Thursday, July 17, 2014

The Mystery of the 13th Guest (1943)

Effective mystery programmer from Monogram Pictures, based on the Armitage Trail story. At a dinner party, a dying man announces that his will is to remain sealed for 13 years, until his granddaughter's 21st birthday, at which time only she is to open it. When the will is finally opened, the surviving guests from the dinner party begin turning up dead, and the original seating arrangements appear to hold the clue as to who the killer is. The film's fairly complex plot is packed into its tight running time of just over an hour. Wisecracking banter from Dick Purcell and Tim Ryan as the police investigators and well-paced direction from the always-reliable William Beaudine make this a solid entertainment. Previously filmed as THE THIRTEENTH GUEST (1932).

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