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I've been watching "The Mystery of the Thirteenth Guest," a pretty standard 1943 Monogram programmer, on Amazon Prime.

Although the movie itself is rather forgettable, after the main title ran, it occurred to me that they did something a little unusual. First up was the familiar MGM logo, lion and all -- and in color! Next was the older United Artists UA logo, also in color. Then came the ORIGINAL b/w main title, complete with the Monogram logo. As a result, we get to see the "chain of title" as well as the original main title card and artwork.

It seems to me that this is a much preferable way to title a reissued movie, instead of defacing or replacing the original main title card. For example, for years the original and often clever L & H main titles were replaced by a "Film Classics" logo or a Blackhawk Films logo. While I understand that these changes were probably contractually mandated either by the original studio or the reissuer, this way of presenting the credits/title cards and keeping the original main title intact preserves a film's history.

As an aside, possibly because this particular film happened to end up with MGM, the print quality is far superior to most of the current dupey Monogram material now in circulation. SETH

FYI, about a third of the way into the movie, I noticed that the sound was not in sync!

Whether this was a problem with the original negative, or the way a subsequent video or digital transfer was made, who knows? But somewhere along the line, it looks like somebody didn't thread the projector properly at the bottom loop (below the film gate, beneath the intermittent)! SETH