{"id":2344,"date":"2007-02-20T12:52:13","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T19:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2344"},"modified":"2022-01-14T10:26:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T17:26:41","slug":"13-frightened-girls-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2344","title":{"rendered":"13 Frightened Girls (1963)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;The cover&#8217;s unbelievable &#8212; it&#8217;s a natural, the dream of a lifetime. The daughter of a diplomat can go anywhere she wants!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/13-Frightened-Girls-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/13-Frightened-Girls-Poster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/13-Frightened-Girls-Poster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/13-Frightened-Girls-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/13-Frightened-Girls-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe daughter (Kathy Dunn) of an American diplomat (Hugh Marlowe) acts as a spy in order to protect the job of her secret agent crush, Wally (Murray Hamilton).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amateur Sleuths<\/li>\n<li>Cold War<\/li>\n<li>Hugh Marlowe Films<\/li>\n<li>Spies<\/li>\n<li>Teenagers<\/li>\n<li>William Castle Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThree years after directing the gimmicky horror flick <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1828\"><em>13 Ghosts<\/em> (1960)<\/a>, schlockmeister William Castle returned to the selling power of this infamously unlucky number with his <em>13 Frightened Girls<\/em> &#8212; strictly a marketing ploy, since the &#8220;13 girls&#8221; (beautiful daughters of diplomats from around the world) don&#8217;t make a meaningful appearance <em>en masse<\/em> until the final moments of the film, at which point they&#8217;re giddy rather than frightened. Instead, <em>13 Frightened Girls <\/em>turns out to be an unrealistic yet fluffily enjoyable tale of a teenage Mata Hari &#8212; code name &#8220;Kitten&#8221; &#8212; who is conveniently able to discover one valuable state secret after the other through her friends. <\/p>\n<p>Kathy Dunn &#8212; Louisa in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibdb.com\/production.asp?ID=2796\">the original Broadway version of &#8220;The Sound of Music&#8221;<\/a> &#8212; is excellent in the lead role: her cheery good looks, blonde tresses, and all-around pluck are reminiscent of her more famous counterpart, Hayley Mills. Though she finds herself in a heap of trouble again and again &#8212; and some scenes are genuinely tense &#8212; the film&#8217;s cartoonish score fortunately reassures us that our heroine won&#8217;t ever suffer <em>serious <\/em>harm. If you&#8217;re able to accept the improbable details of the story (why are <em>all <\/em>the diplomats&#8217; children teenage girls of the same age?); awful performances by the &#8220;girls&#8221; (most of their acting careers went nowhere after this film); and occasionally stilted dialogue (&#8220;Candy, you must go&#8211; There is much danger!&#8221;), you might find yourself guiltily enjoying this innocuous Cold War trifle. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kathy Dunn&#8217;s appealing, energetic performance in the lead role<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/Girl4.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/Girl4.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2343\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>A fun, if highly unrealistic, &#8220;Nancy Drew&#8221; premise<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/Kitten.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/Kitten.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2341\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. It&#8217;s not clear why Peary includes this enjoyable yet minor title in the back of his book, other than its status as a film directed by William Castle. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0056796\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1963\/09\/12\/archives\/screen-romantic-middleaged-men-and-womenof-love-and-desire-stars.html\">NY Times Original Review (scroll down)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The cover&#8217;s unbelievable &#8212; it&#8217;s a natural, the dream of a lifetime. The daughter of a diplomat can go anywhere she wants!&#8221; Synopsis: The daughter (Kathy Dunn) of an American diplomat (Hugh Marlowe) acts as a spy in order to protect the job of her secret agent crush, Wally (Murray Hamilton). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Amateur Sleuths Cold War Hugh Marlowe Films Spies Teenagers William Castle Films Review: Three years after directing the gimmicky horror flick 13 Ghosts (1960),&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2344\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2344"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80341,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions\/80341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}