Mary Duncan

Shortly before shedding her snakeskin vamp persona for good by wrapping herself in the ermine confines of Nora Charles, Myrna Loy terrified and terrorized as the murderous mesmerist Ursula Georgi in the pre-Code horror show Thirteen Women. Following a racist sorority's cruel rebuff, half-caste Ursula embarks on a blood-thirsty trail of deceit and murder until only one woman (Irene Dunne) is left to face her. Aside from the allure and interest of its two leading ladies – each on the cusp of their ascension into cinema legend – Thirteen Women's delights are rather more diabolical and devastating than the more domestic concerns of a traditional "Women's Picture." From its breathless and terrifying (and arrestingly staged) opening aerial atrocity through its stabbings, suicides and hidden bombs, Thirteen Women's relentless pace startles and astonishes, ever driven by Loy's portrayal of Ursula's unalloyed and unapologetic evil.

A young man becomes a lawyer after leaving reform school. He eventually rises to assistant DA, but his arrogance almost costs him his career.

Who killed Jenny Wren? An added undercurrent of excitement accompanied this atmospheric mystery's arrival at movie houses. A multi-episode radio version had preceded the release of the film, and listeners were invited to vie for prizes by submitting their ideas on how the broadcast's cliffhanger ending should resolve. Would one of those submittals end up on the screen? Fans would have to see the movie to find out! Karen Morley portrays unfortunate Jenny, who plans to blackmail her rich and powerful paramours at a posh soiree. Instead, she is murdered. A career criminal (Ricardo Cortez) at the gathering, knowing he must act before police arrive and accuse him, takes it upon himself to sift through the clues to discover the Maltese of the whodunit. Combining elements of parlor mystery with the secret passages, stormy nights and strange apparitions of old-dark-house tales, the Selznick RKO unit crafts a clever entertainment.