Thirteen Women (1932) User Reviews (48)

Be kind to your classmates or........

[krorie · 6/10 · 6 November 2005]

I looked forward to seeing this film on TCM. I was disappointed in what I saw. I've read that several minutes were cut from the original for censorship and other reasons and have never been restored. Even Turner who usually attempts to present features uncut and in as pristine condition as is humanly possible hasn't done much with this early talkie, even the sound was bad. So I have to go with what I saw. First, being an early talkie, many of the actors were still gesticulating and shouting their lines as if on stage or doing a silent flick. Particularly guilty of this was C. Henry Gordon who played a key character Swami Yogadachi. Fortunately for the viewer he is killed not long after the movie begins. The two future divas, Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy, do much better and appear very modern with their acting skills. Ursula Georgi (Myrna Loy) is sinister and evil to the core yet smiles like an adorable angel. Irene Dunne as Laura Stanhope plays the type role that she would perfect in later movies. Ricardo Cortez as Police Sergeant Barry Clive does a decent job in a role that isn't all that demanding.

Second, the writing is good with an intriguing plot: twelve former classmates of a boarding school are being killed off by rejected classmate number thirteen through the use of phony horoscopes. The plot should have enabled the story to move along at an even pace. Yet there are places in this approximately one hour film that are very boring. These boring stretches are broken by a few exciting moments. The trapeze scene is a dandy as is the final scene aboard the fast-moving train. Cinematography is exceptional in some places considering the age of the film, especially the final scene featuring Myrna Loy. Also impressive is the car chase sequence when the chauffeur is attempting to make a getaway with Laura Stanhope captive in the back seat.

Third, though the racial prejudice angle is bold and enlightening for 1932 when Hollywood was notorious for racial stereotyping, it actually only figures in at the very end of the movie in one extremely well-done and well-written scene when the two protagonists Ursula and Laura (Loy and Dunne) confront one another in a spell-binding moment of truth and retribution.

How long must we wait until a restored version of this film is released on DVD so we can make a more accurate assessment?

See it for the cast

[jjnxn-1 · 6/10 · 15 June 2014]

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.

Interesting little museum piece from 1932...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 3 October 2006]

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.

Sorority killings and torment

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 16 June 2014]

Watching Thirteen Women I wonder what Merle Oberon must have thought. She lived in real life what Myrna Loy's character was experiencing in the film. It was only after she died that it came out that Merle was of mixed racial origin. She successfully passed her entire life.

Loy who was in fact Caucasian until she became the incarnation of the perfect wife and mother played a whole lot of these exotic characters. She borrows a bit from her performance as Fu Manchu's daughter in playing a woman who is exacting terrible revenge on members of a sorority at a finishing school who discovered her background and used it to get her expelled. It was her ticket into the white world and respectability as she saw it.

Using C. Henry Gordon as a phony swami she has unpleasant horoscopes made against her thirteen enemies. Loy doesn't want to just kill them, she wants to torment them and uses Gordon as her means. Loy wants maximum satisfaction.

In the case of Irene Dunne who she sees as her chief enemy Loy also has plans for Dunne's child as well.

A whole lot of women dominate this film as the sisters like Kay Johnson, Jill Esmond, Florence Eldridge and more. Ricardo Cortez plays the police sergeant who tracks down Loy and Edward Pawley plays another of the men she uses in her fiendish schemes.

As this was a before the Code film, there was some frank talk about racism under the guise of snobbery. No doubt that Dunne and the rest were guilty of it. It drove Loy off the deep end and she enacts a terrible vengeance.

A really good before the Code film that should be better known.

Notable Thriller

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 16 June 2014]

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.

don't mess with sorority rejects

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 20 August 2005]

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.

fascinating use of racism as plot motivator

[jenniolson · 5/10 · 24 August 2005]

It's a true over the top melodrama and it's not really surprising that it didn't do well at the box office. The most amazing thing is that you don't get the full impact of the plot until the very end when Myrna Loy as the strangely exotic Ursula Georgi explains to the ivory white Irene Dunne how she had wanted so badly to pass as white at the finishing school they attended, and that the reason she took her revenge was because they had rejected her as a half-caste.

"Do you know what it means to be a half-breed, a half-caste, in a world ruled by whites?" Myrna Loy hisses. "I spent six years slaving to make enough money to put me through finishing school, to make the world accept me as white. But you, and the others, wouldn't let me cross the color line."

"But we were young," whimpers Irene Dunne. "Maybe we were cruel. But you can't use that to justify murder!"

"I can," says Myrna calmly as she slowly moves closer towards Irene to hypnotize her (this bit also looks a LOT like the lesbian seduction scene in Dracula's Daughter).

