Customer Reviews

The Thirteenth Guest

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While I agree with the previous reviewer about the overall summary of this film in general, the transfer is extra hazy, even for Alpha and being a 1932 film. This is one of the worst transfers I have ever seen from the company. This is a British print of the American made movie. Very distracting buzzing throughout as occurs with some other Alpha titles, even to the point where it distorts the actor's voices a couple of times. People, Beware of this print! Don't waste your money!
P.S. I don't know anything about the "new" Tapeworm company version. I have never before heard of the Tapeworm company, so buy at your own risk.

Thirteen years later one of 13 guests returns to the Morgan mansion to the scene of a last supper of which the last guest never appeared and ended in the death of the host.

There is a big bang and a hideous scream. When the police captain Ryan, (J. Farrel MacDonald), arrives they find a creepy old dusty mansion with a new telephone and a girl (Ginger Rogers) sitting at the table. As is his habit Captain Ryan calls on his intuitive friend Phil Winston (Lyle Talbot when he was still young and hansom) to sort out the clues.

Who is the dead woman?
How did she die?
Why was she there?
What is the secret of the "Thirteenth Guest?"

The length of the movie is too short to set up the proper environment and has to move too fast to enjoy the anticipation and speculation. However it is well acted and will keep you guessing even if the audience gets more of the inside track than Phil Winston.

We get all the regular suspects and the standard gathering of suspects while Phil fills in the holes and if we are lucky may beat him to the conclusion.

I bought this DVD expecting the video quality on this "re-mastered" version to be an improvement on the much cheaper original version I had bought a few years ago. No so. [The one star is for the quality of the product, not the movie. Ginger Rogers rocks].

Thirteen years later one of 13 guests returns to the Morgan mansion to the scene of a last supper of which the last guest never appeared and ended in the death of the host.

There is a big bang and a hideous scream. When the police captain Ryan, (J. Farrel MacDonald), arrives they find a creepy old dusty mansion with a new telephone and a girl (Ginger Rogers) sitting at the table. As is his habit Captain Ryan calls on his intuitive friend Phil Winston (Lyle Talbot when he was still young and hansom) to sort out the clues.

Who is the dead woman?
How did she die?
Why was she there?
What is the secret of the "Thirteenth Guest?"

The length of the movie is too short to set up the proper environment and has to move too fast to enjoy the anticipation and speculation. However it is well acted and will keep you guessing even if the audience gets more of the inside track than Phil Winston.

We get all the regular suspects and the standard gathering of suspects while Phil fills in the holes and if we are lucky may beat him to the conclusion.

First off, this is one of Ginger Rodgers best films ever.

Now, let's get down to the film itself. This is an example of one of those classic backwards whodunnit stories. It starts off at the end with a person walking into a house and an explosion.

Then as a police detective interviews people you have to work back to the begining to figure out what happened.

This formula was recently used in the modern film The Usual Suspects and works just as well in this older film.

"You almost expect the ingenious Ms. Marple to appear and tie the case up - the setting in `The Thirteenth Guest' is that authentic. I set out to watch this DVD because I'm a chronic fan of Ginger Rogers, but there's a lot more to it than that. In this timeless classic movie, Albert Ray has done an immense job with the then limited resources of cinematography. Rejoice, fellow vintage buffs - this one is for us..."

Big clue is that it's one of Ginger Rogers' early movies and no one has ever heard of it - with good reason! Based on a really spooky book from the 30's, it doesn't do the book justice, but who could know that ahead of time? Oh well, it's fun to have a Ginger movie when she was really new & without Fred! Very good quality film, arrived right away, great service!

Thirteen years later one of 13 guests returns to the Morgan mansion to the scene of a last supper of which the last guest never appeared and ended in the death of the host.

There is a big bang and a hideous scream. When the police captain Ryan, (J. Farrel MacDonald), arrives they find a creepy old dusty mansion with a new telephone and a girl (Ginger Rogers) sitting at the table. As is his habit Captain Ryan calls on his intuitive friend Phil Winston (Lyle Talbot when he was still young and hansom) to sort out the clues.

Who is the dead woman?
How did she die?
Why was she there?
What is the secret of the "Thirteenth Guest?"

The length of the movie is too short to set up the proper environment and has to move too fast to enjoy the anticipation and speculation. However it is well acted and will keep you guessing even if the audience gets more of the inside track than Phil Winston.

We get all the regular suspects and the standard gathering of suspects while Phil fills in the holes and if we are lucky may beat him to the conclusion.

If one is familiar with Monogram Studios, an iconic Poverty Row company in Hollywood, one would not be surprised at the essentially three set production that this is (not much change of clothes either, did the cast have to provide their own in the case of normal streetwear?). What is surprising is that a few members of the limited cast could rise above their surroundings and make it a relatively decent programmer, B picture, intended as second movie in the double feature show, typical of all but the big downtown movie palaces, during the Great Depression, and for some decades afterward. Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot manage pretty well but are clearly swimming in the muddy waters of a bare-bones script. Paul Hurst is clearly most to be pitied being forced to play the most imbecilic of idiotic cops. Of course, there is historic interest in this mystery since it does gives us a major star of the next decades and, in Talbot, a familiar face for the next half century. On the plot's skeletal frame, not new even in 1932, many cheapie and quality films have been built over the next 80 years.
I viewed the film issued by Alpha, an edited copy of the British version, It has its faults but is quite viewable and, perhaps, is in the appropriate form for the production.
In good conscience, I can only recommend it to film buffs, Ginger Rogers fans, and those, who, like myself, occasionally are in the mood for a film with some atmosphere to it but utterly without aesthetic value.

Reviewers of previous releases of this film have mentioned problems with the film quality, hence I bought this re-mastered version. The quality is fine, bearing in mind the film's age, without the problems highlighted in previous releases.

It's a DVD-R of course, but I haven't had any problems watching the film on my DVD player.