13 Frightened Girls

13 Frightened Girls
13 Frightened Girls
Directed by	William Castle
Screenplay by	Robert Dillon
Story by	Otis L. Guernsey Jr.
Produced by	William Castle
Starring	Murray Hamilton; Kathy Dunn; Joyce Taylor; Hugh Marlowe;
Cinematography	Gordon Avil
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant
Music by	Van Alexander
Production; company	William Castle Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	July 1963;
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Trailer for the film

13 Frightened Girls (also known as The Candy Web) is a 1963 Pathécolor Cold War spy film directed and produced by William Castle. Kathy Dunn stars as a teenage sleuth who finds herself embroiled in international espionage.

Castle, who was famous for promoting his films with gimmicks, generated publicity by advertising for girls from 13 countries to compete for parts as daughters of diplomats. However, not all of the 15 actresses were from the countries that they represented in the film; for example, American Judy Pace played a Liberian.

Plot[edit]

After a 16-year-old girl Candy Hull develops a crush on intelligence agent Wally Sanders in London, she helps him to uncover a communist plot against the United States.

Cast[edit]

Murray Hamilton as Wally Sanders
Kathy Dunn as Candace "Candy" Hull
Joyce Taylor as Soldier
Hugh Marlowe as John Hull
Khigh Dhiegh as Kang
Charlie Briggs as Mike
Norma Varden as Miss Pittford
Garth Benton as Peter Van Hagen
Emil Sitka as Ludwig (uncredited)

The other diplomats' daughters:

María Cristina Servera (Argentina)
Janet Mary Prance (Australia)
Penny Anne Mills (Canada)
Alexandra Bastedo as Alex (United Kingdom) as Alexandra Lendon Bastedo
Ariane Glaser (France)
Ilona Schütze as Ilona (Germany)
Anna Baj (Italy)
Aiko Sakamoto (Japan)
Gina Trikonis as Natasha (Russia)
Judy Pace (Liberia)
Luz Gloria Hervias (Mexico)
Marie-Louise Bielke (Sweden)
Ignacia Farias Luque (Venezuela)
Lynne Sue Moon as Mai-Ling (China)

Reception[edit]

In a brief contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Louis Calta wrote: "The young Mata Hari is vigorously played by pretty Kathy Dunn, who was one of the Trapp children in The Sound of Music. If only young Kathy could have raised her voice in song instead of playing detective, things might have been different at the United States Embassy."^[1] Calta was referring to the stage version of The Sound of Music, not the film; Dunn was not in the film version, which was released two years later.

Home media[edit]

The film was released on DVD in 2009 as part of the William Castle Film Collection.^[2] Sony also released a DVD of the film by itself. The film was released on Blu-ray in 2016 by Mill Creek Entertainment as part of a double-feature disc with the 1960 Castle film 13 Ghosts.

References[edit]

^ Calta, Louis (1963-09-12). "Screen: Leave It to the Girls". The New York Times. p. 32.
^ Mike Clark (November 1, 2009). "New on DVD: 'Z,' 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame' and 'Easy Rider'". USA Today.

External links[edit]

13 Frightened Girls at IMDb
13 Frightened Girls at the TCM Movie Database
13 Frightened Girls at AllMovie
13 Frightened Girls at the American Film Institute Catalog

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[1] Calta, Louis (1963-09-12). "Screen: Leave It to the Girls". The New York Times. p. 32.

[2] Mike Clark (November 1, 2009). "New on DVD: 'Z,' 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame' and 'Easy Rider'". USA Today.

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