This was one of many, many such roles for Myrna Loy who played everything from Latina to Chinese in her early Hollywood career.

Perfect Rainy-night Fright Film

[mrsastor · 8/10 · 25 June 2008]

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.

Myrna Loy is really scary in this rarity

[robert-temple-1 · 7/10 · 25 June 2016]

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!

Not Quite 13 Women

[Bucs1960 · 5/10 · 17 November 2008]

There may have originally been 13 women targeted for revenge but the cutting of the film obviously lessened that number considerably. Nevertheless, this story of one woman's mission to do away with the girls who snubbed her for sorority membership is worth watching.

Myrna Loy, again playing the role of an Eurasian, is beautiful and mysterious as the revenge seeker. Due to her unusual beauty, she made her early career playing exotics and the low-key lighting of this film served her well in some of her scenes. Included in the cast are the then Mrs. Laurence Olivier (Jill Esmond), Irene Dunne and Peg Entwhistle (whose tragic real-life leap from the Hollywoodland sign is her only claim to fame). I could not identify Ms. Entwhistle so it is possible that her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

Ricardo Cortez plays the detective although he usually was cast as a villain, mob boss or gigolo. He doesn't appear until late in the film which might also say something about the cutting of part of the story. C.Henry Gordon, a stalwart in 1930s film, plays a swami advising Loy with his usual panache. She has her way with him eventually adding to the body count.

It's true that the film is dated and a bit overwrought but for my money it is a good entry into the early RKO thriller category

Irene Dunne vs. Myrna Loy square off in a terror train.

[sdiner82 · 9/10 · 28 August 2003]

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.)

Chronicle of deaths foretold

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 4 October 2006]

Swami Yogadachi seems to have a knack for predicting the future. When he tells Ursula Georgi what hers will be like, she reminds him that he, too, will die a horrible death. Yogadachi, who has been the favorite of some of the well-to-do women who were together in college, rules over their lives, except with the grounded Laura Stanhope. Laura, who has witnessed some of her former class mates die in mysterious circumstances, is not immune to a threat that comes her way and involves her young son.

"Thirteen Women", directed by George Archainbaud, is a hybrid film that showcased some actresses that were making their mark in Hollywood. Of course, this film would not have a chance to be made today because even with a couple of stars, it would be prohibitive. The film is a curiosity because it's seldom played. As Neil Doyle pointed out in this forum, "Thirteen Women" boasts a music score by the great Max Steiner, at a time when music didn't play an integral part of most pictures of the period.

Irene Dunne makes a rare appearance in this film of mystery and esoterica. She usually was seen in comedies that catered to her talent for that type of feature. Myrna Loy appears as yet another one of her evil Asian women, a person of mixed blood who was ostracized by the snobs in college, and now wants her revenge. Ricardo Cortez plays the police detective investigating the different crimes involving the sorority sisters. Jill Esmond, Kay Johnson, Mary Duncan, Florence Eldridge, and C. Henry Gordon, who plays the Swami, do a good job.

Myrna Loy with Killer Looks

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 22 July 2010]

With a trapeze mishap, the "Marvel Circus" begins a series of horrifying accidental deaths, which seem to be hypnotically predicted by an exotic "Swami" from the Far East. As the bodies pile up, a connection becomes clear; they are among the "Thirteen Women" who attended a boarding school with sexy mystic Myrna Loy (as Ursula Georgi). It quickly becomes evident that Ms. Loy is seeking revenge against twelve schoolgirls. They were cruel to, and exposed Loy, who was trying to pass as white. "Do you know what it means to be a half-breed, a half-caste in world rule by whites?" Loy asks. Sensible Irene Dunne (as Laura Stanhope) tries to reassure the still friendly women, but they are understandably wary. Handsome detective Ricardo Cortez (as Barry Clive) investigates the deaths, which threaten to include Ms. Dunne's cute son. There are a few good moments, but they don't add up.

***** Thirteen Women (9/16/32) George Archainbaud ~ Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond

This movie horror scope reads, will have mesmerizingly killer looks. I have to agree. I kinda like this movie.

