Wed 2 Jun 2010
A Review by David L. Vineyard: GWEN BRISTOW & BRUCE MANNING – The Invisible Host.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[16] Comments
GWEN BRISTOW & BRUCE MANNING – The Invisible Host. Mystery League, hardcover, 1930. Play: The Ninth Guest, by Owen Davis (on Broadway Aug-Oct 1930). Film: Columbia, 1934, as The Ninth Guest (with Genevieve Tobin & Donald Cook; director: Roy William Neill). Paperback reprint: Popular Library, 1975, as The Ninth Guest.
A small group of people are gathered together in a lonely location by a host none of them knows. Soon they start to die one by one, and come to the horrifying revelation that one of their number is both their host and the killer. A successful book that became a successful play and was the basis of a film and written by a best-selling female writer…
But it’s not Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians (And Then There Were None). In fact it was published nine years earlier, the first novel by Gwen Bristow (Jubilee Trail, Calico Palace) and screenwriter husband Bruce Manning (Meet Nero Wolfe, The Lone Wolf Returns, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Rage of Paris, Jubilee Trail — see above — and many more).
The Invisible Host opens as the ‘guests’ receive a telegram from a mysterious ‘host’ —
SMALL SURPRISE PARTY IN YOUR HONOR BIEN-
VILLE PENTHOUSE NEXT SATURDAY EIGHT O’CLOCK
STOP ALL SUB ROSA BIG SURPRISE STOP MAINTAIN
SECRECY STOP PROMISE YOU MOST ORIGINAL PARTY
EVER STAGED IN NEW ORLEANS
YOUR HOST
True he’s no U. N. Owen, but he makes his point, and his guests arrive at Bienville Penthouse for their assignation with fate:
Margaret Chisholm, who dislikes her position as grand dame of New Orleans society being challenged; Dr. Murray Chambers Reid, the president of a local university who has just pulled off a coup by forcing a left-leaning colleague out; Jason Osgood, wealthy founder of the Osgood Foundation; Peter Daly, a playwright celebrating his first play on Broadway; Sylvia Inglesby, a glamorous and beautiful lawyer; Tim Salmon, a pugnacious tough politician; Henry Abbot, that left leaning professor; and Jean Trent, the diaphanous movie star back home in New Orleans for the holidays.
So they gather at Bienville Penthouse in the recently completed Beinville Building where their host informs them anonymously:
And soon enough the ‘playful unicorn’ is teasing the edges of murder as the guests begin to die one by one.
So the game is on and the ‘guests’ begin to die one by one as their host strikes again and again…
Tensions rise between the suspects:
Mrs. Chisholm dies in the best manner — of chagrin, a neat trick for any killer. Tim Slamon falls to a deadly (and the most unlikely I’ve ever encountered in long years of reading these) trap based on a personal habit. Sylvia Inglesby loses control and commits virtual suicide throwing herself at an electrified door. Jason Osgood, the ruthless millionaire falls victim to his own ruthlessness. Dr. Reid dies of trying to psychoanalyze the killer who is just one step too clever for him.
And then there were three.
And of course the killer is mad as a hatter:
No, it’s not the Joker, though his methods and psychology aren’t far off. The Joker’s motivations make more sense than this killer’s.
The Invisible Host is by no means a good book, Bill Pronzini wisely chose it as an alternative classic, but it is fun in the way only a true alternative classic can be, and a good illustration of how heavy-handed a good idea can be handled by less deft hands than a master like Agatha Christie. On its own terms it is a good deal of fun.
I have to admit I enjoyed it, but then I’m somewhat inured to bad books. You may have to find your own standard of tolerance for this sort of thing.
Bristow and Manning wrote two more mystery novels, The Gutenberg Murders (1931) and The Mardi Gras Murders (1932). I have no idea if they are anywhere near as divinely alternative as this one. Gwen Bristow went on to write two popular historical novels, The Jubilee Trail and Calico Palace, the former adapted into a glossy color film from Republic with Vera Ralston, Joan Leslie, Forest Tucker, and Pat O’Brien (and screenplay by hubby Bruce Manning).
