Thirteen Women (1932)

I love this movie so much

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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

I've got to admit that this film is far from a great work of art--with a ridiculous plot and some of the sillier story elements I've seen in some time. Because of this, you really need to suspend disbelief to enjoy the film--exactly what you'd have to do with a monster film or fantasy movie. If you CAN'T do this or you are looking for Shakespeare or something with "the Lubitsch touch", you'll probably hate the film. Read on and decide if the film is for you.The film stars Myrna Loy in a completely ridiculous role of playing a woman who is incredibly evil and possessing super-human hypnotic powers. To make it worse, she is supposed to be half-Indian (from the country of India)! This sort of bizarre casting happened several times in Myrna's career before she took on the Nora Charles role from THE THIN MAN--Hollywood producers just didn't know what to do with her. Another great example was her co-starring in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU as a Chinese woman!!! You MUST get past all this to enjoy the film, I know! In addition to Ms. Loy, the film also stars Irene Dunn and Ricardo Cortez. Both did a fine job--in particular Cortez. His role as a police detective was exceptionally well-written, as unlike MOST movie cops of the era, he was smart and didn't make the usual stupid mistakes! He was quite believable and capable in the role.The plot is all about 13 ladies who all went to the same boarding school many years earlier. Apparently, Ms. Loy didn't feel very welcomed at the school and decided to use LOTS of evil dirty tricks to exact her revenge--such as trying to murder their children, pushing them to suicide or actually killing them outright!! She is a truly diabolical and awful (but very fun to watch) nemesis! Additionally, the film breezed along well and featured some excellent and appropriate stunt work. The entire package results in a fun "guilty pleasure"--a fun film for a Saturday afternoon like THE COBRA WOMAN or an Errol Flynn adventure film.

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.

I great film! I liked it because it's got lots of action - suicide, murder, accidents...speeding trains and car chases. LOVED IT! Myrna Loy is styled up into another world...pure Hollywood glamor with a dose of Orientalism. Too divine. The good news is that's not too long....for those of you looking for a high quality flick...me? I'm happy with the costumes and sets. I like to show this one as half of a double feature. I saw this one Turner Classics and I thought the sound and quality of the print were great. The police officer sends a "telephoto" of the suspect. I didn't know they had that technology in 1931. Seemed like a FAX to me. What a stunner that Loy is...and from Montana yet! Billy