[ironhorse_iv · 6/10 · 21 June 2015]

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

Campy and entertaining

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 1 April 2017]

Campy and entertaining, there are flashes of brilliance here: tight shots on Loy, made up as an evil Indian mystic bent on getting revenge against her old classmates, some scenes where tension is built up rather nicely (I won't spoil them), and even a car chase scene, 1932-style. You'll have to suspend disbelief over the concept that the mind can be controlled by another via 'waves', but that's part of the fun. Loy's motivation is revealed towards the end as she confronts Irene Dunne, and it reveals the racial climate of the times: as a "half-caste Indian half-breed", she was not allowed to "pass" as white in a sorority. As she explains it, for half-breed men this meant being a coolie, and for a woman, she simply shrugs, implying prostitution. As with many films treating race relations at the time, it has a mixed message, on the one hand, pointing out the unfairness of the sorority (and how racist its rules were), and on the other, elevating fears of violence by non- Caucasians. It's interesting that the film has quite a bit of the framework of the modern thriller in it, but it's not fleshed out as much as it ideally would have been, and seems abrupt in places. Finding out that the original release was 14 minutes longer could explain that, but I have to review it for what survives. You could do worse, and it's actually kind of a fun movie. Oh, and last point – interesting to see Peg Entwistle in her only credited screen role, before jumping from the 'H' in the Hollywood(land) sign in despair. Watch for her character 'Hazel' early on.

a beguiling movie

[ben_dude54401 · 7/10 · 3 October 2006]

Just finished watching this film...decided to watch it mainly to see Peg Entwistle, the Hollywood sign girl. She sure didn't have much of a part, and after i read the suicide note of hers, i wondered how much of this movie (13 women) had an effect on her depression and plans for suicide.

Hard to believe that at such a young age, and with some promise, she'd throw it all away so fast. Earlier this year, I was in Hollywood and saw the house (still standing) that she lived in when she decided to end it all. It is quite a hike up to the sign from that house, and I imagine at that time, probably was a dirt road. She certainly had time to think about what she was doing, when she was climbing up there.

Also, I do recall a certain interview of Bette Davis, where she fondly remembers Peg Entwhistle...and said she was an unbelievable talent.

Anyway, that was a long long time ago, and sometimes, it seems silly to remember such an insignificant part of Hollywood history. The irony is, that her name will always be remembered now....as the Hollywoodland Sign girl.

Needs a Stylist

[dougdoepke · 12 December 2008]

No need to repeat points made by others. One unmentioned ingredient the movie sorely lacks is mood, which is usually established by visual style. In short, the movie has no visual style to complement the eerie proceedings. Instead, director Archainbaud films in unimaginative, straightforward fashion, using high-key lighting even in those spooky situations crying out for shadow. That's not surprising since the bulk of the director's career was spent helming undemanding Gene Autry half-hours for early TV. No wonder the pass-off stunt between the two cars in this film is so expertly handled. Archainbaud was an action director and clearly the wrong man to develop a Gothic exercise like Thirteen Women. Think what a great visual stylist like Edgar Ulmer (The Black Cat) or Tod Browning (Dracula; Freaks) could have done with the same dark material. For example, note the weird looking interior constructed for Ursula's two- story abode. It's a real eye-catcher but goes unaccented by Archainbaud's pedestrian style. Think what Ulmer, in particular, would have done with that bizarre set-up. Then too, maybe a more attuned director or producer could have prevented the studio from butchering the contents with its notoriously clumsy deletions and departures. Nonetheless, mood or no mood, cat-eyed Ursula (Loy) can cast a spell on me any day of the week and the proverbial twice on Sunday, that is, if I can manage it.

Some very good scenes, but too much unrealized potential

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 7 January 2018]

"Thirteen Women" is a film with lots of promising ingredients. First of all, it's one of the few 1930s thrillers that actually embrace the supernatural and do not try to explain it away "rationally" in the last scene. Secondly, the plot does anticipate the 1980s slasher movie. Myrna Loy is awesome as a villainess, and there are some very good scenes throughout (the circus "accident", the train "suicide" (excellent acting by Kay Johnson, she really makes it look like there are two minds fighting for control of her body), the car chase). But the movie suffers from the apparently massive pre-release cuts and deleted parts; in its present form, a more accurate title would be "Five Women"! And why does Loy, with her irresistible hypnotic powers, resort to poisoned candy and exploding balls to hurt people in the second half of the film? This story had so much potential, but most of it was cut off in the editing room. ** out of 4.

Great thriller featuring two future superstars-Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne.

[thesilverscreen · 10/10 · 19 August 2000]

This wonderful thriller stars Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy before they were superstars. It is based on the book by Irene Thayer. Myrna Loy wasn't treated was rejected by a college sorority group, and now she plans revenge on them.

This motion picture also has Peg Entwhistle as Hazel Cousins. This tragic beauty committed suicide not long after the picture was released, but she killed herself in a rather strange way. She jumped off of the letter H in the HOLLYWOOD sign.

