At the close of the silent period, William Nigh was one of Hollywood's top directors. I know that's hard to believe, but when you've seen one of his big-budget Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies like Across to Singapore, you will appreciate that Nigh was a director who really knew his stuff. Unfortunately, he had the bad luck to be assigned to Lord Byron of Broadway, a big-budget movie with a poor script and stars that lacked drawing power when Wall Street laid an egg and movie audiences suddenly became very, very particular on how they would spend their limited cash. So, literally overnight, M-G-M gave Nigh the brush and he found himself in Poverty Row were he carved out a new career for himself as a director who could direct a "B" movie on time and on budget. The Thirteenth Man is one of his more interesting movies, even though the plot fails to play square. Fortunately, most audiences won't notice this double cross because Nigh directs at a fast pace and gets realistic performances from his players. However, I did think Selmer Jackson's efforts were too realistic and that he missed a grand opportunity here to demonstrate that he had real ability and was wasted in support roles like this one.
Review of The 13th Man
