Movie spotlight
Friday the Thirteenth
It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.
Insights
Plot Summary
A wealthy but eccentric millionaire, Thomas Billings, plans to leave his fortune to his three idle nephews on the condition that they can prove themselves worthy by living on his country estate for a year without touching their inheritance. However, when Billings mysteriously dies before the year is up, the suspicious circumstances cast a shadow over the would-be heirs. The police, led by a determined detective, investigate the possibility of foul play amidst the rising tensions and hidden secrets within the family.
Critical Reception
Friday the Thirteenth (1933) was a modestly received crime drama that played on the tropes of inheritance and suspicion common in films of the era. While not a major critical success, it offered a competent thriller with a focus on character interactions and a puzzling mystery. Audiences generally found it an engaging, albeit not groundbreaking, mystery.
What Reviewers Say
A standard mystery thriller with a predictable, yet satisfying, resolution.
Edward Everett Horton's performance adds a layer of dark comedy to the proceedings.
The film effectively builds suspense around the suspicious death and the potential beneficiaries.
Google audience: Information on specific Google user reviews for this film from 1933 is not readily available.
Fun Fact
Despite its title, the film has no connection to the later slasher film franchise of the same name, which began in 1980.
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