The Invisible Host was not the basis for the 1939 film The Man They Could Not Hang, though it uses the same basic set up of the ‘host’ gathering his victims in his house and eliminating them one by one.
Beware, some sources confuse this with the earlier Karloff film The Walking Dead, which does use the idea of the victims each dying more or less of his own flaws and foibles, but nothing else similar to the film. The idea of the victims gathered at a lonely location goes back at least to The Cat and the Canary, so neither the book nor the film is wholly new territory.
The book was reprinted in a later paperback edition as The Ninth Guest. The Mystery League edition has an added bonus of sample chapters from books by Edgar Wallace, George Goodchild, Miles Burton, and alternative king Sydney Horler.
And as our hero and heroine escape the deadly trap and the killer bites into the cap of a pen filled with prussic acid…
Leaving Death, that playful unicorn housewife, to tidy up after himself I suppose. Serves him right too, that motley clown of the Quarter.
Editorial Comment: If anyone is interested, the New York Times reviewed the movie version of the book, and you can find it online here.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Bill Pronzini is quite amusing on this book, I remember.
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Curt
Bill’s chapter on this is the reason I read it, though I had heard of it before (I had the 1975 paperback but had never read it). I didn’t re-read his comments before writing this, but probably quoted from some of the same passages simply because you can’t top ‘Death the housewife’ or the ‘playful unicorn’. Bristow wrote a volume of poetry before this, and it seems to have leaked over into this one.
From the review more is made of the butler in the film, where in the book the servants are dismissed out of hand as suspects — being mere servants. I guess Bristow and Manning never read Chesterton’s “The Invisible Man.”
My main interest here was how trite and silly this seems compared to Christie’s version of the same story. And I’ve always liked the Old Dark House theme where the suspects are artificially trapped together with a murderer.
JUBILEE TRAIL and CALICO PALACE (a sequel) were among my mother’s favorite books, so Bristow did improve, or found a genre more suited to her.
Steve
Thanks for the link to the film review. Not having seen the film I didn’t comment on it, and was more interested in tidying up the confusion over the two Karloff films that are some times misidentified as related to the book.
I noticed the film (and I assume the play) kept the names of all the characters save for one, which went from Peter Daly to Jim Daly. I guess Peter was too formal for film audiences?
Knowing Hollywood’s penchant for this sort of nonsense I guess we are lucky we didn’t get ‘Bill’ Holmes and his pal Johnny Watson, though they did change Sam Spade at least once to Ted Shayne.
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Opening night credits for the play:
Berton Churchill as Dr. Murray Chalmers Reid
William Courtleigh as Jason Osgood
Brenda Dahlen as Jean Trent
Owen Davis, Jr. as Peter Daly
Alan Dinehart as Hank Abbott
Grace Kern as Sylvia Inglsby
Thais Lawton as Mrs. Margaret Chisholm
Frank Shannon as Tim Salmon
Robert Vivian as Hawkins
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:14 pm
And for the film:
Donald Cook as Jim Daley
Genevieve Tobin as Jean Trent
Hardie Albright as Henry Abbott
Edward Ellis as Tim Cronin
Edwin Maxwell as Jason Osgood
Vince Barnett as William Jones
Helen Flint as Sylvia Inglesby
Samuel S. Hinds as Dr. Murray Reid
Nella Walker as Margaret Chisholm
and Sidney Bracey as Hawkins, the Butler
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
This basic plot was used in a Lionel Atwill B (C?) film, as I recall, Fog Island, I think? I like Old Dark House Multiple Elimination Round Murders as well. I recently watched the silent version of The Cat and the Canary for the first time and was surprised how much it holds one’s interest.
I used a bit from Bill’s section of GIC on this book, dealing with the “dark secret” of the society matron, the revelation of which causes her to expire on the spot. Wonderfully silly.
It would be interesting to see how the other Bristow-Manning books compare with Host. Probably a surprising thing for a lot of people reading And Then There were None for the first time is that it’s not campy at all. It’s one of Christie’s most psychologically serious books.
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:27 pm
I read this one back in 1976 – I collected the Mystery League books at one point – and I also enjoyed it, from what I can remember at this (very) late date, without thinking it was a very good book. I’ve never read their others.
