13 Frightened Girls! (1963)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

William Castle

Writers:

Otis L. Guernsey Jr. (story)
Robert Dillon (writer)

Release Date:

July 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

13 TERRIFIED TEENAGERS ON THE RUN! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Thirteen girls in a Swiss boarding school, particularly one Candace Hull ("Kitten", "Candy"), stir up...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Teen | Independent Film | Number In Title

Cast

Kathy Dunn	...	Candace Hull
Murray Hamilton	...	Wally Sanders
Joyce Taylor	...	Soldier
Hugh Marlowe	...	John Hull
Khigh Dhiegh	...	Kang
Charlie Briggs	...	Mike
Norma Varden	...	Miss Pittford
Garth Benton	...	Peter Van Hagen
Lynne Sue Moon	...	Mai-Ling
María Cristina Servera	...	Argentina
Janet Mary Prance	...	Australia
Penny Anne Mills	...	Canada
Alexandra Bastedo	...	England
Ariane Glaser	...	France
Ilona Schütze	...	Germany

Also Known As:

The Candy Web

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed | Finland:(Banned) (1963)

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, California, USA

Company:

William Castle Productions

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: After an enemy agent slips pills into Candy's ginger ale, there is the clinking of ice, but no cubes in the glass.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Out of this World Super Shock Show (2007) (V)

Unhinged fun from William Castle!

"13 Frightened Girls" is probably the most bizarre movie I have ever seen. It is much weirder than anything by David Lynch or Bunuel or anything experimental because it seems to be so precisely uncontrolled. In all of his films, William Castle loves to mix an enormously accesible homey atmosphere with incredibly outlandish or odd details. That actually sounds a lot like David Lynch, except that Mr. Castle does not have conventional movie-making integrity, which makes him so much more fun! This one has 13 girls, all from different countries around the world. They are all diplomat's daughters, and they all get to speak in a different accent and have their own musical cue, sometimes lasting for about 3 seconds before the next girl comes on the screen. The movie mixes up the absolute benign-ness of a TV sitcom with the gruesome suggestiveness of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Nothing seems to be planned or reached for. The movie is amazingly neurotic, and it shifts gears all the time, with lightening-speed... It can be off-putting, but I liked it quite a bit. Also, filmed in very friendly, very pretty technicolor... Like Jodie Foster said in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (in her only good performance)... "Weeeeird!!!"