The Thirteenth Guest

The owner of an Estate invited thirteen guests to dinner to reveal the inheritors of his will. The thirteenth guest never arrived and the host passed away without revealing their identity. The house has been boarded up for years exactly as it was that night when Miss Morgan on the eve of her 21st birthday is invited to the house.

This is such a fun little mystery with Ginger Rogers starring as Miss Morgan and Lyle Talbot as the private investigator and playboy Phil Winston. There are sliding panels and a cackling hooded figure who is luring and then electrocuting individuals amongst the original twelve guests using a metal phone.

Based on the novel by Armitage Trail (of Scarface fame), this is well worth the watch by classic film fans and mystery fans as it keeps your guessing as to the identity of the hooded figure.

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.

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.

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.

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.