Rating: 4/5
It is ordained that someone close to you will meet death thru an act of yours. It must be. It is written.
Twelve women, all schoolmates, wrote to a swami to have their horoscopes read. Their ill fates trouble him, but Ursula (Myrna Loy), a schoolmate on the outskirts of their clique, sends out the letters without him knowing.
June Raskob, a trapeze circus act, receives one of the letters, which declares that the stars dictate that she kill someone, directly or indirectly. In the show that night, she didn’t catch her sister, and the sister falls to her death.
Hazel Cousins (Pet Entwisle) receives a letter saying bloodshed is in her future. She subsequently stabs her husband to death.
After these deaths, the women reach out to one another, some fearful of their fates, but one in particular, Laura Stanhope (Irene Dunne), doesn’t buy into astrology and calls whoever she can to dissuade the others of their fears
Ursula continues to work in the background as women die one by one.
Something makes someone kill themselves. So suicide is murder. Trouble is, you can't arrest a "something," can you?
I love how many women are in this! What a powerhouse cast.
Myrna Loy is such a hypnotic presence! I can see why she had such an influence on the goth scene. It’s a bummer that she plays “half-Javanese,” but that happened a lot with her.
Irene Dunne plays so vibrant and independent. She reminds me of Sigourney Weaver.
Jo Turner gets the comedic lines — nothing overtly funny, just small relief moments.
Florence Eldridge’s Grace is in love with death — I love how melodramatic she is.
The film uses a starburst transition after every death.
This movie presents a genuine critique of whiteness — Ursula was raped as a child for her “exotic” looks. She tried to pass as white as she grew older, but the clique she targeted mocked her mixed heritage and wouldn’t let her pass. Of course, she’s a murderous villain, so whatever her misery was, she’s “gone too far.” But to be able to voice those resentments is another example of how much damage The Hayes Code did.
At a cool 59 minutes, this movie is the perfect length for the story (although I believe studio meddling took 14 minutes out, and I wish I knew why).