13 Frightened Girls

Several decades later, I still remember it, and wish it were on video or dvd. William Castle had a unique ability when it came to putting children in dangerous adult situations. His other film that comes to mind here is "Let's Kill Uncle," about a 12 year boy whose life is in dangered by his charming, cunning, financially challenged, ex-spy uncle. I think the bad reviews are a reflection of the fact that the film is hard to catagorize. As a pre-teen I found the idea of a group of young girls from different nations and cultures saving the world very appealing. Kinda fit in with my devotion to the Man From UNCLE.

I just discovered who William Castle is, and even though I've seen and loved Rosemary's Baby, which he produced, I wanted to see the B-movies he's famous for, and this turned out to be a good start.

The movie is about an American teenage girl who goes to a boarding school for the daughters of diplomats. When the spy who works for her father, and she has a crush on is in danger of losing his job, she decides to use her connection to the international students to gather Intel and secretly complete his missions, thus becoming a super spy called the kitten. It's an absolute great premise that was flushed out brilliantly by William Castle.

Interesting concept to the movie is the fact that a girl went to such great lengths for a man she has a crush on. Usually it's the other way around in these types of movies, but Castle was ahead of his time with this concept cause not even in today's film making do you see many stories like that. I feel like I'm almost insulting Castle by saying it's the greatest Disney movie they never made, but in all honesty, this is the movie that Disney should have made. Although they would have to change a few scenes as there are times when in her "missions" it looks like she's going to get raped or murdered and she also causes the death of another spy. So maybe it should not be a Disney movie because part of the charm is the fact that we are shown vividly what a dangerous game this little girl is playing, and Disney would screw that up.

Another interesting concept of the movie is that in a time when espionage was all about cool gadgets and cool dudes, the movie was more realistic of the concept. Wally Sanders, the spy Candy The kitten was crushing on is just a regular guy whose job was to gather Intel, though he did use microfilm, which feels outdated when you can take a picture on your cell phone, he was no James Bond by far, except in the eyes of a teenage girl.

Don't let the title fool you. 13 Frighten Girls! Was a title given to cash in on William Castle's status as a Horror Icon. This is relevant with the trailer that makes it seem like a movie about 13 girls trapped in a school being terrorized by enemy agents. In fact, the only other girl with an actual role to play in this movie is Mai-Ling, Candy's friend whose uncle is a Chinese diplomat, which would automatically make her an enemy during the 1960s, but the two girls manage a friendship despite. See it was made for Disney.

My advice to you is to go see this movie before someone at Disney reads this and decides to remake it. This way, when it comes out and it sucks you'll be able to tell everyone it's not better than the original.

Miss Pittford's Academy for Young Ladies is a Swiss boarding school for the daughters of competing diplomats from various countries. American Candace Hull earns the right to drive the bus for a school trip. She has a desperate crush on secret agent Wally Sanders (Murray Hamilton) who is involved with his work partner Soldier (Joyce Taylor). She is in the Chinese embassy when she accidentally comes upon a murdered man. She becomes secret agent Kitten, a secret even to her father and Wally.

How old is this girl? She's 16 and driving the bus? Then she's chasing around forty year old Murray Hamilton. This is a weird premise of Gidget fights the Cold War. Kathy Dunn is a fine Gidget. It has the feel of a bad Disney movie with murder and suggested sexuality. It's intriguingly despite being weirdly bad. I am never sure if this is intended to be a silly comedy or a serious thriller. It's both and not quite successful in either.

The quick pitch: Candy, the daughter of a US diplomat, uses her position at an all-girls' school to spy on her friends' fathers and the goings on at their respective embassies. What at first seems like harmless fun goes horribly wrong when a Chinese assassin is sent in to put a stop to Candy's shenanigans.

I wouldn't call 13 Frightened Girls all that good, but I wouldn't call it all that bad either. The film kind of feels like Disney took a stab at making a Eurospy film. I could easily see someone like Hayley Mills in the title role. It's all harmless enough fun, but it does lack any real bite. Even when lead-girl Candy is in danger, you know it'll all turn out all right. Take the scene where the Chinese baddies are searching for Candy in the room full of suitcases. It's downright silly. However, I don't think the film is the disaster some reviews would have you believe. I think the movie gets a knock because of the marketing, the title, and the William Castle name. It's nowhere near as lurid or suspenseful as the trailer or poster art would have you believe.

A couple of other things: First, I got a kick out of seeing Alexandra Bastedo (who would later appear in The Champions) in the background as "England". Second, I'm really surprised to see that Kathy Dunn didn't have more of a career in acting. Whether you like the movie or not, I think Dunn did an outstanding job as Candy.

Well this is a weird one. Interesting but weird. A mix of a Gidget type of teenage comedy with a spy spoof. Not sure why it's so hated. Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB rating, for crying out loud. That's completely unfair. It's a cute and harmless little bit of fluff with some funny moments, especially early on. I liked Kathy Dunn and Lynne Sue Moon. Maybe people hate it because it's from William Castle and has a misleading title that makes it sound like a horror movie? I don't know. Admittedly the fun and cuteness of it wears off after awhile. When it seems to take its spy plot seriously is when things get a little dull. But it picks back up towards the end. I didn't think it was bad at all. Ignore the overly harsh criticisms and judge it for yourself.