The Thirteenth Chair
Cast & Crew
Léonce Perret
Yvonne Delva
Creighton Hale
Marie Shotwell
Christine Mayo
Suzanne Colbert
Film Details
Synopsis
Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.
Director
Léonce Perret
Cast
Yvonne Delva
Creighton Hale
Marie Shotwell
Christine Mayo
Suzanne Colbert
George Deneubourg
Marc Mcdermott
Walter Law
Fraunie French Fraunholz
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Some scenes in this film were shot at Saranac Lake, NY. This was Yvonne Delva's first film. M-G-M filmed Veiller's play in 1929, with Conrad Nagel starring and Tod Browning directing (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.5630), and in 1937, with Dame May Whitty starring and George B. Seitz directing. CBS aired a television version of the play in 1954.
