The Thirteenth Chair (1929)

71 mins | Melodrama, Mystery | 19 October 1929

Director:

Tod Browning

Cinematographer:

Merritt Gerstad

Editor:

Harry Reynolds

Production Designer:

Cedric Gibbons

Production Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
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HISTORY

A studio production chart in the 6 July 1929 Exhibitors Herald-World cited a start date of 10 June 1929 for The Thirteenth Chair at M-G-M's Culver City, CA, studio.
       According to the New Movie Magazine, Margaret Wycherly reprised her role of the "quaint old fortuneteller" from the successful stage play, but in the transformation of The Thirteenth Chair to film, "the crime has been shifted to another character."
       A reviewer in the 24 August 1929 Hollywood Filmograph, after seeing a preview at the Belmont Theatre at 126 South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, called the film "a conglomeration of screeches, seances, murders and investigation, none too adeptly combined by Tod Browning....Several scenes, as it happens, depend entirely upon sound for their effect. The lights on the settings are turned off and the screen is a glimmering grayness. One hears shrieks, screams, thuds, and the effect is a sense of uncanniness and irritation, to which the audience did not react favorably."
       The 22 June 1929 Hollywood Filmograph noted that Joel McCrae and Clarence Geldert "have been assigned important roles in The Thirteenth Chair." Geldert appeared in the final flm, but McCrae was not included in the credits.
       The 12 June 1929 Variety mentioned that Tod Browning "invented a vibrating camera" for the film in order to get certain effects, when the M-G-M technical department was unable to give him what he wanted.
       When Conrad Nagel's prominent position in Equity, the actors' union, sparked threats of disfigurement against him, M-G-M provided personal protection while he worked at the studio. One of his antagonists was ...

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A studio production chart in the 6 July 1929 Exhibitors Herald-World cited a start date of 10 June 1929 for The Thirteenth Chair at M-G-M's Culver City, CA, studio.
       According to the New Movie Magazine, Margaret Wycherly reprised her role of the "quaint old fortuneteller" from the successful stage play, but in the transformation of The Thirteenth Chair to film, "the crime has been shifted to another character."
       A reviewer in the 24 August 1929 Hollywood Filmograph, after seeing a preview at the Belmont Theatre at 126 South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, called the film "a conglomeration of screeches, seances, murders and investigation, none too adeptly combined by Tod Browning....Several scenes, as it happens, depend entirely upon sound for their effect. The lights on the settings are turned off and the screen is a glimmering grayness. One hears shrieks, screams, thuds, and the effect is a sense of uncanniness and irritation, to which the audience did not react favorably."
       The 22 June 1929 Hollywood Filmograph noted that Joel McCrae and Clarence Geldert "have been assigned important roles in The Thirteenth Chair." Geldert appeared in the final flm, but McCrae was not included in the credits.
       The 12 June 1929 Variety mentioned that Tod Browning "invented a vibrating camera" for the film in order to get certain effects, when the M-G-M technical department was unable to give him what he wanted.
       When Conrad Nagel's prominent position in Equity, the actors' union, sparked threats of disfigurement against him, M-G-M provided personal protection while he worked at the studio. One of his antagonists was fellow cast member Charles Quartermain, whom Equity had recently suspended for signing a non-Equity contract with the studio.
       Picture-Play Magazine ran a page of photographs of the seance at the center of the story.
       This was the second filming of Bayard Veiller's play, following a silent 1919 version (see entry). M-G-M remade The Thirteenth Chair in 1937, directed by George B. Seitz and starring Dame May Whitty and Madge Evans (see entry).
       The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.

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GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS
SOURCE CITATIONS
SOURCE
DATE
PAGE
Exhibitors Herald-World
6 Jul 1929
p. 109
Hollywood Filmograph
22 Jun 1929
p. 20
Hollywood Filmograph
24 Aug 1929
p. 16
National Board of Review Magazine
Nov 1929
p. 21
New Movie Magazine
Jan 1930
p. 86
Picture-Play Magazine
29 Nov 1929
p. 76
Variety
12 Jun 1929
p. 53
Variety
3 Jul 1929
p. 8
Variety
22 Jan 1930
p. 30
CAST
PRODUCTION CREDITS
NAME
PARENT COMPANY
NAME
CREDITED AS
CREDIT
DIRECTOR
WRITERS
Elliott Clawson
Scen
Elliott Clawson
Dial and continuity
Joe Farnham
Titles
PHOTOGRAPHY
Merritt B. Gerstad
Dir of photog
ART DIRECTOR
Art dir
FILM EDITOR
Film ed
COSTUMES
Gowns
SOUND
Rec eng
Rec eng
SOURCES
LITERARY
Based on the play The Thirteenth Chair by Bayard Veiller (New York, 20 Nov 1916).
LITERARY SOURCE AUTHOR
DETAILS
Release Date:
19 October 1929
Production Date:
began 10 June 1929
Copyright Info
Claimant
Date
Copyright Number
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp.
28 October 1929
LP794
Physical Properties:
Sound
Movietone
Black and White
Sound, also silent
Also si; 5,543 ft.
Duration(in mins):
71
Length(in feet):
6,571
Length(in reels):
8
Country:
United States
Language:
English
SYNOPSIS

The mysterious killing of writer Spencer Lee in Calcutta prompts authorities to consult Madame Rosalie La Grange, a reputedly successful medium. At a seance, she and twelve others clasp hands in a circle in the middle of a darkened room. Suddenly, Wales, Lee's best friend who is sitting in "the thirteenth chair," is stabbed in the back at the very moment he is about to reveal the murderer's identity. Through a reconstruction of the seance, the killer is frightened into a confession. Ample use is made of sounds emerging from a blackened screen to provide the proper ...

More Less

The mysterious killing of writer Spencer Lee in Calcutta prompts authorities to consult Madame Rosalie La Grange, a reputedly successful medium. At a seance, she and twelve others clasp hands in a circle in the middle of a darkened room. Suddenly, Wales, Lee's best friend who is sitting in "the thirteenth chair," is stabbed in the back at the very moment he is about to reveal the murderer's identity. Through a reconstruction of the seance, the killer is frightened into a confession. Ample use is made of sounds emerging from a blackened screen to provide the proper effects.

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GENRE
Genres:


Subject

Legend
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement Award

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