13 Frightened Girls (1963)

(On TV, November 2020) With a crew that includes the legendary William Castle as producer-director and a title like 13 Frightened Girls echoing Castle’s classic 13 Ghosts, anyone could be forgiven for expecting a horror film out of the deal. Surprisingly enough, though, what we get is a cold-war comedy, featuring an elite boarding school student who, out of a crush on an older man (ick), becomes an international spy by simply eavesdropping on her classmates, all from the multicultural London diplomatic set. The mixture of genres between teenybopper comedy and espionage thrills isn’t always successful: there are a few moments of unsettling violence in between the antics of our young protagonist, and I really could have dispensed with the schoolgirl-crush-on-a-grown-man angle. Still, there’s a characteristic early-1960s feel to the comedy that makes it feel all the more intriguing despite the curiously undisciplined script. There are many ways in which 13 Frightened Girls could have been better, but it’s quirky enough to be interesting as-is.