13 Ghosts
Encyclopedia
13 Ghosts is a 1960 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 directed by William Castle
William Castle
William Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....

 and written by Robb White
Robb White
Robb White was a writer of screenplays, television scripts, and adventure novels; most of the latter had a maritime setting — often the Pacific Navy during World War II. White was best known for juvenile fiction, though he has proven popular with adults as well...

. To the dismay of some of the cast members, Castle gave top billing to 12-year-old Charles Herbert
Charles Herbert
Charles Herbert is a former American child actor of the 1950s and 1960s. Before reaching his teens, Herbert was renowned by a generation of moviegoers for an on-screen broody, mature style and wit that enabled him to go one-on-one with some of the biggest names in the industry, and his appearances...

. It was remade in 2001 under the title of Thirteen Ghosts, directed by Steve Beck.

Plot

When occultist uncle Dr. Plato Zorba wills a huge ramshackle house to his nephew Cyrus and his impoverished family, they are shocked to find the house is haunted. Their new furnished residence comes complete with a spooky housekeeper, Elaine, plus a fortune in buried treasure and 12 horrifying ghosts. His family soon discovers that these spirits include a decapitated man, a fully grown lion, a wailing lady and a flaming skeleton, who are held captive in the eerie house and must find an unlucky thirteenth ghost to free them. Dr. Zorba leaves a set of special goggles, the only way of seeing the ghosts. However, there is someone in the house who is also looking for the money and is willing to kill for it.

Cast

  • Charles Herbert
    Charles Herbert
    Charles Herbert is a former American child actor of the 1950s and 1960s. Before reaching his teens, Herbert was renowned by a generation of moviegoers for an on-screen broody, mature style and wit that enabled him to go one-on-one with some of the biggest names in the industry, and his appearances...

     as Buck Zorba
  • Jo Morrow
    Jo Morrow
    Jo Morrow , is an American film actress. Through a "Be a Star" contest she won a film contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1958....

     as Medea Zorba
  • Rosemary DeCamp
    Rosemary DeCamp
    Rosemary DeCamp was an American radio, film and television actress.DeCamp first came to fame in November 1937, when she took the role of Judy Price, the secretary of Dr. Christian in the long-running radio series of the same name. She made her film debut in Cheers for Miss Bishop and appeared in...

     as Hilda Zorba
  • Martin Milner
    Martin Milner
    Martin Sam Milner is an American actor best known for his performances in two popular television series, Adam-12 and Route 66....

     as Ben Rush
  • Donald Woods
    Donald Woods (actor)
    Donald Woods was a Canadian-born American film and television actor whose career spanned six decades....

     as Cyrus Zorba
  • Margaret Hamilton
    Margaret Hamilton
    Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...

     as Elaine Zacharides
  • John van Dreelen
    John van Dreelen
    John van Dreelen was a Dutch-born American-based actor, who frequently performed on television from the 1960s through the 1980s...

     as Van Allen

Illusion-O

As with most of his productions, Castle used a gimmick to promote the movie. For 13 Ghosts, audience members were given a choice: the "brave" ones could watch the film and see the ghosts, while the apprehensive among them would be able to opt out of the horror and watch without the stress of having to see the ghosts. The choice came via the special viewer, supposedly "left by Dr. Zorba."

In the theatres, scenes involving ghosts were shown in a "process" dubbed Illusion-O: the filmed elements of the actors and the sets — everything except the ghosts — were displayed in regular black-and-white, while the ghost elements were tinted a pale blue and superimposed over the frame. Audiences received viewers with red and blue cellophane filters. Choosing to look through the red filter intensified the images of the ghosts, while the blue filter "removed" them. Despite Castle's claims to the contrary, not many heart attacks or nervous breakdowns were averted by the Illusion-O process; although the blue filter did screen out the ghostly images, the ghosts were visible with the naked eye, without the red filter.

Because the ghosts were indeed viewable by the naked eye, the movie ran for years on television with no viewer needed to see the ghosts. DVD editions have varied in their preservation of the Illusion-O effect, with the latest DVD release including versions with and without the ghost outlines and a set of special viewers.
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