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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 82733" data-attributes="member: 57984"><img src="http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/13GHOSTS01.JPG" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.705a1a84816f6fdc0864dac978b23cfd?rik=Z50aaQhAprFJkw&riu=http%3a%2f%2f2.bp.blogspot.com%2f-_mZDXiy9JKM%2fUtx6MCTCU6I%2fAAAAAAAAu4w%2fjkkO2Zu1lBA%2fs1600%2f13%2bghosts7.JPG&ehk=0H5twFCRLJhr7eMFK6DtAgfOqkIdsQ4udkqPNinf0yM%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0&sres=1&sresct=1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 594px" />In the original 13 GHOSTS, a family is cheerfully evicted from their home as only a '50s family can, and over the cute little son's birthday cake (Charlie Herbert, whose character's 10th birthday party on the floorboards was reportedly filmed on his real life 11th birthday -- count the candles) a mysterious, creepy stranger materializes at the front door (played by an actor who'd be dead in six months) to deliver news that Dad is to appear at a lawyer's office the next day -- Pop is worried it might be a collection's attempt, but it turns out his rich uncle he hasn't seen in decades has recently died and left him his estate, which includes a big mansion, "one of those rambling old houses they built 50 years ago" (the house is actually 75 years old, and was razed in 1966) opines the lawyer, played by Martin Milner who was apparently a bit of a jerk during the early days of his career.The family takes possession of the mansion, but the uncle's witchy housekeeper (Margaret Hamilton) assures them that the ghosts whom Uncle Zorba was nurturing are still present on the property. (And so, just possibly, is a major stash of cash).<img src="http://www.cultreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/13ghosts-witchcr.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/8c/5f/868c5fff6530f33dd4802745e534f161.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />This is a William Castle production, so it's dumb. But when I first saw it (well after it was first released, I'd like to point out) I labeled 13 GHOSTS and HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE as "the two scariest movies I've ever seen" -- and even at that age, I'd seen tons of spooky films on television... I'm not quite sure now why I granted them this stature (well, CHARLOTTE is indeed pretty grand) but in retrospect, it's interesting to realize that both pictures were photographed by Joseph Biroc, an excellent mood B&W cinematographer, even though 13 GHOSTS has very few of the bottomlessly shadowy shots of CHARLOTTE or even I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965, which Biroc also photographed for William Castle). But there's just something Biroc did in the lab processing with the hues and values and the register of his blacks and whites and greys that caused them to look as if they were looking back at you. So even in a silly, artless movie like 13 GHOSTS, there's still a creepy factor that's active.Also, I realized many years later that I'd confused scenes from the two pictures, the kitchen staff in a chef's toque and a meat cleaver (which can be seen in both) and the apparition which appears in 13 GHOSTS chopping off his wife's head I mixed up with the disembodied hand which is revealed by the opening french door in the music room in CHARLOTTE.And in a more innocent time, the high-pitched, squiggly voices of the ghosts (only seen with a special viewer the uncle had made) sounded absolutely terrifying. Today, of course, it's ridiculous.You also find out precious little about the ghosts' history or their ectoplasmic agenda.<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbr6zm8uXM1qmvy8zo1_r2_500.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />A kid-friendly little movie, the more cinematically jaded kids of today would probably find it infinitely too tame to be worth their time. But the casting, the tone and the era give it an appeal; it's kind of like a modest Hallowe'en party you attend where the pranks don't really come off all that well, but you're sort of glad you went.It actually does all feel quite haunted, even though it's stupid.But I would never let that nasty shyster anywhere near my little boy...!</blockquote>

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