A 1929 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer mystery film directed by Tod Browning. A writer is murdered in Calcutta, and the authorities turn to Madame Rosalie La Grange, a professional spiritualist medium, to help solve the case. During a darkened seance in which thirteen people join hands, a second killing takes place, and the medium's reconstruction of the circle exposes the murderer. The film treats the seance and the medium's craft as a real dramatic mechanism rather than mocking it as fraud.
Facts
Production
Release Year Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterSpiritualism: the film's plot is built around a professional medium's seance, named as its subject in the AFI Catalog's own subject heading. 1 Classification
GenreFeature or Dramatized Film 2 Rating or certificateNot Rated or Unclassified 2 Connections
Depicts
The AFI Catalog's own subject-heading field for this 1929 mystery names Spiritualism and Mediums outright, and the story turns on a professional medium's seance, portrayed as genuinely effective within the film.
Source The Thirteenth Chair, AFI Catalog Record (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1929)
Originates in Language
Source The Movie Database (TMDB): The Thirteenth Chair
Sources
1. The Thirteenth Chair, AFI Catalog Record (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1929)
2. The Movie Database (TMDB): The Thirteenth Chair
The Movie Database (TMDB)Page header: certification
The Thirteenth Chair (1929) NR 10/19/1929 (US) Mystery , Drama , and Horror 1h 12m
Page header: genres
The Thirteenth Chair (1929) NR 10/19/1929 (US) Mystery , Drama , and Horror 1h 12m
Originates in Language: English, Facts panel: Original Language
Original Language English
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