Thirteen Women

Thirteen Women (1932)

Runtime: 60 minutes (at least that's the only version of it out there that can be found)

Directed by: George Archinbauld

Starring: Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond, Mary Duncan

From: RKO

First off, I will return tomorrow night and yes I will be watching then reviewing a Robin Williams film-I don't know which one yet-so I'll talk all about him then. Hearing that bit of news shocked me as it did everyone else. Until then, the review of this movie:

Here's a film I did not discover until just recently. After reading the plot synopsis I HAD to see it; thankfully I was able to find it and give it a spin. The (sort of racist) IMDb plot synopsis then me talking about it on Letterboxd.

“Thirteen women who were schoolmates send to a swami for their horoscopes. Little do they realize that Ursula, a half-breed Asian, is using her hypnotic powers over the swami and them to lead them or their families to their deaths. It seems that she too went to their school, but was forced to leave by their bigotry, and is exacting revenge. Will she be stopped in time to save Laura's son, Bobby?” To clarify, Ursula is called “half-Hindu” and she does try to kill a little boy. This was definitely before the Hays Code. Now, onto Letterboxd.

Sometimes, you stumble upon a film (whether here or elsewhere) and once you read the plot synopsis you realize you HAVE to check it out. That was the case here with this obscure Precode movie based on an obscure novel by Tiffany Thayer, who was actually a guy.

Here's the plot that got me interested: a sorority does not allow a young lady to join because she's “Half-Hindu”. Well, a few years later this lady (Ursula Georgi, played by a ravishingly lovely and devilish Myrna Loy) gets revenge for this racism by teaming up with a fake swami to create fake horoscopes (or maybe in this case it's horrorscopes) which portended and the women who believe in that malarkey (and horoscopes are malarkey) did end up dying in harsh ways or had bad things happen to them, and as she was “Asian” that meant “mystical” and “possessing magical powers”.

Pretty outrageous, yes, but also a lot of fun.

Sad to say it was made to be the second part of double features; if you don't know, back in that time when you went for a night out at that cinema, you got a newsreel, a cartoon and/or a short (such as one from The Three Stooges) and then a pair of films, the “big” one first then the minor one last; this movie was a minor one. Imagine if it would have gotten more attention and a bigger budget... as is, you have rather vicious deaths/situations and even children being targeted. It was cut from 74 to 59 minutes but allegedly they cut out “boring sections”. Still, only a few girls are affected and not 13 in total.

Point is, while I wish that more time/effort/money would have been attached to it, it's still a macabre and entertaining hour and the general idea (the whole stereotyping and racism stuff can be excised) would probably make for a pretty fun modern slasher/mystery; THERE is the sort of film that should be remade, not something like Total Recall or Robocop or other things that only idiots would think need a remake.