The Thirteenth Guest is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery comedy thriller film, released on August 9, 1932. The film is also known as Lady Beware in the United Kingdom. It is based on the 1929 novel The Thirteenth Guest written by crime fiction author Armitage Trail,[1] best known for the novel Scarface[2] on which the 1932 movie of the same name was based. The novel was filmed again in 1943 as Mystery of the 13th Guest.[3]
| The Thirteenth Guest | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Albert Ray |
| Written by | Arthur Hoerl (screenplay) Frances Hyland (screenplay) Armitage Trail (additional dialogue) |
| Produced by | M.H. Hoffman |
| Starring | Ginger Rogers Lyle Talbot J. Farrell MacDonald Paul Hurst Erville Alderson Ethel Wales Crauford Kent Eddie Phillips Frances Rich |
| Cinematography | Tom Galligan Harry Neumann |
| Edited by | Leete Renick Brown |
Production company | Monogram Pictures Corporation |
| Distributed by | Monogram Pictures Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
editMarie Morgan has been lured to an old abandoned house by a false note from a friend, and is in jeopardy although she doesn't yet realize it. As she sits at the table inside, she thinks back to the banquet held there 13 years earlier, when she was a little girl. Only 12 of 13 guests had attended, and the manor's owner, the Morgan family patriarch, who was then dying, has since passed on. The chance to claim the bulk of the estate fortune has resulted in an ongoing campaign of murder by someone targeting the original 12 guests, whose dead bodies are being left at the table in the same seats they had occupied originally.
Cast
edit- Ginger Rogers as Lela/Marie Morgan
- Lyle Talbot as Phil Winston
- J. Farrell MacDonald as Police Captain Ryan
- Paul Hurst as Detective Grump
- Erville Alderson as Uncle John Adams
- Ethel Wales as Aunt Jane Thornton
- James Eagles as Harold 'Bud' Morgan
- Crauford Kent as Dr. Sherwood
- Eddie Phillips as Thor Jensen
- Frances Rich as Marjorie Thornton
- Phillips Smalley as Uncle Dick Thornton
- Allan Cavan as Uncle Wayne Seymour (uncredited)
- William Davidson as Police Captain Brown (uncredited)
- John Ince as Uncle John Morgan (uncredited)
- Tom London as Detective Carter (uncredited)
- Harry Tenbrook as Cabby (uncredited)
- Adrienne Dore as Winston's Date (uncredited)
Reception
editThe film was a box office success and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Variety called it "vastly superior" and "a positive money maker".[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Trail, Armitage (1929). The Thirteenth Guest (First ed.). Whitman. ASIN B000KD7C8U.
- ^ Trail, Armitage (1930). Scarface (1ST ed.). D.J. Clode. ASIN B00085TELI.
- ^ The Thirteenth Guest Archived November 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, msnbc.com; accessed August 3, 2015.
- ^ Waly (September 1932). "The Thirteenth Guest". Variety. p. 21.
External links
edit- The Thirteenth Guest at IMDb
- The Thirteenth Guest youtube
- The Thirteenth Guest is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- The Thirteenth Guest at AllMovie
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