Thirteen Women is a 1932 American pre-Codepsychological thriller film, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by George Archainbaud. It stars Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne and Ricardo Cortez. The film is based on the 1930 bestselling novel of the same name by Tiffany Thayer and was adapted for the screen by Bartlett Cormack and Samuel Ornitz. Several characters were deleted from the film's final version, including those played by Leon Ames, Phyllis Fraser, and Betty Furness. The film portrays only eleven women, not thirteen, with Fraser and Furness playing the two characters edited out of the film. The film premiered in October at the RoxyTheater in New York City on October 15, 1932, then released in Los Angeles, and a few other cities in November 1932. A limited national release came in 1933. Originally running seventy-three minutes, the studio edited fourteen minutes out of the picture prior to release. The film was re-released in 1935 by RKO, hoping to turn a profit by cashing in on the growing popularity of stars Dunne and Loy. Thirteen Women has been cited as an early "female ensemble" film, as well as an early influence on the "slasher film" genre.
Plot summary
Thirteen women, who were sorority sisters at the all-girl's college St. Alban's, all write to a clairvoyant "swami" who by mail sends each a horoscope foreseeing swift doom. However, the clairvoyant is under the sway of Ursula Georgi, a half-Javanese Eurasian woman who was snubbed at school by the other women owing to her mixed-race heritage, behavior which eventually forced her to leave school. She now seeks revenge by manipulating the women into killing themselves or each other. She also goads the clairvoyant into killing himself by falling into the path of a subway train. The victims are set up and killed off one by one until Laura Stanhope, living in Beverly Hills, is one of the few still alive. With the help of Laura's chauffeur and lover, Ursula tries to kill Laura's young son, Bobby, with both tainted candy and an explosive rubber ball, but is thwarted. Ursula follows Laura and Bobby as they flee Beverly Hills by train, unaware that police sergeant Barry Clive is escorting them. After confronting Laura, and apparently hypnotizing her into falling asleep, Ursula enters Bobby's room and is caught by Clive. She then flees to the back of the train and jumps to her own death. In this film, actor Edward J. Pawley received his first screen kiss. He would go on to appear in over 50 movies during his 10-year career in Hollywood, playing mostly "bad guy" roles with some of Hollywood's greatest actors.
Thirteen Women features the only film appearance of actress Peg Entwistle. Entwistle became despondent over her career and jumped to her death from the Hollywood Sign on September 16, 1932. The film premiered in New York on October 15, and in Los Angeles in November. Entwistle had a supporting role in the original cut, with scenes running approximately sixteen minutes. After the film performed poorly for test audiences, her screen time was cut to four minutes. The character played by Entwistle, that of Hazel Cousins, is a married woman in the film, who kills her husband and goes to prison. In the book, Hazel is a virgin who remains so simply because she is considered too beautiful; men are either too intimidated to approach her, assume she is married or engaged or believe that she will break their heart. Hazel eventually becomes a lesbian after she is seduced by the wife of the doctor treating her for tuberculosis, and starves herself to death in a sanitarium while suffering the heartache of having been abandoned by her lover Martha. In both the book and movie, May and June Raskob are twin sisters who work in a circus, but in the book they are overweight sideshow attractions, rather than photogenic trapeze artists as in the film.
