The Thirteenth Guest - 1932 Ginger Rogers

1932 pre-Code mystery comedy directed by Albert Ray and starring Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot. The film is known as Lady Beware in the United Kingdom, which takes all the mystery out of the title and makes you wonder what happened to the Britts since Shakespeare. It is based on the 1929 novel The Thirteenth Guest written by crime fiction author Armitage Trail, best known for the novel Scarface, on which the 1932 movie of the same name was based. The novel was filmed again in 1943 as Mystery of the 13th Guest.

Ginger is Marie Morgan who has been lured to scary old abandoned house by a note from a “friend.” Of course she goes. What girl wouldn’t? On the other hand, she’s the only living relative of the deceased owner and there’s a very large, very juicy inheritance just waiting to be passed on. But it seems there are other interested parties and one of them is a murderer...