Although his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel a true "bounder" Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium. Many of the 13 seance p... Read allAlthough his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel a true "bounder" Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium. Many of the 13 seance participants had a reason and a means to kill, and one of them uses the cover of darkness t... Read allAlthough his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel a true "bounder" Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium. Many of the 13 seance participants had a reason and a means to kill, and one of them uses the cover of darkness to kill again. When someone close to the medium is suspected she turns detective, in the ho... Read all
- Dr. Philip Mason
- (as Charles Quartermaine)
- Director
- Writers
- Bayard Veiller
- Joseph Farnham(uncredited in sound version) (uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaCompleted July 16 1929, the first sound feature in which Bela Lugosi's famous Hungarian tones were heard. This was Bela Lugosi's first venture with Browning. Two years later, the director cast him in the film version of the Bram Stoker vampire tale after Chaney, Browning's first choice for the role, died. Lugosi and Browning made one other film together, Mark of the Vampire (1935), in which he played Count Mora, a knock-off of his more famous blood-sucking cousin.
- GoofsIt isn't a "goof" that the actors seem to be waiting for their cues before they start acting: many of the earliest MGM talkies employed a technique of long lingering inactive moments at the beginning and ending of reels, which apparently were supposed to take the place of leader when they changed over, perhaps accommodating the Vitaphone print versions. Years ago, when these titles appeared on TV, they didn't do that, so maybe Movietone versions were more succinctly edited.
- Quotes
Inspector Delzante: [Interrogating Madame La Grange, consulting his notes] Perhaps this will refresh your memory.
- Alternate versionsMGM also released this movie in a silent version at 1628.55 m in length. The silent version of the film is considered lost as of February 2021.
- ConnectionsReferenced in You Must Remember This: Bela and the Vampires (Bela & Boris Part 2) (2017)
It also feels like it has a few minutes missing from the start - or I'm a bit dense!! Everyone seems to know what's going on already - renowned womaniser Spencer Lee has been killed by a woman - but which woman??? Ned Wales (John Davidson) is the only person in the house who liked Lee (Spencer had saved him from drowning when they were children) and who is determined to find his killer. Even he acts suspiciously, trying to bribe the servants (again, the action obviously takes place in India but the audience is never told). There is an establishing shot of the two leads, Richard Crosby (Conrad Nagel) is trying to convince Helen O'Neill (Leila Hyams) to marry him. It's the old "you may be only my mother's secretary but you're good enough for me" routine. Nagel and Hyams may have been the leads but they are only required to stand around looking worried, fearful, determined etc.
The stage is set for the show down between the real stars - wonderful Margaret Wycherley as the medium Madame La Grange, an unassuming "nanny" type, who nevertheless, has a few secrets and menacing Bela Lugosi as Inspector Delzante and he still manages to act like Dracula. Even though that film role was 2 years in the future he had played it on Broadway on and off during the 20s. Just to hear him say "What you propose is too horrible to contemplate - but we will do it!!!
Margaret Wycherley was a character actress supreme. She really hit her stride in the 40s and even though you struggle to remember some of the movies, you definitely remember her ("Johnny Angel" - she played a domineering nanny). Of course she was Ma Jarrett in "White Heat" and Ma Forrester in "The Yearling" - "my boy, my poor crookedy boy". In "The Thirteenth Chair" she was a breath of fresh air and proved stage actors weren't always stiff. Her husband, Bayard Veiller wrote the original play "The Thirteenth Chair" that had a healthy run of 328 performances, back in 1916 and in which Margaret Wycherley played the same role of Rosalie La Grange.
Recommended.
- kidboots
- Aug 25, 2010
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The 13th Chair
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 12 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1
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