It!

...and the production expenses are laughably low. Tongue-in-cheek to begin with, this unpretentious "shocker" is quite funny in its absurdity. The secondary characters are remarkably earnest, and Jill Haworth is exceedingly gorgeous. Love the nuclear warhead!

When a museum warehouse burns down, the only item left intact is a stone statue from Czechoslovakia.

However, when the museum curator and his assistant go to inspect it...the curator winds up being killed.

His assistant is a bizarre young man, who lives with his mother's desiccated corpse.

And he steals jewels, in order to deck her out.

After the death of his boss, he gets excited, because he feels that he should be next in line for the job.

But the owner of the museum goes over his head, and hires an outsider...who's a bit of a fascist...to take his place.

That's when he discovers the mysterious powers possessed by this equally mysterious statue.

And it's ability to kill...

Because it turns out that it is a Jewish Golem from 1550...the oldest known of it's kind.

And, as the centuries have past...it has only become more impossible to destroy.

All you need to get it to do your bidding is a magic scroll.

And a few deaths later...he finds this scroll, for himself.

Now he holds unfathomable power in his hands.

But will all this power go to his head?

First things first, he uses it to take out his new boss, so as to implant himself as the new curator.

He's been trying to woo his old boss's beautiful daughter...and get he and his mother a new house.

So he seeks to exploit the Golem's power to achieve these ends.

A fellow curator from an American museum tries to warn him that using the abilities of the Golem for selfish reasons, could cause it to go rogue.

But is it already too late?

Has he lost control of this supposedly mindless killer?

He's certainly lost control of his own ego, anyways.

Now, the only way to stop them...is for the military to intervene.

Ultimattely leading to the film's explosive conclusion...

Produced by Britain's 7 Arts, the film is shot in the style of a Hammer Horror film.

And considering such, it has really beautiful colour and mise en scene.

It's biggest flaw is it's attempt to spin in the bizarre psychology of the main character, which seems a bit forced...even unnecessary.

And the ending is also a bit rushed.

That being said...the story really is quite entertaining.

6 out of 10.

Disturbed museum curator is haunted by a hideous hulking stone statue, but when he discovers the power to control the indestructible thing he seeks out harsh vengeance.

Well-made British horror film is an engaging and unique treat for those that enjoy clever and untraditional genre films. The story is solidly engulfing and nicely paced, pulling the viewer into the mystery of the Golem statue and its deranged master. The late great Roddy McDowall does a splendid performance, as usual, as our lead who's on the verge of madness. The supporting cast isn't half bad either, though they admittedly pale compared to McDowell. The other big star of this film is the Golem statue itself. The makeup work on the imposing statue is quite good and the image of that statue is something that's stayed with me for over 10 years.

All around, a solid genre film that's definitely worth tracking down for both fans of British horror and fans of McDowell.

*** out of ****

This sure is a weird little horror film. In fact, there are not many real highlights -perhaps none- I can find in it in terms of the issues that make a movie (budget, direction, script, camera work, photo, colour, locations, settings, edition, music, cast ...). However, every time I catch it on TV -always by chance- I get hooked up and can't help watching it till the very end. I really couldn't say why.

This unpretentious not scary horror film, sort of silly too, has a strange fascination on me. Roddy McDowall's preserved dead mother on a chair is not original ("Psycho" was first and better by far); the Golem is no big deal as a monster and doesn't even look menacing enough; no frightening situations really; McDowall has done many better jobs in his career and though Jill Haworth is a beautiful woman no doubt she is not quite my type. In fact the only interesting sequence I can rescue out of "It!" is when the stone arms of the Golem appear in different positions between shots at the museum in front of an amazed Arthur Pimm (Mc Dowall).

A great film? not at all; a good film? not in my opinion; a watchable one? I wouldn't say that either. Yet I don't know why I am interested, perhaps because I find it sort of original and really odd. Who knows?

I saw this film in the theater when It came out when I was 11 years old. I'm surprised how much I remember of It after viewing It over 40 years later. The basic premise is if a Norman Bates type character(Roddy Mcdowall) had a Golem to do his bidding. It scared me in 1966 and its great fun to see again. The Golem reminds me of the tree creature in "From Hell It Came", great Saturday matinée movie fun. Roddy McDowall is always fun to watch and would have made a passable Norman Bates. His character in It, Arthur Pimm , Is sometimes crazed, sometimes remorseful, sometimes sad and definitely quite madly insane. The writer/director was also responsible for penning the "Fiend Without A Face", which still holds up as one of the most frightening movies of the 50's.