THE MYSTERY OF THE 13TH GUEST

THE MYSTERY OF THE 13TH GUEST (1943). Director: William Beaudine.

"Your soul must look like the inside of a vinegar bottle."

Marie Morgan (Helen Parrish of First Love) enters her dead uncle's creepy old house where years ago he talked about his will to the gathered relatives, and there she finds an old letter giving the strange stipulations of her inheritance. Not much later Marie is found dead in the house -- until she turns up alive, despite the lookalike body in the morgue. Private eye Speed Dugan (Frank Faylen) and Lt. Burke (Tim Ryan) try to find out who killed whom. Suspects include lawyer Barksdale (Cyril Ring); Marie's brother, Harold (John Duncan of Batman and Robin); Uncle Adam (Paul McVey); and the high-spirited cousin Marjory (Jacqueline Dalya). Faylen is fine, but Ryan offers an especially obnoxious portrayal as the cop. Dalya [Charlie Chan in Rio] is the sauciest thing in the movie and gives the picture most of its limited fun. The old house contains a sinister masked figure as well as a deadly electrified telephone. Full of foolish alleged humor.

Verdict: The very embodiment of the word mediocre. **.

CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO

Victor Sen Yung, Harold Huber, and Sidney Toler

CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO (1941). Director: Harry Lachman.

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) and his irrepressible son, Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung), have come to Rio where Charlie plans to arrest a woman from Honolulu who is wanted for murder; meanwhile Jimmy hopes to learn the mambo either from singer Lola Dean (Jacqueline Dalya) or her cute maid, Lili (Iris Wong). Alas, Lola is the woman wanted for murder, but she herself is killed before Charlie can put the cuffs on her. Suspects include Lola's baffled fiance, Clark (uncredited); Morana, the Indian mystic (Victor Jory of Cat-Women of the Moon); Ken Reynolds (a strangely unrecognizable Richard Derr of The Invisible Avenger); his wife, Joan (Mary Beth Hughes of Rockin' in the Rockies); friend Bill Kellogg (Hamilton MacFadden); the bitter Grace (Cobina Wright Jr.); Lola's efficient secretary, Helen (Kay Linaker); and even the butler, Rice (Leslie Denison). This is an entertaining mystery, but it lacks the tension and suspense of superior entries in the series. The acting is generally good, however, with Toler and Sen Yung in fine form. Harold Huber once again plays a police inspector, but is more relaxed and appealing than usual. Kay Linaker and Iris Wong were also in previous Chan pictures. Truman Bradley, who was in the last entry Dead Men Tell, is listed in the cast but I couldn't spot him in this and can't even remember the character!

Verdict: Acceptable Chan vehicle. **1/2.