It! (1966 film)

It!
Directed by Herbert J. Leder
Produced by

Robert Goldstein, exec. producer Herbert J. Leder

Tom Sachs, assoc. producer
Written by Herbert J. Leder
Starring Roddy McDowell
Jill Haworth
Paul Maxwell
Alan Sellers
Music by Carlo Martelli
Production
company
Gold Star Films Ltd.
Distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Release dates
 November 15, 1967
Running time
 97 min.
Language English

It! (aka Anger of the Golem, Curse of the Golem) is a 1967 British/American horror film made by Seven Arts Productions and Gold Star Productions, Ltd. that features the Golem of Prague as its main subject. Herbert J. Leder is a producer, screenwriter, and director.[1] Leder also produced, wrote, and directed Nine Miles to the Moon (1963), The Frozen Dead (1966), and The Candy Man (1969).[2] The film was made in the style of the Hammer Studios films both in sound and cinematography. It! stars Roddy McDowall as the mad assistant museum curator Arthur Pimm, who brings the golem to life.[3]

Plot

Alan Seller as The Golem

A London museum's warehouse burns down leaving undamaged a statue, that the museum curator, Mr. Grove, identifies as "Mid-European Primitive." He is accompanied by his assistant, Arthur Pimm. While Pimm goes to get a flashlight for Grove for his further investigation of the statue, Grove is killed and found at the foot of the statue. This begins a series of unexplained deaths connected with the statue, which is later positively identified as the Golem of Judah Loew of the 16th century. An inscription in Hebrew heightens the suspense and horror of the story:

"Power bringeth destruction; beware, lest it be unleashed."
"He who will find the secret of my life at his feet, him will I serve until beyond time.
"He who shall evoke me in the 17th century, beware, for I cannot by fire be destroyed.
"He who shall evoke me in the 18th century, beware, for I cannot by fire or by water be destroyed.
"He who evokes me in the 19th century, beware, for I cannot by fire or by water or by force be destroyed.
"He who in the 20th century shall dare evoke me, beware, for neither by fire, nor water, nor force, nor anything by man created can I be destroyed.
"He who in the 21st century evokes me must be of God's hand himself because on this earth the person of man existeth no more."

Arthur Pimm, a Norman Bates character, who keeps his mother's corpse in his apartment and borrows museum jewel exhibits to adorn her, brings the golem to life by placing a small scroll into its mouth, which he finds in a compartment located at the top of the golem's right foot. The golem then becomes Pimm's accomplice in murder and mayhem. When the golem is suspected of bringing about the catastrophic destruction of Hammersmith Bridge, Pimm tries to destroy it, but as the golem inscription indicates (see above), it cannot be destroyed by anything created by man. This is borne out by the detonation of a small nuclear warhead in the attempt to overcome it.

Caught up in all of this is Ellen Grove, the daughter of the first deceased curator, who is a love interest for Pimm, but falls in love with Jim Perkins of the New York Museum, who identifies the golem and seeks to acquire it for his museum. Perkins exposes Pimm to the police, and Pimm is committed to an insane asylum. He breaks out of the asylum and kidnaps Ellen with the help of the golem. Pimm holes up in the museum's annex in the country, known as "The Cloisters." Jim Perkins dramatically saves Ellen before the detonation of the nuclear warhead that annihilates Pimm and "The Cloisters" but not the golem, which retreats into the ocean.

Cast

Release

Since Seven Arts Productions acquired Warner Bros. in 1967 the film was released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in the United States. The film was widely released in the US in 1967 on a double bill with The Frozen Dead.[4]

Home media

It! was released on home video on December 9, 2008 when Warner Home Video released it with The Shuttered Room in its new series of "Horror Double Feature" DVDs.[5]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Internet Movie Database entry for "It! (1967)"; Warner Home Video "Horror Double Feature: 'IT' and 'The Shuttered Room'" DVD case cover information
  2. ↑ "Herbert J. Leder" in the Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ John Hamilton, The British Independent Horror Film 1951-70 Hemlock Books 2013 p 174-177
  4. ↑ Review of "The Frozen Dead"
  5. ↑ Craveonline news release

External links

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