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A young woman's grandfather hosts a dinner party for thirteen guests, and he mysteriously dies. Thirteen years later, the woman believes that someone connected to the fatal party is trying to kill her.

I had never heard of this film before, and I doubt very many people have. Which is a shame. It has a good pace, a good story, and wraps up in around an hour. This is the kind of film anyone could enjoy.

In some ways, it has the feel of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", but it is its own story and should not be written off as a derivative narrative. Well, unless you consider it derivative of the previous incarnation, "The Thirteenth Guest" (1932). As I have not seen that version, I cannot comment.

A young girl arrives at her ancestral home and is promptly murdered-- -or is she? Twelve years earlier the murdered woman, as a little girl, had attended a birthday party for her dying grandfather. Thirteen partygoers were invited but only twelve attended. The thirteenth guest was death.

Now, in the present, the original twelve guests are members of the family fighting over the will and someone wants the money badly enough to kill for it. Detective Dick Purcell is called in to solve the crime, aided by comic sidekicks and the usual inept policemen who only seem to inhabit "B" mysteries. Directed by William "One Shot" Beaudine, this 60 minute quickie is a darn good version of the Armitage Trail mystery and manages to be a little better that its 1932 predecessor-----though for some reason the 1943 film is much more difficult to see.

Mystery of the 13th Guest, The (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent "B" movie about a family getting together for the eldest to announce that his will won't be read for another thirteen years after his granddaughter turns twenty-one. Thirteen years later the guests at that party start turning up dead so it's up to a private detective (Dick Purcell) and a Police Lt. (Tim Ryan) to figure out who's doing the killings. If you're looking for high art then you're not going to find it here but if you're looking for an hour to kill with some light entertainment then you might find this Monogram quickie entertaining. Old 'One Shot' Beaudine certainly doesn't do anything overly special with this murder-mystery but he at least keeps the pace up so that the brief 60-minutes go by quickly and without too much dead space. The screenplay itself certainly doesn't try to do anything ground breaking but it keeps the characters interesting and the murderer under wraps until the very end, which is pretty much all you can ask for out of a film like this. Purcell does a pretty good job with his role and makes the fast-talking wise guy fun to watch. His back-and-forth banter with Ryan is pretty entertaining and Helen Parrish makes for a good female lead. Frank Faylen plays the dimwitted cop and gets a few laughs. The rest of the cast are serviceable and give pretty much what you'd expect out of them. The mystery itself is a pretty good one as I found the murder weapon (an electrical wire attached to a phone) to be quite fun and all the horror trappings like the mysterious hidden doors and traps to help keep things moving. No one is ever going to mistake this film for a classic but if you're a fan of the genre then you'll know that there's much worse out there.

Mystery of the 13th Guest (1943)

I have to admit, I started this with too high expectations--it had great mood, great B-movie sets, and a plot that sounded great in an Agatha Christie way. But then the corny style of acting kicked in--it's a kind of pre-TV flippant entertainment, purposely aiming for a slight, silly humor at the expense of real drama. Too bad.

So I watched the rest with half an eye, which was enough. The plot is highly contrived and highly important--it's a whodunnit, for sure, with a series of growing clues and new characters. The detective is just too absurd to work--he doesn't even serve as a parody of the newly crystallizing Bogart kind of hardboiled detective. And there a too many scenes with a lot of people standing around a room (a living room or a detective's office), with not a lot of clear tension of development, just exaggerated chitchat.

So, why watch it at all? I'm not sure! But I did, from the side, and there are some great stereotypes (call them clichés) at work--dark shadows of men in fedoras, a haunted old house, a murder and the threat of more murder, even a terrific (haha) trap door. It verges on Three Stooges kind of humor now and then but lacks the true slapstick genius (at times) of those guys (who began in the 1930s and were really big by the 1943), but you can sense an echo of them (one of the detectives even makes little Curly and Moe noises). This version of the movies is actually a remake of a better if not brilliant 1932 film, starring a young Ginger Rogers (and available to see free and legal at this site: www.archive.org/details/The_Thirteenth_Guest).

If you are really feeling frivolous, this might be fun. But your are forewarned.

I've met several people who feel that this version is much better than the original (Ginger Rogers / Lyle Talbot) picture. I disagree.

All the "spookiness" from the original (including the black-robed 'phantom') is gone, and the film is "just another mystery".

But, to each his own!

Norm

This one starts out as a murder mystery, then turns into a cheap comedy. but people are still being murdered. and instead of taking it seriously, everyone cracks jokes. it feels as if the director had just worked with the three stooges. which he HAD! director Bill Beaudine was known for his comedies, but it just didn't work when the detectives and the police are trying to figure out who is knocking off members of a family. and how they are doing it. the usual secret passages and devices. and the explanation for the extra chair at a family dinner was so obscure, it's amazing that anyone figured out why it was there. it's kind of explained near the end.. it's related to where the bank box is....although a lot of the mystery is just verbally summed up by the cops. this one is just so so. not anyone's best work.

