Flick Friday: Friday The Thirteenth 1933

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IMDb & Amazon Image
Image Credit: IMDb & Amazon

I got lucky, today and found a Friday The 13th movie that had nothing to do with Jason or Camp Crystal Lake. Ninety years, ago, Friday The Thirteenth was released in the UK, at some point in November of 1933. The movie opened in New York on May 14, 1934. Curiously, this movie seems more science-fiction than spook. ~Vic

Directed by Victor Saville, produced by Michael Balcon and written by Sidney Gilliat, George Moresby-White, & Emlyn Williams, it starred Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, Muriel Aked, Cyril Smith, Richard Hulton, Max Miller and, Alfred Drayton.

IMDb & Amazon Image Two
Jessie Matthews as Millie
Photo Credit: IMDb & Amazon

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 windshield 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 of 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 elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash and past it, as some live and some die.

IMDb Storyline

The complicated lives of twelve people travelling on a bus are traced up to the point when the bus crashes into a shop, killing two of the passengers.

BFI Screen Online

In London, near midnight, as a rain storm rages, several people travel across the city on a bus. Of the passengers, one elderly woman seems anxious and upset, a young man who has just been robbed by a pickpocket gratefully accepts money for his fare from another passenger, another man boasts of his knowledge of art, and a young woman angrily destroys a photo of a man. When a lightning strike causes the bus to crash, each passenger recalls what brought them on the ill-fated journey.

Rotten Tomatoes Movie Info

After a London bus crash leaves two people dead and several injured, the clock is turned back twenty-four hours to show the lives of the bus passengers, how they happened to be on that bus at that time, and the effect of the crash upon their lives.

TCM/AFI Synopsis

AllMovie Synopsis (Hal Erickson)
Review: Friday The Thirteenth (1933) (Comet Over Hollywood/Jessica Pickens/April 13, 2018)

You can watch the entire movie on the Internet Archive HERE.

13 thoughts on “Flick Friday: Friday The Thirteenth 1933

    christiansmusicmusings said:
    October 13, 2023 at 10:08 PM

    Sounds like an interesting plot and way more interesting than the famous picture.

    Liked by 1 person

      The Hinoeuma responded:
      October 14, 2023 at 1:17 PM

      When I slow down, I am going to watch it. The franchise, I am tired of. How many times can Jason die?

      Liked by 1 person

    Badfinger (Max) said:
    October 14, 2023 at 11:49 AM

    Hmmm…I’m getting this movie now!

    Liked by 1 person

      The Hinoeuma responded:
      October 14, 2023 at 1:38 PM

      As soon as I slow down, I will be watching it.

      Liked by 1 person

        Badfinger (Max) said:
        October 14, 2023 at 3:20 PM

        Ok I’ll share as you already know… OneDrive is much better

        Liked by 1 person

    Kenneth T. said:
    October 14, 2023 at 3:44 PM

    Sounds like an episode of the Twilight Zone *** before the twilight zone

    Liked by 1 person

    The Oceanside Animals said:
    October 16, 2023 at 10:50 AM

    Lulu: “A Friday the 13th movie without Jason?! We had no idea such a thing existed!”

    Liked by 1 person

    bereavedandbeingasingleparent said:
    October 17, 2023 at 5:34 PM

    I so want to see this movie, I love the old pre wars movies

    Liked by 1 person

      The Hinoeuma responded:
      October 17, 2023 at 8:33 PM

      Hit that Archive link. That is how I watched it. Excellent movie. Someone remarked that it was Twilight Zone-ish before Twilight Zone.

      Like

    doerfpub said:
    October 26, 2023 at 4:20 PM

    This movie has a Crash (2004) feel to me, wonder if they used this as inspiration.

    Liked by 1 person

      The Hinoeuma responded:
      October 26, 2023 at 6:32 PM

      You know, you are right. They are similar…who they were and how they got where they were going. It is quite possible.

      BTW, I moderate my comments. That is why your comment(s) disappeared.

      Liked by 1 person

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