Hot 888 Mama . . . that only the tip of the iceberg will fit this space (though a more extensive treatment is now in the "Top Twenty" of my book project bucket list). As he prepared to do a "Fair and Balanced" rewriting of America's Civil War, in which the Lazy Racist Traitors would be recast as the "Good Guys" (!), infamous Tinseltown Producer "Dave Zitsmuglethorpe III" tackled THIRTEEN WOMEN as a beta project experiment in the Power of Mass Hypnotic Suggestion. He figured that if A)He filmed a flick about a lady killing herself just because her astrologist told her to, and B)If the Real Life actress he coerced into this mind-bending role as her movie debut could be persuaded by his studio shrink to kill herself FOR REAL by jumping off the "H" in the "Hollywoodland" sign (as it read back then) during THIRTEEN WOMEN's opening weekend, and C)If he could callously capitalize on this True Life calamity to still persuade a gullible U.S. public to pony up their dough to see his snuff film, then D)It would prove that he could switch to a even less ethical but more lucrative film studio to make Abe Lincoln die in vain, and guarantee that statues of the KKK's founder would continue to lord it over the victims of Slavery's Whipping Posts and the on-going Black Holocaust for seven or eight more decades. Zitsmuglethorpe III will go down as one of History's most evil villains, and THIRTEEN WOMEN will be remembered as his Black Sabbath Baptismal Fount.

bkoganbing 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.

wes-connors 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

moonspinner55 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 many years ago 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 anti-climactic finish. It may be just enough of a curio to garner a desperate audience, however anyone looking for the Golden Age of Hollywood would be well-advised to duck for cover. ** from ****