Corny But Disturbing Too

[Handlinghandel · 6/10 · 28 August 2005]

This initially attracted me because it sounded like a good laugh. Lots of female stars and demi-stars, a dated and overblown plot. One of Hollywood's legendary suicides: Peg Entwhistle. And Myrna Loy playing a character described twice as "half-Japenese, half-Hindu." Ms. Loy comes across better than she does in some of her other early, exotic roles. She is the villain and a terrible villain. But she looks lovely. And, as evil as she is, she is poignant: She causes so much trouble in the lives of the other women because they had been prejudiced against her in boarding school.

(It's kind of a very early prototype of "Heathers," a movie I looked forward to but did not like.) The way the other women die is disturbing. One doesn't meet her sister in their trapeze act. One is drawn to shoot herself while riding a train ....

Kay Johnson is the one who does the latter and her confusion and distress made me think of another later movie I also don't like but found upsetting: "The Witches of Eastwick": Myrna Loy, may I introduce you to Jack Nicholson?

A hoot for Myrna Loy die-hards...

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 5 June 2007]

Myrna Loy in one of her earliest--and perhaps silliest--roles, that of a half-caste named Ursula Georgi who strikes back at the women who ostracized her years before at a girls' school in San Francisco using "the power of suggestion." Loy, ever the outcast, looks made-up for a night with Fu Manchu; with her colorful appearance and eyes glinting with delicious revenge and evil satisfaction, one may assume Myrna was getting a kick out of these overwrought proceedings. Although the film was produced by RKO and probably had a fairly large budget for 1932, it seems tatty and awkward, and saddled with an anticlimactic finish. It may be just enough of a curio to garner a desperate audience, however anyone looking for a prime example of the Golden Age of Hollywood would be well-advised to duck and cover. ** from ****

Written in the Stars?

[movingpicturegal · 8/10 · 4 October 2006]

Odd and mysterious film revolving around a woman described as a "Hindu half-breed" (played by Myrna Loy) who writes fake horoscope predictions under the guise of a famous Swami and mails them to a circle of former female classmates to get even with them. Death and suicide is the norm for these "predictions", which somehow start to come true just based on the power of suggestion. One woman receives a horoscope predicting the death of someone close to her - then, oh dear, the power of persuasion is in full force when she and her sister perform their "world famous double flip done without a net" flying trapeze circus stunt and the sister falls to her death. Luckily a bright cop is soon on the job to solve the mystery and put an end to these "horoscope murders".

This film is short, fast-paced, mysterious, and quite good, actually. Myrna Loy is fine in her performance, using her hypnotic eyes in close-up to seduce unwilling partners - and victims, though the very heavy eye makeup on her here isn't exactly grounds for making her believable as half Asian. Irene Dunne is excellent in this too, as the classmate who tries to persuade the others to use reason and not believe these silly horoscopes, then has Loy on her back trying to "break" her - by sending poisoned candy and a ball with a bomb to try and kill Dunne's little boy. Yeah, you got it - a real evil piece of work, that woman. Quite a good film, well worth seeing.

A delicious coming out for Myrna Loy

[user-35583 · 7/10 · 15 March 2020]

This film follows the gorgeous Myrna Loy as Ursula the understudy to the a great Swami who scams people with wild predictions of their futures - mostly through correspondence with his clients. Myrna is soon in charge and casting a spell on a variety of society women. Loy stands out in what started as a small role but expanded during filming. Loy exploded on the screen in coming years and by 1936 was voted top Hollywood star along side Clark Gable.

The "Eyes" have it, its a flop.

[Ed-Shullivan · 4/10 · 11 November 2021]

There were an abundance of great films released in the 1930's but I don't think this film passes the mustard. Myrna Loy plays a vindictive half breed (her words, not mine) who seeks vengeance against the former high school mean girls who rejected her, and benefitted from being raised as white American women of privilege. All Myrna Loy had to do was give any man or woman a certain look and with the assistance of forging a Swami's name in a personalized letter outlining how they would meet their untimely death(s) the power of suggestion would take over and they would die or be murdered.

Much like a runaway train that couldn't be stopped Myrna Loy was out of control and she took the last train to her own untimely death.

I give the film a blah 4 out of 10 IMDB rating.

pretty good

[KyleFurr2 · 7/10 · 5 September 2005]

This movie stars Irene Dunne playing a woman who is successful and has a kid. Dunne was leader of a group in school that were popular and really tormented Myrna Loy. Several years later several of the girls start to die just like there horoscopes say and Dunne at first just thinks it's nonsense but learns it's real when her son receives some poisonous chocolates. Dunne goes to the police and they found out Myrna Loy is behind the killings because she was a halfbreed and her life was ruined by Dunne and the other girls at school. Leonard Maltin only gave the movie two stars and in his review says it is only 73 minutes long but on Turner Classic Movies it is only 59 minutes long.