Summary
The narrative unravels a tapestry of moral decay and desperate measures, commencing with Mrs. Philip Mason's tragic self-immolation, an infernal consequence of her illicit affair with the unscrupulous financier Stephen Lee. Her ill-fated dalliance leads her to liquidate her husband's assets, funneling the proceeds into Lee's speculative ventures, which inevitably collapse, leaving a wake of financial ruin and personal despair. Lee, a predator of the highest order, subsequently turns his sights on Helen Trent, wielding her youthful, imprudent love letters as a weapon of blackmail against her now-married respectability. Her brother, Willy Grosby, accompanied by his fiancée and housemate Helen O'Neil, embarks on a perilous mission to retrieve these incriminating missives. The confrontation escalates within Lee's dimly lit lair; as Willy waits outside, Helen O'Neil finds herself under Lee's violent assault, culminating in his swift, fatal knifing. The ensuing investigation, spearheaded by Inspector Donohue, is deliberately complicated by Edward Wales, a confederate of the deceased. Wales orchestrates a macabre seance, enlisting the enigmatic clairvoyant Madame LaFarge, aiming to implicate Helen O'Neil through a supposed spiritual communication with Lee. However, the spectral proceedings take a gruesome turn: as Wales, occupying the ominous 'thirteenth chair' and ostensibly channeling Lee's spirit, is poised to name Helen, he too falls victim to the unseen assailant. The labyrinthine plot thickens further when Helen confesses a profound secret to Donohue: Madame LaFarge is, in fact, her mother. This revelation empowers LaFarge to orchestrate a second, more potent seance, a masterstroke of psychological manipulation that ultimately coaxes the true confession from Philip Mason, revealing him as the perpetrator of both murders. The film thus explores themes of societal hypocrisy, the crushing weight of past indiscretions, and the often-deceptive nature of justice, all cloaked in a shroud of spiritualist mystique and the chilling mechanics of a well-executed whodunit.
Synopsis
Mrs. Philip Mason commits suicide after she has an affair with Stephen Lee, a disreputable stockbroker, and sells her husband's securities so that Lee can buy stocks. When Lee goes bankrupt, he blackmails Helen Trent by threatening to reveal silly love letters she wrote to him before she married. Her brother, Willy Grosby, and his fiancée, Helen O'Neil, who lives with the Grosbys, go to retrieve the letters. While Willy waits outside, Lee is knifed to death as he attacks Helen. Lee's friend, Edward Wales, attempts to pin the murder on Helen by having Madame LaFarge, a clairvoyant, conduct a séance. In the darkened room, Wales, through whom Lee's spirit supposedly speaks, is about to name Helen as the murderer, but Wales, who sits in the thirteenth chair, is himself murdered. After Helen confesses to Inspector Donohue that Madame LaFarge is her mother, LaFarge, while conducting another séance, tricks Philip Mason into confessing to the murders.
