The 13th Man (1937)

A Major Disappointment

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This B film from Monogram looks like it was butchered in the editing which was typical for the poverty row studios. But reading between the lines you'll find a decent plot and the kind of method of homicide usually reserved for authors like Arthur Conan Doyle.The District Attorney falls over dead attending a prize fight and first it's thought to be heart failure. Before attending the fight he made a radio speech saying that he was about to bring in an indictment, The 13th Man he's brought to trial for racketeering and he gives some possibilities in the speech.It's not natural causes of course that kills the DA and Walter Winchell like columnist Weldon Heyburn and his leg man Milburn Stone are on the trail. Stone makes a fatal discovery for him and it gets real personal for Heyburn after that.Some familiar character players will be seen. Best of all is Dewey Robinson who usually played good natured mugs. He's a former prizefighter who due to a ring accident has been left with a lilting tenor and now has a new career in radio. Hearing him sing Will You Remember Me with the dubbed tenor is funny stuff.Worth seeing the film for.

This speedy poverty row quota quickly was written with pen in hand and tongue in cheek. It's a super hyper political drama with gangland overtones all done with a cynical newspaper angle. Two men running against each other for public office get their individual chances to speak on the air, and the second candidate (a no nonsense D.A.) speaks out against the first candidate, accusing him on the air of criminal connections. He's boasted that he's about to bust his 13th big wig crook, and falls over dead at a prize fight. Other murders follow, and the dialog just seems to get crisper and more delightfully clichéd as the film nears its exciting conclusion. Women here are just as tough as the men, unafraid of anything. With all this action, intrigue, romance, humor, prizefighting and even a song, there's mo stone unturned in making this amazingly fun.

A tough district attorney has been cleaning up the town, and has already imprisoned twelve dangerous criminals. As he is about to name the target for his next investigation, he is murdered in the midst of a crowd. The police have many suspects and hardly any clues, so two reporters decide to investigate for themselves.It's an OK movie but the public domain prints are pretty bad quality.Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. Sort of mindless. Too bad the prints aren't better. Never really understand that. Guess the original negative are long gone and only bad dupes are available.

"The Thirteenth Man" is a reasonable B-Mystery with a decent plot and enough suspense to keep your attention most of the time. The cast and characters are mostly routine, but Weldon Heyburn does bring some life to the lead role.The story starts when a tough D.A., who has recently put away 12 of the town's most notorious criminals, announces that he will soon target his 13th man. Before he can do so, he is murdered, and two reporters (Heyburn and Milburn Stone, later of "Gunsmoke") decide to investigate, although there are many possible suspects and few clues. While the production itself is strictly low-budget, the murder mystery plot is not bad, without any big holes, and it keeps you guessing to the end.Overall, while nothing spectacular, this is probably better than average for a B-Mystery.