predicts they will return, much to Buck's delight. Unseen by the family, an unseen force blows the special glasses into smithereens. Elaine gets a broom and permits herself a small enigmatic smile. Cast Charles Herbert as Buck Zorba Jo Morrow as Medea Zorba Rosemary DeCamp as Hilda Zorba Martin Milner as Benjamin Rush Donald Woods as Cyrus Zorba Margaret Hamilton as Elaine Zacharides John van Dreelen as Van Allen Release and reception As with several of his more famous productions, producer William Castle used a gimmick to promote 13 Ghosts, as audience members were given the choice to see the ghosts. In theaters, most scenes were in black-and-white, but scenes involving ghosts were shown in a process dubbed "Illusion-O". The filmed elements of the actors and the sets – everything except the ghosts – had a blue filter applied to the footage, while the ghost elements had a red filter and were superimposed over the frame. Audiences received viewing glasses with red and blue cellophane filters. Unlike with early 3D glasses having one eye red and the other cyan or blue, the Illusion-O device required viewers to look through a single color with both eyes. Looking through the red filter intensified the images of the ghosts, while the blue filter "removed" them. Television and home video releases are edited to simulate the effect without the need for special glasses. Howard Thompson of The New York Times called the film "a simple, old-fashioned haunted house yarn" that "would be a lot better off without this gimmick." Variety wrote: "The idea is sound and exploitable, but the execution doesn't fully come off," explaining the ghosts "lack personality and aren't frightening, so that there isn't sufficient tension in the sequences during which the 'ghost viewer' comes into play." The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "a workmanlike but not very frightening horror film ... the ghosts, which are a dull red colour, are far less effective when witnessed than when their presence is merely suggested, especially when their viewability depends on a process as unremarkable as Illusion-O." Remake The film was remade in 2001 as Thirteen Ghosts, directed by Steve Beck. As with the original, the film was distributed by Columbia Pictures, except in the United States and Canada, where it was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. See also List of American films of 1960 List of ghost films References External links 1960 horror