THE 13TH MAN

US, 1937, 70 minutes, Black and white.
Weldon Heyburn, Inez Courtney, Selmer Jackson.
Directed by William Nigh.

The 13th Man is one of those many small-budget supporting features from the 1930s, running for just over an hour, a virtually unknown cast, filmed in black-and-white.

The film has political overtones. a DA on the eve of an election makes a broadcast announcing the 13 criminals that he wants to imprison during his tenure, 12 have been named but he leaves the 13th man’s name open.

The main character in the film is a reporter, part news, part gossip, who is in the vein of the swift-talking, no holds barred action man. He has a devoted secretary whom he takes for granted, takes out for meals but forgets to eat because he’s on to news, she doing all the work for him, putting up with everything patiently – but, in the final moments, receiving a proposal!

The DA is killed during a boxing match by a poison dart. Another newspaperman, about to get married, has been investigating darts and poisons, having written on the subject in the past. Just before the wedding, when he makes a discovery, he is murdered.

The screenplay goes through the various people named by the DA indicating their potential to be the killer.

This means that the police as well as the journalist make their investigations – and, there is an Agatha Christie-like ending where everybody is assembled in the radio studio, the announcer is going to make his midnight broadcast and announce the murderer, is waiting for some verification, which arrives – and then he makes the announcement, revealing that the media man is the boss of all underground crime in the city.

Nothing startling but of historical interest – the first of many Monogram Pictures films, a prolific studio for this kind of small-budget film.