The Ninth Guest (1934)
Eight guest are invited to a party at a fancy penthouse where they are informed by the host, via a radio, that one-by-one they will all die unless they out-smart the ninth guest that happens to be – Death.
The guest must obviously work together to survive, however, not only are they known to the host but in some way each guest is known to at least one other person and naturally they don’t tend to get along.
This film starts by giving us a glimpse into the lives of some of the more conniving potential victims and the unscrupulous games they play with their fellow well off peers.
As soon as they start to arrive the bickering starts which will not serve them well once they realise they have to work together to survive their swanky escape room and predictably most of them can’t.
I found this fun to watch with just the right amount of one-upmanship and reluctance to co-operate from stubborn high class twits running around and making the most of a nicely designed set littered with traps and tricks.
A sharp enough script helped by good enough performances on a nicely enough designed set that offers a suitably distracting enough mystery with an ending that is happily just improbable enough for my liking.
What more can I ask for. I was going to say nowt ground-breaking but this is from 1934 so maybe it was.
Make your own mind up below.
