Thirteen Women (1932)

I love this movie so much

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

. . . each more politically incorrect than the last, concerning ten little somethings. But when viewers went to their local drive-in to see the actual film version of Dame Agatha's tale, there actually were TEN of something (plus a Who-Done-It break to place your bet will the other folks in the Microbus as to WHO the killer was, and buy some concessions, of course). The skimpy movie studio behind THIRTEEN WOMEN (run by notorious tightwads) takes its source material less literally, however. At least two of the titular females were left on the cutting room floor (which sounds like a good start at producing a better horror feature than THIRTEEN WOMEN). Obviously, the producers of THIRTEEN WOMEN should have bought the rights to the title ELEVEN WOMEN, but I assume that the copyright holders may have demanded 50 cents too much.

Somewhere written in the stars, made me, want to see this movie. Call it the power of suggestion, but I found this beautiful female ensemble film, pretty interesting. Directed by George Archainbaud, this psychological hypnosis thriller was based on the 1930 bestselling novel by Tiffany Thayer, of the same name. The story tells the story of 13th women, who were once into the occult. During their time as sorority sisters, they mistreated, and condescension, another woman, Ursula Georgi (Myrna Loy), because of her mixed-race heritage. 15 years later, all the girls, receives a horoscope letter from fame, swami, Yogadachi (C. Henry Gordon), foreseeing their end, because of that one crude act. Soon enough, the women started to be die in mysterious tragic ways. Fearing for her life, one of the 13th women, Laura Stanhope (Irene Dunne) to eager to find a way to stop the terrific curse, by confronting the dark figure from the past, in a last ditch attempt to save herself and her family. Without spoiling the movie too much, the movie is very entertaining, despite it, being really dated. While, the special effects are bit rough like the flowing head. It's still works. The action scenes like the slow car chase might seem bit silly, today. It's still intense, watching it. The acting is alright for the most part, but there are way too much characters to keep track of. All of the women, look way too much like each other. The ones that stand out, were a joy. Loy and Dunne were superb. In a rather creepy parallel event, one of the supporting actress, Penny Entwistle, commit suicide, a few weeks, before the movie release by jumping from the Hollywoodland Sign, due to her screen time here being cut-down and her career dying down. Many believe, this movie is haunted, because of that. While the movie might seem like very one-dimension, it's not. Made, before the Hays Code, the movie tackle a lot of deep social issues, such as religionist practices, social classes, women rights, miscegenation, and others. In many ways, Thirteen Women was one of the first exploitation films that feature many lurid subject matters. One of the biggest issues that the movie often, get criticize for, is the way, it seem to present the film's concept of race. While the movie might be look upon, as racist, outdated, xenophobia propaganda, to a lot of modern audiences. The movie does have some moments that taught people, to be a little more racial tolerance and respect, toward people of another race or a mixed-race, in some degree. This little message, would often be, overlook, due to the highly offensive and often preachy, racial purification message that this movie was presenting. The movie haves this idea that mixed breeding is wrong and by doing it, would lead to demon-like supernatural spawns that will seek revenge on the purists. I really found this part of the film to be a bit misleading since genetic diversity has been going on, since the beginning of time. After all, most Caucasian are already mixed-breed on their own, way before this movie came out. The movie would later, contradict this, by pushing making a statement, about race and the social stratification, through the eyes of Ursula Georgi. While, Ursula is play as the villain, in the film, in many ways, the writers made her, seem more like the victim in a way. The movie gave her, a lot more depth and heart that a normal 1930s villain might get. I can relate to her. She was indeed a complex character who often told the truth, more than lie. It's true, that fair-skinned people, in the 1930s had more social freedoms, than minorities. The only problem with this plot, is that Ursula Georgi looks white and could be easily mistaken for one. It's really hard to believe, that Ursula wouldn't be able to gain the same social opportunities as the other women, due to her race. I really find it, funny that Myrna Loy's character is supposed to Javanese mixed with Indian, but she shows, none of the characteristic of being, from that area. It's somewhat also outrageous, how little, the writers know Indian culture. They portray the often peaceful Hinduism religion as an evil devil-worshipping occult to the point that it felt like it was self-referential, something else. I know that, many modern audience today probably couldn't look deeper into the film, due to how offensive, the film is, but I found the movie to be, a little more gripping in its storytelling. I see the film, as a foreshadowing metaphor for the rise of Nazism. There are lots of examples in this film that point to this theory. It's very plausible. Still, I really don't know, if the movie was trying to be anti-racist, or racist. That movie message came across as very clumsy and very un-coherence as the movie seem to no clue, what it was presenting. It change a lot of things from the source material. In no-way, can be compare to better than the book. The movie also falls short of being an uncommonly deep, due to it, feeling a bit incomplete. This might be because, 14 minutes were removed before the movie's release due to censorship disrupts. Due to this, the movie has a lot of awkward cut-scenes with star-shape fade outs. While the movie is call; 13th women; in truth, the film only portrays eleven ladies, due to these awful editing cut scenes. The movie ends in a mere 59 minutes, which is way too short. Sadly, the delete scenes were never put back in, as those scenes were presumably lost even today. The Warner Archive Collection's DVD-R of this movie tries to have a good version, but while it's transfer of this is great. Some reels still have light scratches and scattered dust. Still, overall: this movie is a highly eccentric, vintage RKO thriller, worth the watch. I do recommended

Poor Myrna Loy. Before finding her Nick Charles in William Powell, she was subjected to racist roles in movies like this and "The Mask of Fu Manchu". In her early career, she either had wild hair or overly made up exotic eyes. This is one of the few genuine disasters made at RKO during the 30's. Loy plays a "half-caste" (Japanese and Indian, and apparently Caucasian) who vows vengeance on a dozen classmates who made one year of her life miserable. For some reason, the girls have their stars read, which all spell disaster for them, not knowing that vengeful Loy works for the man reading their fortunes. Two sisters are seen working in the circus which leads to a chilling scene of the anticipation of disaster, then another falls prey to the prediction of her involvement in murder. Loy meets another one on the train whom, it is predicted, will commit suicide. Then, there is kindly Irene Dunne, a mother of a young boy Loy wishes to have killed to destroy Dunne. This leads to a scene with Loy's lover (who happens to be Dunne's chauffeur!) driving Dunne to the police station with a bomb hidden in a ball meant for the boy. The chauffeur bounds out of the speeding car, leading Dunne to have to drive it herself from the back seat without her feet on the peddles. And what happens since the police are in pursuit? The chauffeur manages to escape while Dunne must face off with Loy on a train leading to a disappointing conclusion that could have been a lot more chilling. There were some great ideas in this story of revenge, but unfortunately, the writers did not expand on what could have still been offensive but truly eerie. Loy is never totally believable as the evil woman, while Dunne and the others are sadly wasted. Even Ricardo Cortez, as the police investigator, is ill-used in this mess which fortunately wraps up in just 60 minutes to avoid any more waste of time.

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.