Treize femmes

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.

This is a very unusual film, not least because Myrna Loy, best known for cheerier films, here plays an extremely sinister character. What is more surprising is that she is extremely convincing in that kind of role. There must have been another side to Myrna! Even more unusual, she plays an Anglo-Indian woman. For those who don't know, that means people who were born in India during the Raj who were half English and half Indian. The Anglo-Indians experienced a great deal of prejudice in India because they were not accepted by the Indians, being 'half-breeds', and were also looked upon as inferior by the English. Here, Myrna has a huge chip on her shoulder and is obsessed with resentment at having been treated in a humiliating manner at her boarding school by the other girls. She is, not to put too fine a point on it, dangerously mad. She is determined to get even despite the fact that it is so many years later. She tracks down the other twelve 'girls', now obviously women, and starts killing them one by one. I first came across this film under the title TREIZE FEMMES ('thirteen women'), and wrongly dated 1936, as a DVD release in the RKO Series by Editions Montparnasse in Paris. On its rear cover is the boast, in the form of a quote from Serge Bromberg: 'A rarity never distributed in France' (in French of course.). Well, things have changed, it is now widely available, as more and more forgotten old movies get released. Another reason for the French to get excited was that the film was directed by the French-born director George Archainbaud, who emigrated to America when he was 25 and became a director of 146 films, including the TV series THE LONE RANGER (1949-50), HOPALONG CASSIDY (1952-54), ANNIE OAKLEY (1954-57), and a host of other such Americana. He was therefore very drastically 'un-Frenched' in his new environment, something that the French find incomprehensible, fascinating, and also alarming. The film includes a somewhat subdued performance by Irene Dunne, who four years later would become an eternal icon for her starring role in SHOW BOAT (1936). Both Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy doubled up and played two of the other twelve girls who were minor characters, though this was not revealed in the credits. Another interesting feature of this film is that Myrna uses hypnotic powers to wreak her vengeance. Spell-binding stuff!

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.

Thirteen white women who all went to school together are marked for death by a half-caste woman that they were cruel to as kids. Irene Dunne plays the lead, an early precursor to the Final Girl from slasher movies made decades later. Myrna Loy as the killer is the principal reason to watch. She was cast as Asian or half-Asian a lot in early films. Here, whatever they've done to her makeup-wise works because she's stunning. Ricardo Cortez plays the detective investigating the case. It's nice to see an actual police detective be smart and not bumbling or corrupt. Notable as the only film of Peg Entwistle, a young actress who infamously committed suicide by jumping off of the Hollywood sign. One of the earliest movies with a female ensemble. The racial subject matter is also pretty frank for the time. I mentioned slasher films before. Well, structurally this one is very similar so, in a sense, it's one of the earliest examples of what would become that subgenre. It's a very interesting movie with some good performances, clever direction, and bonus historical value.

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.