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I wonder if there’s a list of all the Mystery League books available somewhere. They were sold cheaply in their original editions, or so I remember being told, and at one time not too long ago, they were still very common. Every used book store I used to go into used always had at least two or three of them.
But if you were to look for a complete set in dust jacket now, I think it would be a fairly pricey project. Not many jackets survived, I don’t think.
But of the titles I remember, I don’t believe many were by top notch authors, though I may be wrong about that. (Added later: There were two early Miles Burton’s among the books they published, still probably the two easiest of his books to be found in the US today.)
I seem to remember that Ellen Nehr also collected them, as she took quite a fancy to the cover art. Does that ring any bells with you, Jeff?
— Steve
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:22 pm
As I told you via e-mail, Ellen did a piece with a full checklist of the 30 titles for me in The Poisoned Pen (vol. 2 #6), pages 3-5. There were 30 titles, including the 4 Britow-Manning books and others by Edgar Wallace, Seldon Truss, Francis Beeding, George Goodchild, Miles Burton (his first two, I believe), Sydney Horler, and the egregious James Corbett. The first group was published in 1930 and the final title (will Levinrew’s DEATH POINTS A FINGER) in 1933.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
A good lineup of mostly British writers, though only Wallace had really good sales in the states. Goodchild and Horler rivaled him in England but never here.
The Wallace book the chapter in the back of HOST is taken from is his sf novel DAY OF UNITING. The Miles Burton THE HARDWAY DIAMONDS MYSTERY. George Goodchild’s THE MONSTER OF GRAMMONT, Horler’s PERIL, and Edward Woodward’s HOUSE OF TERROR round out the lot.
But Corbett, Horler, and Bristow and Manning — it’s a cornucopia of alternative classics.
I’ve seen quite a few of these in second hand stores and book sales over the years, but only one, a Horler, in dustwrapper and it only because it was an ex-library copy with a plasti-clear cover taped on.
As I said, I don’t think anyone could call this a good book, but its bad in an interesting way, and the ending touches a little on the end of Christie’s play and the films, if not the novel (Am I alone in thinking the play is superior to the novel?).
The movie doesn’t sound like much, but I bet the stage play was fun. The book actually reads more like it was structured like a play or screenplay and then turned into a novel — which may be true considering Manning’s considerable screenwriting credits. whatever its flaws it is fairly cinematic for a mystery from this period.
Ironically THE NINTH GUEST is a much better title than THE INVISIBLE HOST. I wonder if that title was forced on them by the publisher?
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:51 pm
The Burtons are The Hardway Diamonds Mystery and The Secret of High Eldersham. The first is a pefectly acceptable but unoriginal twenties thriller, the second much more inventive. It was selected by Jacques Barzun for his 100 Classics of Crime Fiction series.
Seldon Truss was not at all a bad thriller writer.
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:03 pm
With Jeff’s assistance, we should be able to get Ellen’s checklist of Mystery League titles online. Whether it will be here on the blog or on the main M*F website, I’m not sure yet — it might depend on how many cover images I can come up with to go with it.
David
I think your suggestion is right that the correct title was THE NINTH GUEST all along, or if not, it should have been.
— Steve
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
[…] David Vineyard reviewed this book a few posts back. Follow the link to find it. In the same issue of Poisoned Pen, Jim also reviewed […]
June 5th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
My recollection is that the book was a hastily written adaptation of the play, not the other way around. Can’t remember where I read that, and I could be wrong. But if I’m not, that would at least partially explain the book’s quality, or lack of same.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
By the way, THE NINTH GUEST is an excellent B movie; one of the many forgotten little jewels of the Thirties.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
I’ve found a non-commercial copy of the movie for sale online. With your recommendation, Ed, and all of the discussion of the book, I think I’ll go for it. You’re also probably right about the play coming first, but unless you or someone comes up with the source that seemed to have some information about it, it may be too late to know for sure.
— Steve
June 28th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
[…] and Manning this movie was nominally based upon, has been reviewed here twice before, once by David Vineyard, the second time by Jim […]