Thirteen Women

Spiritualism was a craze at the time this was made and hypnosis not really understood by the public at large something of which the scriptwriters took advantage. They concocted this wildly dated, at times preposterous and overwrought meller that if nothing else spotlights a couple of soon to be top stars.

This silly junk was one of Myrna's final Eurasian villainess roles. It's interesting after years of exposure to her as the perfect wife or the level headed, spunky All-American woman to see her in a role that was typical of her pre-stardom days, that of the foreign mantrap. She looks great but is far better than the part deserves. She is noticeably understated while most of the other performers over emote.

Made when sound was in its relative infancy many of the performers are still reliant on over-sized, distracting stage gestures. Irene Dunne starts the picture in subdued fashion but ends up as over the top as everyone else, she's been much better elsewhere. Same goes for Florence Eldridge, a very fine actress usually though she's overblown in this.

Full of actresses of note for one reason or another. Besides Myrna and Irene there is Jill Esmond, first wife of Laurence Olivier, Kay Johnson, a DeMille favorite and the mother of respected character actor James Cromwell and Peg Entwistle, the infamous and tragic actress who threw herself from the Hollywood sign in despair a few days after this film premiered, it's her only film credit. Except for the two leading ladies each only get a scene or two to make an impression.

Fun in a ludicrous way but aside from the cast this is a routine, if outlandish, programmer that were it not for them would be utter forgotten.

This fascinating, hypnotic RKO 'A' film bombed so badly that the studio withdrew it from release, chopped out 15 minutes (from 74 to 59), and disposed of it on the bottom end of double bills. The question is: Why?

Even after 70 years, "Thirteen Women" is an eerie, lushly produced thriller that provides more genuine chills than in any of today's counterparts. For movie buffs, the real treat is seeing Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy (both of whom within a year or two would emerge as two of Hollywood's most bankable and respected leading ladies) slumming in a nasty pre-Code creeper about a half-caste sorority girl (Loy) who enlists the aid of a sinister spiritualist to exact revenge on the prejudiced campus "ladies" who expelled her from their club a few years earlier. One by one, and by devious means, Loy (still playing slant-eyed fiends, but not for much longer, thank God!)meticulously plots and carries out the not-for-the-squeamish deaths of her victims--until the last one alive, Irene Dunne, happily married with an adorable young son, remains her sole surviving target. After her plans to poison the toddler go awry, Loy goes bonkers and boards the train where the police (it certainly takes them long enough to figure out what's going on) have secreted Dunne until they apprehend Loy. The climax--with a dagger-wielding Loy chasing the terrorized Dunne through one car to the next--is a corker--meticulously copied and working equally well a half a century later in the climax of "Terror Train" (with Jamie Lee Curtis duking it out with a transvestite psycho). Even chopped to 59 minutes, "Thirteen Women" is still a landmark horror film. The most baffling mystery is why audiences rejected it in 1932. Perhaps it was ahead of its time. Depression-era loved mysteries--but uncensored exercises in sheer terror like "Thirteen Women" were too scary for comfort (even today, it provokes an unsettling series of shocks that make it the "Psycho" of the '30s--and even the "Psycho" of 30 years later had to overcome initial critical pans before audiences pounced on it and lapped up every sick, terrifying minute.) Hopefully, the 15 minutes a worried RKO cut from the original prints of "Thirteen Women" will be discovered and restored so we may someday see this unexpected treasure as it was intended to be seen. Meanwhile, even the expurgated version (shown occasionally on Turner Classic Movies--check the listings) is as dazzling and brazen a shocker Hollywood turned out in the early 1930s--before the Hayes Office took over and thwarted any further movie from going as gleefully and sadistically over-the-top as the delicious "Thirteen Women." (Even MGM had to severely edit "Freaks" to placate horrified censors and audiences.)

This is an oldie but a goodie, albeit a short one - one of the other comments explains what happened, but no one knows the reason.

