Thirteen Women
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Thirteen Women is a 1932 film, produced by RKO Studios and directed by George Archainbaud.
The film was described as a drama or mystery film, but with its plot revolving around a series of murders, it is also a very early example of the slasher film which became popular in more recent times with films such as Halloween and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The film was not a popular success, however it has acquired a cult film status, and critics have stated that its theme was ahead of its time and out of step with the tastes of early 1930s cinema patrons.
It starred Myrna Loy (in one of her last "bad girl" roles), Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond, Mary Duncan, Kay Johnson and Florence Eldridge. It is also notable for providing the only film role for Peg Entwistle who achieved notoriety when she committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywood sign shortly after the film's release.
When originally released, the film ran for 73 minutes, but when it failed to reach its audience, the studio edited 14 minutes from it. Several characters were deleted, including those played by Leon Ames, and Betty Furness in her film debut in a tiny part at the age of 16.
Thirteen women, former members of a sorority go to a clairvoyant who reads their horoscopes. The clairvoyant is under the influence of an evil woman played by Myrna Loy, who was also a student at the school. Subjected to bigotry during her adolescence because of her Javanese heritage and forced out of the school, as an adult she decides to exact revenge by killing the thirteen women or members of their family. The film follows a formula, new at the time, but since a staple of horror films, of setting up the victims and killing them one by one. By the end of film, and before she is apprehended, Loy has caused the deaths of all but one of the women.
