So here's the plan going forward:

Winter break is over, and so this teacher is back to work with grades due Wednesday and a stack of approximately 115 essays left to get through. Thus, no more reviews until probably Wednesday. That will give anyone looking to keep up a chance to go back and watch any of the five and a half films I just flew through (I found all of them on Youtube).

Next up will be The Thirteenth Chair (1929) (if you watch it before me, please do let me review it first). Sadly, I haven't been able to locate online any of the many films Bela did between 1926 and 1928.

The long-term goal is to get through EVERY surviving Lugosi film I can find by early September the absolute latest so that I can count down my Top 50 favorite Bela films, ending on October 30th, in the same style as my old 50 Greatest Films from the First 50 Years of Horror countdown.

I'm REALLY looking forward to it, especially as I tend to love Bela's later B movie fare even more than the films he did in his 1930's prime.

I can dig them out but I don't have a working scanner to scan pages from them (ir any kind of decent camera). I think they mostly focused on his Dracula onwards films. There was a fair bit on the Todd Browning films I remember reading, but the Ed Wood stuff I skimmed as of less interest.

The Clara Bow anecdote involved Lugosi having scratches on his back and explaining them with just one word, her name.

The Thirteenth Chair (1929)



There are several important things to note about this particular film. While Bela had appeared in quite a few minor roles prior to this film that have not survived, this does mark his first lead role in a sound film. This was director Tod Browning's first sound film as well (his next will be Dracula), and he seemed to give especial attention to vocal quality in selecting this cast. Bela, John Davidson, and Margaret Wycherly, the three central roles, all have incredibly rich and distinct vocal qualities. I suspect this is a large part of why Bela got this role. Fascinating, then, that Bela will not be Browning's first choice to play Dracula two years from now.

And speaking of Dracula, by this point Bela has now traveled the country playing Dracula on stage and has earned some minor fame for himself as a result. Clearly, he is already taken with the character. Not only will he continue to look for opportunities to resume the role, but many of the mannerisms and inflections he uses as Dracula (at least in the 1931 film) that were not evident in the previous films I've reviewed are suddenly and unmistakably present here. I keep waiting for him to command the suspects in this film to "Come...here" with that chilling tone and outstretched hand.

It makes sense that Dracula would have been Bela's favorite role. In addition to the notoriety it brought him, Dracula is the story of an immigrant. Lugosi barely spoke English at this point and had that heavy Hungarian accent. Playing a stylish immigrant who charms everyone and is unquestionably the man in charge, not the outcast trying to fit in, must have been appealing to Bela. He will go on to play foreigners in most of his American films (as he already did in his first one, The Silent Command), and it's always odd when he doesn't. The Thirteenth Chair is unclear about what nationality Bela is supposed to be. The film is set in British India. Is Bela supposed to be Indian, English, or some other nationality? We are never told.


Plot (0-5 points): It's a relatively run-of-the-mill who dunnit stage play turned film. In some respects, it's a little clumsy, but I like how both Madame LeGrange (the supposed mystic who communicates with the dead) and the inspector (Bela's role) are written -- both eccentric, but in entirely different ways. I also absolutely did not guess the killer correctly, but that's not necessarily a strength of the film since it definitely came out of left field 2

Atmosphere (0-5 points): It's hard to do much with such a dry drawing room mystery written for the stage, only containing four scenes. Browning succeeds in keeping it from getting visually dull, but there's nothing all that memorable about the tone either 2

Other Actors (0-3 points): Wycherly owns her spotlight well, and while John Davidson's acting isn't all that memorable, the quality of his voice resonates even more than Bela's 2

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): He's truly over-the-top hammy here, but he's playing a very eccentric inspector, so it's somewhat forgivable. If you love Bela especially when he's at his cheesiest, this is a good one. He oversells practically every moment he's on the screen. The fact that he is speaking words he barely understands can't be helping much, nor the fact that he can't seem to shake the Dracula role he's now been playing off and on for two years. The more well-rounded actor we were seeing in these previous roles is no longer in sight. Instead, we've got a far more familiar Bela Lugosi, and I don't mind in the slightest. 7


Overall: 13

I agree most of your points and I've really enjoyed the acting of Conrad Nagel who played Richard Crosby and I'm thought the rest of the cast did a good job and it's was a well rounded movie and Bela did an excellent job doing the role of the Inspector and the chemistry between Madame La Grange was better than I expected and yet you've gave the plot a grade of 2 and I've think it should be a 3 or a weak 4 here. The plot of this movie that drives this movie and Bela did his role superbly and this is one of my favorite Lugosi movie in his early years and I do like his approach and you've mentioned "cheesiest" and that's okay with me.


I saw this film about 3-4 years ago at a friend place and find the combination of Lugosi and Wycherly outstanding and made this movie memorable to me. I was surprised to see this review today!

Remember this is 1929 movie and in my own film world this movie an average mystery and not an outstanding one indeed and I'm a bit bothered by your comments about the "solutions" and the first one wasn't all that great and that's alone made this movie in my mind "passable" ... when a 2nd solution came into play and that's made film more understandable and that's why I liked this film so well. The 2nd solution made this film good and that's bonus to me.


I have seen many mystery films in the 20's to the 30's and this one is given a grade of C+ because the 2nd solution made it worthwhile to watch. You really have to pay attention to this movie and if you don't you'll not understand the climax so well when you see that dead body. You get my drift here. I wished they written it better ... and its bothers me a lot. I hope you'll understand what I mean here and it's not easy for me to write this.

The silent Cat And The Canary and The Bat are favorites. I had a paperback of The Bat by Mary Roberts Rheinhart from the '50s, wish I could remember where I put it. The Thirteenth Chair is more important for seeing Lugosi acting directed by Browning.

Don't worry about it ... we can have a difference of opinion shaxper and that's fine with me.