The 13th Man (1937)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

William Nigh

Writer:

John W. Krafft (writer)

Release Date:

30 June 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery

Plot:

A tough district attorney has been cleaning up the town, and has already imprisoned twelve dangerous criminals...

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Murder | Number In Title

Cast

Weldon Heyburn	...	A. 'Swifty' Taylor
Inez Courtney	...	Julie Walters (Swifty's secretary)
Selmer Jackson	...	Andrew Baldwin ('Globe Times' publisher)
Matty Fain	...	Louis Cristy (nightclub owner)
Milburn Stone	...	Jimmy Moran ('Globe Times' reporter)
Grace Durkin	...	Alice Moran (Baldwin's secretary)
Robert Homans	...	Police Lt. Tom O'Hara
Eadie Adams	...	Stella Leroy (nightclub singer)
Sidney Payne	...	'Legs' Henderson (fighter)
Dewey Robinson	...	Romeo Casanova (radio singer / gym operator)
William Gould	...	Dist. Atty. Robert E. Sutherland
Warner Richmond	...	George Crandall the Bookie
Eddie Gribbon	...	Iron Man' (Swiftys bodyguard)

Also Known As:

The Thirteenth Man (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Company:

Monogram Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The first picture released by the reformed Monogram Pictures Corporation, which was temporarily shelved from 1935-37 when its two owners, Trem Carr and W. Ray Johnston, joined with Mascot Pictures' Nat Levine and another independent studio, Liberty Pictures, to form Republic Pictures with Herbert J. Yates (owner of Consolidated Film Industries, a film processing laboratory) at the old Mack Sennett studio. The partnership held for a year until Carr and Johnston, chafing under the autocratic rule of Yates, left the company in 1937 and reformed Monogram. This is the first of a remarkable 20 features the studio would release that year. Monogram would always remain a low-budget outfit, its product geared for rural audiences and second-run theaters. In 1952 it changed its name to Allied Artists, hoping to erase the low-budget "stigma" associated with Monogram.

Soundtrack:

My Topic of Conversation

Reasonable B-Mystery With a Decent Plot

"The Thirteenth Man" is a reasonable B-Mystery with a decent plot and enough suspense to keep your attention most of the time. The cast and characters are mostly routine, but Weldon Heyburn does bring some life to the lead role.

The story starts when a tough D.A., who has recently put away 12 of the town's most notorious criminals, announces that he will soon target his 13th man. Before he can do so, he is murdered, and two reporters (Heyburn and Milburn Stone, later of "Gunsmoke") decide to investigate, although there are many possible suspects and few clues. While the production itself is strictly low-budget, the murder mystery plot is not bad, without any big holes, and it keeps you guessing to the end.

Overall, while nothing spectacular, this is probably better than average for a B-Mystery.