The Thirteenth Chair

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.

Remake of the play, and the 1929 film version. This one has some great hollywood names -- May Whitty, Lewis Stone, Madge Evans. When a murder is committed in India, Inspector Marney is brought over to find the murderer. Friend John Whales (Henry Daniell) has the idea of holding a seance to try to get clues on the case. while Daniell was in some HUGE films, he certainly played forget-able parts... Philadelphia Story, the Great Dictator. May Whitty is Madam LaGrange, who holds the seance; she does her best to tell the crowd her act is just for entertainment, but they want to do it just to see the reactions on the participants. the highlight here is the actual seance, where yet another person dies. possibly to keep him or her from speaking ? and who and what did Madam LaGrange already know ? Directed by George Seitz, who was very successful in the silents, and moved into the talkies. he died quite young, at 56, but cause of death not given anywhere that I have found. this one is pretty good!

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

During a séance to draw out a murderer, another murder is committed. Psychic medium Dame May Witty works to solve both murders, which becomes personal when one of the prime suspects is someone close to her. Pretty good B murder mystery from MGM with a great cast. Dame May Witty, Lewis Stone, Henry Daniell, Holmes Herbert, and Charles Trowbridge are all class acts. Madge Evans and Elissa Landi are lovely. A good way to spend an hour and change. Remake of a movie made twice before, most notably by Tod Browning in 1929 with Bela Lugosi and Conrad Nagel. White-haired Lewis Stone's mustache is so light you can barely make it out but kudos to him for trying. If you haven't seen it, try to avoid reading much about it as most plot descriptions (including the TCM info) give away a fairly big plot point.

"The Thirteenth Chair" (1937) is the third version of this story...a story that was originally a play back in the day. I haven't seen the 1919 version but the 1929 version was very stagy and dull. Is this third version finally one that I would enjoy?

When the story begins, a murder has already occurred. Someone has the bright idea of bringing in a psychic, Madame La Grange (May Witty), to investigate. She holds a seance....and during this seance, one of the members of this group of folks is stabbed to death. But who did these two murders? It's up to Inspector Marney (Lewis Stone) to sort it all out and apprehend the murderer or murderers.

Unlike the 1929 version, this one seemed less stagy and more interesting. A clear case where a remake was a good idea...which isn't too surprising considering that many films from 1929 were stagy and dull...mostly because the studios still were working to perfect sound pictures. Overall, an interesting and stylish little film...and I do wonder how it compares to the silent 1919 version.