Monogram Pictures says it all; they have a habit of making B movies seem like a luxury.

Be sure to watch the 1932 version first then this may be a fun alternative. The fun comes in noticing the stilted sophomoric dialog. The cardboard acting. One line dialog that does not fit the story. See the holes in logic and the shocking acting.

The story may be a tad different in the remake. A man knows he is probably not going to live through the night. So, he gathers his ruthless scheming and downright nasty relatives for the last meal. The 13th chare is empty. The chair is alluded to but does not seem to make any real difference in this mystery.

His family is to meet back again in 13 years for the reading of his will by his granddaughter. It looks like she was dispatched before the meeting. It is up to private detective Johnny Smith (Dick Purcell) who was hired however earlier to protect the girl, to find out want went wrong. But hold the phone there is more.

I want to inject some personal information that I learned after my original 2002 review of same. I made contact with Johnny Duncan who starred as Harold Morgan in the movie. We connected thru his fan club and I conversed with him about the film and Helen Parrish, the star. We exchanged emails initially and then he gave me his phone number so we could talk in person. He was at that time the only living actor of the film. We reminisced about the actual making of the film and his interactions with William Beaudine and Helen Parrish. He confirmed Helen was as beautiful in person as she appeared on screen. The had lunch every day at the Monogram lunch room and he said they even ate with Bela Lugosi! He had on his makeup described as a greenish grease paint as he was also in a horror film at that time. He described Beaudine as man in motion, constantly making last minute changes to the scrip and never call "cut" unless the camera film broke! He remembered the movie took about 6 days to complete and then they had a party with all the actors and stage hands. I also told Duncan I had 16mm prints of 13th Guest, Batman and Robin serial and Delinquent Daughters, three of his best films in my opinion. He also invited me to come and see him in the Ozark's in Mo. He sent me an autographed picture of himself in costume as Robin in color. At that time he was still active and even as he said, mowing his lawn in his 80's. I never made it down there and found out he passed last year at 89. In my original review of 2002, I mentioned Dick Purcell, playing Johnny Smith was a reporter, He was actually a PI (private investigator). He died in 1944 (39 yrs old) after playing 18 holes on a Beverly Hills Golf Course. In closing for anyone interested in conversing further about The Mystery of the 13th Guest film or the actors especially Helen Parish or Johnny Duncan, feel free to contact me thru Facebook or the review.

The biggest mystery in The Mystery of the 13th Guest is how do you take an idea with promise and an interesting set-up and create an absolutely horrible movie? The makings of a fairly entertaining movie are there. An old man, about to kick the bucket, invites his mostly ungrateful family to dine with him so that he might go over the contents of his will. There are twelve people at the dinner, but thirteen chairs. Years later, just as his heir is set to inherit, one by one, the members of the dinner party are killed off and their bodies are placed in the same chair in which they sat thirteen years previous. Sounds pretty good, huh?

So, who's the 13th chair for? Well, that's one of the most frustrating aspects of the movie. The movie never bothers to solve the titular mystery of the 13th guest. They mention it at the dinner party, but as far as I know, we never discover the answer.

The second and even more frustrating thing with The Mystery of the 13th Guest is all of the lame comedy. Every single character is a would-be comedian. It's all so annoying. And to make matters even worse, none (and I mean absolutely none) of the comedy is the slightest bit funny. It all goes over like a lead balloon. The most egregious offender is a character named Speed Dugan played by Frank Faylen. Never in my life have I wanted a character to die as much as this one. He's painful to watch.

If you haven't gotten it yet, I don't care for this movie at all. I'm often accused by my family of liking any movie made before 1970. Well, from now on, I'm going to use The Mystery of the 13th Guest as an example of a "classic" film that I cannot stomach. It's just so God awful.

2/10.

Perhaps I am not as well-versed in movie history as others are. I don't know what a Monogram film is.

I like mysteries and it was recommended in Netflix. I was surprised to see it only lasted an hour. Of course, well before the hour was up I was grateful for that fact.

This is not a good movie. It's akin to a bad short story; you just have to finish even though you know it's not going to get any better.

The grandfather dies and the folks who were at dinner 13 years before begin dying off. Who is responsible? We eventually find out, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why that person is responsible.

The dialogue is insipid. The acting is not good. The lighting doesn't seem too good either. There's the hard-edge detective and the campy one-liners. It just didn't work.

Spare yourself; there are better movies out there. There's nothing about this that I find worth sitting through.

For Every Good Thing in this Remake from Director William "One Shot" Beaudine, there are Bad Things that Make it a Tough Watch. The Monogram Studio was Known for its Low Rent Productions and Often Hid that Shortcoming with Darkness. But Beaudine, Unfortunately, One of the Most Prolific Directors Ever, was No Val Lewton.

So the Mystery Element is Succinct with its Foreboding Look and Musty Surroundings but is Negated by the God-Awful Comedy Relief that is so Prevalent, this Must be Called a Mystery-Comedy. Even the Masked Killer, while Looking Ominous behind the Peep Hole, is "Overshadowed" by the Goofiness of the "Sleeping Detective".

