(1960) Directed by William Castle; Written by: Robb White;
Starring: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow and Martin Milner
Available format: DVD
Rating: *** ½
“When the actor took off his goggles, the audience would
remove theirs – and voilà – the ghosts would disappear.” – William Castle (from
his autobiography Step Right Up: I’m
Gonna Scare the Pants Off America)
Many thanks to Monstergirl from The Last Drive In and the eponymous
Goregirl of Goregirl’s Dungeon
for hosting the William Castle Blogathon.
I’m honored to be a part of this five-day celebration of Castle’s work,
and encourage everyone reading my post to check out the other entries from Castle-philes. With so many titles from his resume to choose
from, I was in a bit of a quandary about deciding which one to review. In the end, I decided to cover one of my
favorite Castle films, the delightfully creepy and creaky 13 Ghosts.
Castle (whose real name was William Schloss, Jr.) started
out in New York theater production, and made the move to Hollywood in the late
1930s. After working his way up the ranks
on both sides of the camera, he became a prolific ‘B’ director for Columbia and
(briefly) Universal. Castle really hit his stride in the late 50s, when he
became an independent producer, and took movie promotion to unprecedented levels
of audacity. His special brand of
chutzpah inspired many other filmmakers, including John Waters,* who featured
the scratch ‘n sniff gimmick “Odoroma” with Polyester,
and Joe Dante, whose Matinee was a loving
homage to cold war paranoia and showbiz hucksterism (featuring a William Castle-esque
character, Lawrence Woolsey, played by John Goodman).
* In his book Crackpot:
The Obsessions of John Waters, Waters referred to Castle as “the greatest
showman of our time.”
Starting with 1958’s Macabre*,
Castle concocted new and increasingly outlandish ploys to promote his movies. Following the subsequent success of the
Vincent Price-starring House on Haunted
Hill and The Tingler (featuring “Emergo”
and “Percepto,” respectively), Castle pondered the next gimmick to accompany
his next film. Inspired by a visit to an
ophthalmologist, where he needed to look through different lenses, he came up
with a doozy for 13 Ghosts, “Illusion-O.”
Making his now trademark on-screen
appearance, he introduced the “Ghost Viewer,” a card with two viewing windows:
a red “Ghost Viewer” and blue “Ghost Remover,” to alternately see the ghosts or
make them disappear.
* Theater patrons were insured by Lloyd’s of London for
$1,000 if they died of fright during the film.
Donald Woods plays Cyrus Zorba, a paleontologist raising his
family on a meager salary. Not long
after his wife calls to inform him their furniture is being repossessed, he’s
contacted by an attorney (Martin Milner), and learns he’s inherited an old
house that once belonged to his rich, reclusive uncle. But there’s a catch. In addition to the house, he’s also inherited
12 ghosts that his uncle collected from around the world (the 13th remains
a mystery until the very end). One of
his uncle’s final inventions, a bulky pair of goggles, enables him to view the
various ghosts. Whenever Cyrus or his
son Buck (Charles Herbert) dons the goggles, an on-screen caption alerts us to
look through our own ghost viewer, so we can see what they’re seeing.
The cast gamely plays along, despite 13 Ghosts’ absurd premise, sucking us into the mystery of Uncle
Zorba’s house. Milner turns in a fine
performance as young attorney Benjamen Rush, who courts Cyrus’ daughter Medea
(Jo Morrow) and wins the confidence of Buck.
The real standout, however, is Margaret Hamilton, in a terrific supporting
role as Uncle Zorba’s strange housekeeper Elaine. In a winking reference to Hamilton’s earlier,
famous film role, Buck continually refers to her as a “witch.” Castle and screenwriter Robb White never tip
the audience about her true identity, and Hamilton plays her character right
down the middle, so we’re never entirely sure.
Castle’s 13 Ghosts
is basically the antithesis to Robert Wise’s The Haunting, which followed three years later. While showing the ghosts was Castle’s raison
d'être, the latter film meticulously endeavored not to display any spirits, trusting our imaginations could create something
much more horrific than anything that could possibly appear on screen. Castle, however, knew his target audience,
comprised mostly of teens and pre-teens, were looking for something far less
sophisticated. He promised ghosts, and
they got ‘em. Through crude (some might
say cheesy) means, the ghosts come to life, so to speak, although they appear
as if they originated from the costume section of a dime store. The clunky effects fail to diminish the movie’s
charm, no doubt due to Castle’s infectious charisma and penchant for sideshow
flimflam.
Does 13 Ghosts hold
up today, even without the ghost viewer?
Well… it probably requires a greater degree of suspension of disbelief
than modern audiences are willing to accept.
It’s fun to imagine what it must have been like as a kid in 1960,
sitting in the theater, waiting to see what horrible apparition appeared
next. Even if the movie didn’t quite
live up to the hype, a William Castle film meant you were at least guaranteed a
crazy ride. There’s a naïve charm about 13 Ghosts that’s conspicuously absent in
most flicks today (witness the misguided 2001 remake, which was aimed at an
older, gore-hungry audience). As Castle’s
daughter Terry observed in Spine Tingler!
The William Castle Story, he related to the kids in the audience, and was
laughing with us. 13 Ghosts was self-consciously hokey, not high art. We know we’ve been had, but we can’t help but
thank Mr. Castle for showing us such a good time.
