13 Ghosts (1960)

Director:

William Castle

Writer:

Robb White (written by)

Release Date:

July 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

IT'S FUN TO BE SCARED BY 13 GHOSTS (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

A family inherits what proves to be a haunted house, but a special pair of goggles allows them to see their ghostly tormentors.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Haunted House | Mansion | Ouija | Supernatural

Cast

Charles Herbert	...	Buck Zorba
Jo Morrow	...	Medea Zorba
Martin Milner	...	Ben Rush
Rosemary DeCamp	...	Hilda Zorba (as Rosemary De Camp)
Donald Woods	...	Cyrus Zorba
Margaret Hamilton	...	Elaine Zacharides
John Van Dreelen	...	Van Allen
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Burnside	...	Ghost (uncredited)
William Castle	...	Himself in prologue & epilogue (uncredited)
David Hoffman	...	Messenger (uncredited)
Roy Jenson	...	Ghost (uncredited)

Directed by
William Castle

Writing credits
Robb White		(written by)

Produced by
William Castle	....	producer

Original Music by
Von Dexter

Cinematography by
Joseph F. Biroc		(as Joseph Biroc)

Film Editing by
Edwin H. Bryant		(as Edwin Bryant)

Art Direction by
Cary Odell

Set Decoration by
Louis Diage

Makeup Department
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist
Ben Lane	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Max Stein	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Harry D. Mills	....	sound (as Harry Mills)
Charles J. Rice	....	sound supervisor

Other crew
Dona Holloway	....	associate to producer

Production Companies

• William Castle Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1960) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (TV)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD) (William Castle Collection)

Other Companies

• Butler-Glouner  photographic color effects (as Butler-Glouner, Inc.)
• Pathé  Eastman color by

Also Known As:

Thirteen Ghosts

Runtime:

85 min | 82 min (black and white version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (No. 19630) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | UK:PG | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec)

Company:

William Castle Productions

Trivia:

The movie was filmed in "Illusion-O" and a pair of special glasses where needed to see the ghosts. This resulted in a number of sources incorrectly stating that the film was originally shown in 3D. The "ghost viewers" contained a red filter and a blue filter but unlike 3D viewers, both eyes would look through the same color filter. One color would cause the ghostly images to intensify while the other color caused the images to fade.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the Ouija board planchette is flying around the room (from 21:58 to 22:08), you can see the wires that are holding it up. (This is not apparent in the 2005 DVD version from Sony Home Entertainment.)

Quotes:

Buck Zorba: [making a birthday wish] I wish we owned our own house, and all our furniture that nobody could take away.
[wind blows through the windows and blows out the candles, somebody knocks at the door]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "TCM Underground: 13 Ghosts/The Tingler (#1.37)" (2008)

AWSOME IN DVD FORMAT!!!

this is SO COOL!!! i love wlm castle!!! this is the coolest in dvd's just for the sheer kitch factor. the damn thing comes with ghost glasses! (red to see them, blue if you're a scaredy cat) i sat and watched this w/ my 8-yr old and he thought that is was the best thing since bionicles! we watched it several times just to play with it. i got this when it was released (or re-released) on dvd after the thirteen ghosts w/ matthew lillard came out. (see my comments there)this is the best that wlm castle put out besides the tingler -and i don't think they're going to include a seat buzzer in THAT dvd!!