Overall, if Lowbrid Compilations of Inept Slapstick and Silliness Mixes Well with Your Mystery Movie Input, then Have at it. But Most Viewers will Find this Dated and Dumb with Only a Smattering of Interest Interspersed Among the Shenanigans.

Note...To this Day no one has uncovered the "Thirteenth Guest", and the identity remains a "Mystery".

Grandfather Lloyd Ingraham invites his family for dinner, but this is one greedy family. Twelve show up with a place set for a 13th guest that never arrives. At that party Ingraham tells all of them what a greedy, grasping group they are and announces that his fortune is going to his granddaughter who is 8 at the time on her 21st birthday. He gives a letter to his lawyer to be opened on her 21st birthday.

With the arrival of the granddaughter 13 years later played by Helen Parrish bodies of the guests start dropping. One of them hires private detective Dick Purcell to find out about the deaths and the mysterious as yet unopened letter.

This is a remake of an early Monogram feature that had a slightly better cast to it with the heiress played by Ginger Rogers. I'll be checking that one out soon as it is available for viewing.

Hopefully it is not characterized by the sloppiness of Mystery Of The 13th Guest. Bad editing, bad writing, and perfunctory performances. A typical Monogram feature.

Like some of the other reviewers, I agree this was a bad, poorly made movie. The story line is good, but the comedic spots seem out of place in what appears to be a dramatic story. I would have liked to have seen a list of the full cast as I enjoy looking up what other films the actors have done. For instance, the child actor who portrayed young Bud also portrayed young George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life". Interestingly enough, the goofy cop in this movie played the taxi driver in "It's a Wonderful Life".

I found the portrayal of the valet in very poor taste and offensive. I know African American actors had little choice in their roles at the time, so I don't blame the actor, but the writer, director and producer. I'm looking forward to viewing the other movie version with Ginger Rogers. It can't be this bad. Oh my!

I'm a big fan of B detective movies with wise-cracking heroes, but few of them are as bad as this one. The acting is abysmal, the dialog is flat (with characters making embarrassingly inappropriate attempts at witticisms), the story has a vaguely interesting premise but it goes nowhere.

At least I think it goes nowhere. Honestly, about halfway through this hour-long movie my attention wandered and I went over to work on my computer while the movie kept running. I definitely missed some important plot points - for example, I have no idea who the 13th guest turned out to be, assuming that was ever explained. But giving this movie half my attention was still more attention than it deserved.

The Mystery of the 13th Guest is a not a typical example of the 40's Monogram pictures productions. This one outshines most of the typical "B" trappings they produced in the early 40's. 13th Guest made the most out of the typical wartime budget's and dimly lighted set versions that Monogram made famous. The female lead, Helen Parrish made it special because she was very uder-rated to say the least. She carries the film and adds some really good action to an otherwise typical haunted house movie. She reprises the Ginger Rogers role of 1932 and adds flare and style to the character. Dick Purcel is great as the wisecracking reporter. He died soon after the film was released and it was ashame as they really sparked together. I have not seen the film on tv since the late 40's and won't either. Most of the Monograms features were struck on celuloid so they aren't around anymore. My print is on Kodak safty film so it will never die!

I saw an earlier version of this with Ginger Rogers.

The Mystery of the 13th Guest concerns a family of people who don't particularly get along. One night, the patriarch of the family summons all of them - with a 13th chair empty - and tells them that he is leaving his will with his lawyer. However, it is only to be opened by his then 8-year-old granddaughter when she turns 21.

When she turns 21, the granddaughter (Helen Parrish) goes to the old family dwelling - which, despite being empty has a phone and lights. Before much can happen, she is found dead by electrocution, to be followed in death by someone else.

A detective (Dick Purcell) hired by an uncle in the family, as well as Lt. Burke (Tim Ryan) work to solve the murders, realizing that the family is being knocked off according to the original seating chart.

Frank Faylen plays policeman Speed Dugan, who generates much of the humor.

We never do find out anything about that 13th guest.

A Monogram film, need I say more.

I had high hopes for this one after reading only the little blurb that comes up with the olde timey movies on Tubi but ... whoa .. is it ever a stinker.

II's like an expanded three stooges short directed by Ed Wood but without the charm of his ineptitude. The characters are not introduced or developed ... any of them. The running jokes are not even vaguely amusing.

It's a mess. Give it a miss !

Remake of "The Thirteenth Guest" from 1932 about a girl due to inherit a fortune being in danger. From what I've read the general consensus seems to be the earlier film was the better one. I disagree. Neither film is anything to write home about but if forced to watch one again, I would choose this one. The reasons for that are as follows. First, it's less creaky than the original which seemed like it was filmed on the first day talking pictures were invented. Second, the pace is faster and the cast more lively. Third, it has some comedy. Nothing particularly hilarious but it helps break up the monotony. The other film just dragged. So, to sum it up, don't go out of your way to see either movie but if this one happens to come on TV and you can't find the remote, just relax and enjoy a pleasant time-killer.