I just saw this movie and I thought it was great. I personally feel that the revenge was just. I would like to have seen a longer version though, where the exact despair of Ursula's childhood is examined in full. We can only imagine what she was going to say when she began, "What your white sailors did . . ." I wish she had finished. This would be perfect as a remake.
Definitely one of Myrna Loy's better performances.
This is one of my favorite films and I'm glad to see that someone else actually digs it. I love Myrna Loy in the early 30's especially when she got cast as the evil female, always wearing interesting make-up with those piercing eyes.
I agree that the film is quite short and my guess is that it was made rather quickly and cheaply. I absolutely hate 95% of all remakes so I wouldn't want them to mess with this little gem. I would love for them to put in on some sort of DVD collection but I don't think that will ever happen because it never even made it to VHS.
I won't give away the end but I'll just say that I loved the bluntness of the conclusion on the train. Irene Dunne recieved top billing on the film but this is really all Myrna.
Dad, I don't think I'm gonna do hampster style anymore
Typically these hour long films were part of a double bill, just FYI.
Great little creeper, this flick. I too am surprised this hasn't been remade yet, although the general theme of the outcast getting revenge against bullies has been explored many times.
I could stare at Loy for days.
im against the remake idea but im definetly agreeing with the 'revenge was just'. i loathe any form of prejudice based on appearance, its very interesting, back in 1932 the audience would still have been rooting for Myrna's downfall, however, now when we watch the film we strangely want her to get away etc.
i too would have liked a more indepth look at the past of the sorierty, but i reckon the film didnt as 1. it was a cheap little B flick ... 2. it presumably would have provoked too much sympathy for the Myrna Loy character which the film was not after.
I don't think that we know enough to have any idea whether whether Ursula's revenge (in terms of basic principle) was just or not.
All we really *know* for an absolute fact that all of the other women had done was to freeze Ursula out of their social circle. That's certainly a very long way from being commendable, but it's also not all the way to being a legitimate justification for mass murder.
We never actually find out why Ursula had been expelled from the school. Had it been caused by a conspiracy of the twelve other girls, thereby legitimizing the attitude of "you took my life, so now I'll take all of yours"? Or was Ursula expelled for a legitimate reason, which she merely rationalized had happened because she wasn't part of "the group"? Or was it something in between; with only some of the girls actually being responsible, and Ursula widening her field of targets to the entire group of fiends? From what we are told in the movie, we don't have any idea. It could have been any of the above.
(As a side note: Ursula seems to be assuming that graduating from that "finishing school" would have acted as a passport that allowed her equal access into that relatively upper class "white society". I'm not convinced that would have been true at the time. There were reasons why, significantly after this, Merle Oberon pretty well kept her mixed race background out of the public eye ..... even after she was an established star. Therefore, it's not entirely clear to me that Ursula's expulsion, as an incident regardless of who was responsible, is more than a "scapegoat" for the prejudices of the society of the times.)
In any event, killing the Swami for the sole purpose of increasing the other women's susceptibility to suggestion is in no way "just". He's a bystander relative to that situation. I don't see how anyone could claim that to have been a justified act.
Similarly, I don't think that using Bobby as a "stand in" target for Irene Dunne is justified either. Some might consider killing her family to be a "fair" punishment for Dunne's character (depending on what she actually had done). My view is: if you're not evil and want a revenge that is actually "justified", then you don't target a 6 or 7 year old who never did anything to anybody.
I totally agree with everything you said in your post, PillowRock.
Laura herself says that just because they were cruel to her as kids doesn't justify murder.
I also agree about the Swami and Bobby being innocent.
Having said all that, you do feel for Ursula because you can imagine what she went through being the only "half-breed" among all the white folk, even if nothing is explicitly stated.
R.I.P. Rick Ducommun and Tony Longoshare
This movie has beeb rehashed as "Theatre Of Blood" (1973). This film is where Vincent Price (Edward Lionhart), and his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), take revenge against all of the theatre critics who gave him bad reviews. He saves the only good guy for last Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry). Sound familiar? I highly recommend seeing BOTH films (I give "Theatre Of Blood " 4 stars and "Thirteen Women" 3 & 1/2).
shareDon't you remember that Ursula said that the white half of her cried out for the "care and protection" that the other girls received? I think she was "passing", and had a white beau. I think that she was "outed" by Laura...who eventually married Stanhope, and had the little boy. That is why Ursula hated her more than the others, and knew instinctively how to break her.
Can you imagine her rage at the woman who humiliated her, took her lover, married him and bore his child?
I'm sure glad this one was "Pre-Code". They never could have made it otherwise. As it was, I think a good ten minutes were probably chopped.
JS
That's a lot of speculation, but it does sound intriguing.
R.I.P. Rick Ducommun and Tony Longoshare
Although I haven't seen it (and probably never will), but the 1975 thriller Psychic Killer sounds like it might be loosely based on Thirteen Women. I just finished Thirteen Women now, and although I liked it, I can't say that I care much for the supernatural element thrown into a mystery-thriller.
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💕 JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen 👍
I love it because it had the balls to kill a innocent child. These days when you see a kid in a movie you know the child will somehow live. It is very predictable. I could not believe my eyes when it happened. I am not advocating death for children. But it is a movie and I believe the predictability of movies today take away from films. I think the whole premise of the movie was very daring at the time.
shareI agree with ^^.
I don't agree with others that said her murders were justified, but I do like the bold plot.
Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com
Huh? You must have seen a different version because no child dies in the version I saw. Bobby lives as far as I know. Are you talking about some other child?
R.I.P. Rick Ducommun and Tony Longoshare
Bobby lives as far as I know.
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