Thirteen Women

Directed by George Archainbaud, Thirteen Women follows a group of college friends, including Irene Dunne’s Laura and Peg Entwistle’s Hazel, as they’re systematically driven to death by a mysterious figure (Myrna Loy’s Ursula Georgi). It’s a horror-friendly premise that’s employed to erratic yet rewarding effect by Archainbaud, as the filmmaker, armed with Bartlett Cormack and Samuel Ornitz’s screenplay, does an effective job of peppering the thin narrative with a handful of engaging sequences and several stirring performances – with, in terms of the latter, Loy’s scenery-chewing, completely captivating turn as the picture’s larger-than-life villain certainly standing as an ongoing highlight within the proceedings. And while the movie admittedly does, even at 73 minutes, suffer from several lulls and less-than-enthralling spots, Thirteen Women builds towards a tremendously satisfying (and unexpectedly thrilling) final stretch, complete with a terrific jump scare, that ensures it concludes on a thoroughly positive note – which does, in the end, cement its place as a decent-enough, ahead-of-its-time precursor to the slasher genre.

**1/2 out of ****