Myrna Loy is very beautiful and exotic as Ursula Georgi (which I actually think is an Italian name) who is a half-caste seeking revenge on sorority sisters who kept her out of their group. She uses the power of suggestion, switching their actual horoscopes by mail that they receive from a swami with predictions of doom. One by one, the women die. She ultimately knocks off the swami and turns her sights on the disbeliever of the group, played by Irene Dunne.

Loy would soon break free from exotica with "The Thin Man" series. Mrs. Laurence Olivier at the time, Jill Esmond, appears in the film, as do Ricardo Cortez and Peg Entwhistle. For Entwhistle, the dire predictions in the film played out in real life for her. Shortly after this movie was made, she achieved a lasting fame by committing suicide by jumping from the "Hollywoodland" sign in Los Angeles.

What struck me first about THIRTEEN WOMEN (just shown on TCM this evening), is the fact that it has a musical score by Max Steiner at a time when early thirties movies seldom used much music on the soundtrack for atmospheric purposes. But here, at least, Max does let loose with some sinuous exotic strains for a few scenes.

The second thing was how beautiful MYRNA LOY photographed, playing a half-caste who is determined to avenge what snobbish sorority sisters did to her in finishing school where she was exiled because she wasn't white. Loy at this stage was still playing these exotic roles, complete with slanting eye make-up--but as a woman with an hypnotic gaze she was quite convincing. C. HENRY GORDON as Yogadachi, the fake Swami, was rather hammy here--whereas five years later he was very effective as a turban-wearing Indian in CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

***POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD***

IRENE DUNNE is the last of the sorority girls to survive and the last one to be punished by Loy. However, as suspense builds to a climax aboard a speeding train, Loy's plan fails with the police hot on her trail.

The 59 minute running time means that some fifteen minutes were cut from the original release and it shows. The ending is much too abrupt and before you know it "The End" is flashed on the screen. Someone was busy with the scissors on this one, particularly during those final moments.

Would love to see the complete film some day, but I suppose that's not going to happen if the footage hasn't been restored by now. All the performances are rather standard, including RICARDO CORTEZ as the detective who's able to solve the case. FLORENCE ELDRIDGE is almost unrecognizable as one of the women and KAY JOHNSON is a bit over the top as one of the victims who shoots herself.

Summing up: Not bad and certainly worth a watch.

This campy little coo-coo bird has to be seen to be believed. Beware of anonymously sent bouncy balls. I first saw this film many years ago on the early American Movie Classics (before it was destroyed by commercials and awful movies); I made of point of watching it because I was reading Myrna Loy's autobiography at the time and she mentioned this film.

Modern viewers may be a bit surprised to find that there is really nothing new in film-making; everything in the psychological thrillers and slasher films over the years that terrified you is done here, and better. Like the rest of the reviewers, I am nearly insane with wonder at what the famous missing 15 minutes might hold (I know a scene further developing the Peg Entwistle character was deleted), but the existing version of this film is a tight, entertaining hour of suspense.

Exotic and beautiful Ursula Georgi sets out across America to reek her revenge on those upper crust white gals that ousted her from her school sorority and ruined her chance in life to "pass" as one of the elite. If you can actually locate the book this is based on, it's a very enlightening read, for therein we learn that poor Ursula was whored out as a young girl. An orphanage finally placed in her in the sorority with the rich white girls to save her from her life of degradation and exploitation. I believe Ms. Loy must have read the novel, she plays Ursula with a clear awareness of the horrors of her young past. By ostracizing and then kicking her out of the sorority, the rich snobs destroyed her chance to escape and live among the rich and respectable. No wonder she is murderously furious with them. A round robin letter, horoscopes of dread, the stink-eye from Ursula and former sorority sisters end up in the obituary column one by one.

Even today, this hour long film is tensely paced and engaging. Ricardo Cortez is always a pleasure to watch, a smooth, beautiful man and a superb actor who brings a touch of class to all of his work. Young Myrna Loy is beginning to show the prowess that would make her one of the most successful of all 20th century actors. If you love 1930's films, this is a very unique and interesting one, you won't be sorry.