Editing Tod Browning (section)

=== ''The Thirteenth Chair ''(1929) ===
[[File:The Thirteenth Chair (1929 film). M-G-M studios, publicity still. L to R, Actor Leila Hyams, director Tod Browning.png|thumb|The Thirteenth Chair (1929). Publicity still. L to R, Actor Leila Hyams, director Tod Browning]]
Browning's first sound film, ''[[The Thirteenth Chair (1929 film)|The Thirteenth Chair]]'' is based on a 1916 "drawing room murder mystery" [[The Thirteenth Chair (play)|stage play of the same title]] by [[Bayard Veiller]] first adapted to film in a [[The Thirteenth Chair (1919 film)|1919 silent version]] and later a [[The Thirteenth Chair (1937 film)|sound remake in 1937]].<ref>Eaker, 2016: "The Thirteenth Chair (1929) is... Browning's first sound film. Like a lot of early sound films, it is bogged down with that wax museum-like staging. This is yet another drawing room murder mystery, taken from an antiquated stage play..." And: "...in handling that new invention called sound, Browning nor the production team were comfortable..."</ref>

Set in [[Calcutta]], the story concerns two homicides committed at séances. Illusion and deception are employed to expose the murderer.<ref>Eaker, 2016: "Two murders...a phony medium, a series of séances, a mysterious manor, stolen love letters, and potential blackmail all add up to standard Browning fare..."</ref>

In a cast featuring some of MGM's top contract players including [[Conrad Nagel]], [[Leila Hyams]] and [[Margaret Wycherly]]<ref>Nixon, 2006 TCM: "The suspects are played by a virtual who's-who of recognizable character actors: Conrad Nagel...Leila Hyams, later Venus in Browning's Freaks... Margaret Wycherly...Joel McCrea's scenes were deleted before the film's release."</ref> Hungarian-American [[Bela Lugosi]], a veteran of silent films and the star of Broadway's ''[[Dracula (1924 play)|Dracula]]'' (1924) was enlisted by Browning to play Inspector Delzante, when Lon Chaney declined to yet embark on a talking picture.<ref>Nixon, 2006 TCM: "Lugosi made a number of silent film appearances before his runaway success on Broadway in Dracula." And: "...a matinee idol [in Germany]. His first American film was The Silent Command (1923)."</ref><ref>Barson, 2020: "...Chaney was not yet open to the notion of making a sound picture, so Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi was recruited to play the police inspector investigating a murder at a seance."</ref>

The first of his three collaborations with Lugosi, Browning's handling of the actor's role as Delzante anticipated the part of Count Dracula in his ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]'' (1931).<ref>Eaker, 2016: "...the main testing was the upcoming role of Dracula and for that reason Browning grabbed Lugosi, who had made the role a mega hit on the stage circuit."... And: "Browning's work with Lugosi traces an interesting development through the three films they collaborated on."</ref> Browning endows Lugosi's Delzante with bizarre eccentricities, including a guttural, broken English and heavily accented eyebrows, characteristics that Lugosi made famous in his film roles as vampires.<ref>Eaker, 2016: "Lugosi had lived in the states and performed the [stage role in Dracula] for years before the film version so the actor's delivery for Dracula was a directorial choice, as indicated in interviews."</ref> Film historian Alfred Eaker remarks: "Serious awkwardness mars this film, a product from that transitional period from silent to the new, imposing medium of sound. Because of that awkwardness ''The Thirteenth Chair'' is not Browning in best form."<ref name=":4" />