Classic Horrors Club

13 Ghosts (1960) starts strong. For the first half, maybe two-thirds, it holds its own with William Castle’s two previous films, House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, both released a year earlier. I was enjoying it greatly, but then I grew weary. 

This was about the time young Buck Zorba (Charles Herbert) goes down into the basement and watches the ghost of a headless lion tamer perform his act with the ghost of the feline. It’s a long scene and the film nearly grinds to a halt.

This is also the point the tone changes. It’s been lighthearted up to this point, making it a move family-friendly horror movie. However, when focusing on the child and his awe, it becomes even more of a kid’s movie. 

This doesn’t mean there isn’t dark material. It just edges too close to the silly kind of horror comedy of which I am not a fan. The plot then revolves almost solely around Buck when he finds money hidden in the staircase and the corporeal bad guy reveals a plan to collect it all for himself. 

The Zorba family, headed by the “wonderful, but forgetful” father, Cyrus (Donald Woods) has inherited his uncle’s completely furnished “sprawling old mansion,” ghosts and all. It’s just in the nick of time, too, because the family doesn’t have a penny to its name. 

They must maintain residence in the house or it will be returned to the state. There’s supposedly no money; Uncle Zorba spent it all on experiments in the occult, which included “collecting” the ghosts that are the current occupants.

The house also comes with a housekeeper that Buck believes is a witch. It’s no wonder he thinks that; Elaine Zacharides is played by Margaret Hamilton (The Wizard of Oz, 1939), who, with her broom,  pokes fun at her previous role as the Wicked Witch of the West.

I nearly failed to mention that the humans are able to witness the spectral shenanigans because Uncle Zorba left Cyrus a “ghost-viewer.” Castle’s accompanying gimmick was a less complexly constructed version for audiences to watch the film in “Illusion-O.”

Castle instructs us beforehand:

If you believe in ghosts, look through the red part. If not, blue. Happy haunting!

At the end of the movie, Castle returns to tell the audience if they don’t believe, take their viewers home… if they dare.

13 Ghosts is innocent, squeaky-clean fun. There is, however, a jump scare that gets me every time, even when I know it’s coming. There are no ghosts, bad guys, or cats involved, just excellent execution. I wish the movie were a little tighter to have some of that itself.