In Thirteen Women (1932), Myrna Loy (The Thin Man, Best Years of Our Lives) plays a mysterious psychotic named Ursula. Bullied at a posh school by a bunch of mean girls, she has set out to get her revenge on them. Capitalizing on the spiritualism craze of the time and the mighty power of suggestion, Ursula sends each woman a fake astrological chart, accompanied by a letter predicting death, dismemberment, or other calamity. She signs the letters with the name of the fake swami she works for. Each recipient then becomes so obsessed with her letter that the prediction comes true.

Thirteen Women is a distinctive film for several reasons. To name a few: First, Loy’s is the most exaggerated eye makeup captured on celluloid until Divine made her debut. Second, it’s a pre-code production, so it’s got certain elements that would disappear after the film industry began regulating itself in 1934, including happy single moms, career women, and references to mature topics like sex and divorce that wouldn’t reappear in American films until the 1960s. Third, and most importantly, it’s widely considered to be one of the first “slasher movies,” containing some of the initial examples of horror elements that have since become tropes. In other words, it’s perfect for Friday the 13th.

Wayne State University Ph.D. candidate and author Peter Marra will introduce the film. He has studied proto-horror films extensively and is the author of the chapter “Strange Pleasure: 1940s Proto-slasher Cinema” included in Recovering 1940s Horror Cinema: Traces of a Lost Decade (Lexington Books, 2015).

Thirteen Women (1932)
Horror, classic – NR (No explicit sex or violence) – 59 min – Tickets $5 – Get tickets online
Friday, March 13 at 8:00 p.m. only