The Thirteenth Chair (1937)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

George B. Seitz

Writers:

Bayard Veiller (play)
Marion Parsonnet (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 May 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Psychic | Inspector | Cockatoo | Scam | Cremation

Cast

Dame May Whitty	...	Mme. Rosalie La Grange
Madge Evans	...	Nell O'Neill
Lewis Stone	...	Inspector Marney
Elissa Landi	...	Helen Trent
Thomas Beck	...	Dick Crosby
Henry Daniell	...	John Wales
Janet Beecher	...	Lady Elissia Crosby
Ralph Forbes	...	Lionel Trent
Holmes Herbert	...	Sir Roscoe Crosby
Heather Thatcher	...	Mary Eastwood
Charles Trowbridge	...	Dr. Mason
Robert Coote	...	Stanby
Elsa Buchanan	...	Miss Grace Stanby
Lal Chand Mehra	...	Professor Feringeea
Neil Fitzgerald	...	Constable

Also Known As:

The 13th Chair (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

66 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #3290) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 20 November 1916 and had 328 performances. Margaret Wycherly played the role of Rosalie La Grange, as she also did in the 1929 film version.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Thirteenth Chair (1919)

One of the better B-film mysteries exploring device of a seance...

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.