late at night.

Frankly even though its an average thriller I have no doubt that it would have disappeared had Ginger not been it.

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.

This is one of Roger's & Talbot's earliest film and, by far the best of the "13th Guest" films" (several remakes were done).

At a dinner party many years ago, 13 people were invited, but only 12 showed up. The host died at the table, and the house was closed up for many, many years. Then, the bodies of the people who attended that dinner party started turning up in that abandoned house, sitting in the same chairs they occupied so long ago.

It turns out they are being murdered by a black-cloaked figure who just MIGHT have been one of dinner guests. He peers out thru a secret viewing hole, and cackles insanely after he murders someone.

A very, very eerie film!

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.

A millionaire Morgan invited 12 of his family members to his house for a dinner party (but only 11 showed up), but the host died in the middle of the event. Thirteen years later the house remains boarded up when Morgan's daughter Mary arrives, but is killed by a mysterious person walking in the house. Captain Ryan calls in investigator Phil Winston to help solve the case. Winston and Ryan suspect the family lawyer Barksdale, but later he is found murdered in the house. The two believe that one of the people invited to the party is the killer and question all the family members, but later Mary Morgan reappears and Winston finds out someone hired a woman to impersonate her in order to get her inheritance. Winston has to make sure all of the family members are watched, in order to make sure the real Mary Morgan doesn't become a victim. I was slightly disappointed by the movie considering it struggled to flow smoothly in terms of direction and script. Talbot was playing the role as if to get some scout from MGM to notice him. The rest of the cast (including Rogers) played their roles to the typical Old Dark House mystery movie stereotype. The film seemed to appear to be the first of a series with Talbot's character. It should have been better. Rating, 5.