13 Frightened Girls
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About 13 Frightened Girls
Candace Hull, called Candy, is 16 and the daughter of an American diplomat. At a Swiss school full of diplomats’ daughters she gets a crush on intelligence agent Wally Sanders in London. She uses the embassies the girls can enter and feeds him what she picks up. The trail leads to a communist plot against the United States.
Cast & crew
More about 13 Frightened Girls
William Castle produced and directed. Robert Dillon wrote the screenplay from a story by Otis L. Guernsey Jr. Gordon Avil photographed it in Pathécolor. Edwin H. Bryant edited. Van Alexander wrote the music. Columbia distributed it. The world premiere was June 13, 1963, in Indianapolis. Los Angeles opened August 28, and New York on September 11. Australia had it in March 1963 as The Candy Web. Kathy Dunn plays Candy.
Themes
Background
The plot is a Cold War story: a schoolgirl collecting embassy gossip for an American agent.
Making
Castle usually sold horror with a lobby gimmick. Here the stunt was the international casting call, and the picture is a spy comedy.
Reviews
Louis Calta, in the New York Times, said Kathy Dunn played the young Mata Hari vigorously and joked that the embassy might have fared better if she had sung. Carol Taylor, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, wrote that the title was misleading because most of the time there was only one frightened girl. The News & Observer called the plotting more than a childish audience could stand.
Look
Gordon Avil shot the film in Pathécolor.
Music
Van Alexander wrote the score.
Preservation
Sony issued it in the William Castle Film Collection on DVD in 2009, and also alone. Mill Creek’s 2016 Blu-ray pairs it with Castle’s 13 Ghosts (1960).
Notes
- Murray Hamilton plays Wally Sanders. Hugh Marlowe plays John Hull. Joyce Taylor plays Soldier. Khigh Dhiegh plays Kang.
- Castle advertised for girls from 13 countries to play diplomats’ daughters. Fifteen actresses were cast, and not all were from the countries they play. American Judy Pace plays a Liberian. Alexandra Bastedo plays the British girl, and Lynne Sue Moon plays Mai-Ling.
- Also billed: Norma Varden as Miss Pittford, Garth Benton as Peter Van Hagen, and Emil Sitka, uncredited, as Ludwig.
- Kathy Dunn had been one of the Trapp children in the stage Sound of Music.
- Other titles are 13 Frightened Girls! and The Candy Web.
Scenes
- Candy decides she is in love with Wally Sanders and starts trailing him.
- The diplomats’ daughters carry gossip out of the embassies.
Also available
- William Castle Film Collection (Sony DVD, 2009)
- Mill Creek Entertainment Blu-ray double feature with 13 Ghosts (2016)
