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.

The Thirteenth Chair (1937)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Remake of the 1929 Tod Browning film (which itself was a remake of a 1920 film) about a medium (Dame May Witty) who is brought into try and solve the murder of a man but during the séance another man ends up murdered. Now the detective (Lewis Stone) must try and figure out which person done it. This version of THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR is actually better than the previous one thanks in large part to some nice performances, good direction by George B. Seitz and a good story. If you've seen the 1929 version then you're going to notice that there haven't been too many changes here story-wise but what really makes this one work better is that Seitz does a much better job in the director's chair. Whereas that 1929 version was incredibly flat, this one here actually moves at a very nice pace and there are some effective moments throughout. The séance scenes are also extremely well-done and especially the one where the medium works alone. The opening title card gives Witty a huge credit and she is quite good here. She'll always be best remembered for her role in Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES but she's very believable here. The supporting cast is equally good with Stone turning in a fun performance as the detective and we've also got Henry Daniell playing one of the members of the party. Madge Evans, Elissa Landi and Thomas Beck are also good. The story itself has a few questionable moments but it's still effective enough for this type of "B" movie. Fans of this type of murder-mystery should really enjoy this one.

The description of the plot given by TCM on its cable showing of this little MGM movie from 1937 made me want to watch it--something about a woman holding a seance to prove that her daughter is not the murderer and with a setting in Colonial India. Then I saw the cast names: DAME MAY Witty, LEWIS STONE, MADGE EVANS, RALPH FORBES, ROBERT COOTE...and immediately I decided to watch it.

Not disappointed. It's a tidy little mystery, nothing original or approaching the wit and wisdom of Agatha Christite's tales, but interesting nevertheless. Dame May Witty is the protective mother who helps inspector LEWIS STONE solve the case--and, happily for me, it turned out to be someone I suspected all along.

A crisp one hour and six minute programmer from MGM given all the polish one would expect from a major studio. The elaborate sets add the necessary atmosphere, except for the seance itself which is held in total darkness and is just a black blur on the screen during which a voice is heard. This is the only flaw in an otherwise smoothly made B-picture.

Silver-haired gentleman CHARLES TROWBRIDGE is seen in many movies from the '30s and '40s and does a smooth job as Dr. Mason.

Well worth watching.

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!

This has to be my favorite seance movie. Dame May Whitty is in her one and only main lead feature role here. She plays a medium of humble background who is sought by society people for her 'powers.' She enters a big grand house and has to endure all the skeptical jokes bandied upon her. However she is able to rebound jokes back at her well-heeled customers. Henry Daniell plays the man who believes in her powers. He has instigated the seance in order to find the name of a murderer. Rather than wondering about the whodunit aspect of the story, I found myself more concerned for the proven innocence of one of the suspects. It's revealed that the medium is more involved with one of the suspects than we know at the beginning. After the first seance produces another murder, a second seance is held. The medium finds true inspiration at last and fetches out the murderer at her second attempt.