It! is set during the 60's in London where a large fire has destroyed a warehouse, museum curator Harold Clark (Ernest Clark) is called to see if he can salvage anything so he & his assistant Arthur Pimm (Roddy McDowall) take a look through the burnt out ruins. Amazingly the only think worth saving is a seemingly perfectly preserved sixteenth century Czech carving of a large man, Grove mysteriously dies in the ruins & the statue is taken back to the museum where it is put on display. Then an electrician also dies near the statue as it suddenly falls on top of him, Pimm is sure that the statue has something to do with the death's & when American expert Jim Perkins (Paul Maxwell) says he thinks it's an authentic Golem his suspicions are confirmed. Pimm discovers the secret behind bringing the Golem to life in order to do his bidding but the power soon goes to Pimm's head...
This American British co-production was written, produced & directed by Herbert J. Leder & is a rather odd little film that I imagine many won't have even heard of let alone seen. I am not quite sure what the makers of It! were thinking but the overall message seems to be that absolute power corrupts although in the case of Pimm who just happens to stumble on an infinitely powerful Golem he's more than a bit mad to start with as he steals jewels from his museum to give to his dead mummified mother whom he keeps at home. Yeah, there's a definite Norman Bates from Psycho (196) vibe going on here even to the extent Pimm steals his mothers corpse back at the end. The story starts off alright with this living Golem thing but then is looses it's way as Pimm who finds a way to control the Golem uses it's infinite power to try & impress a bit of skirt, yeah sure the blonde chick is sort of cute but she's just a bird & if I had infinite power in my grasp I can think of better ways to use it other than to try & get inside some girls panties. At almost 100 minutes it's a bit too long with a laughable ending in which this slow lumbering Golem manages to keep the entire British army out of a fenced castle where Pimm is holded up, can't they just go round the back or something? So while It! has a message & is watchable for what it is it's a little bit too odd to appeal to the masses & a really prolonged silly climax spoils a fairly decent build-up.
It! does look very much like a Hammer horror production from the period with lavish sets, costumes & nice colour photography & the Golem itself does look quite imposing & creepy at times to start with but once it comes alive & starts walking around it looks a lot sillier. There's no real violence or gore & little actual horror either as the film focuses on it's moral message about the corrupting influence of power. There's a poor sequence trying to show the destruction of Hammersmith bridge & the dropping of a nuclear warhead which date the film badly & are also sloppily edited. At one point Pimm is given a 3 pound a week rise which at first I thought was rather low but then realised that I have never even had a pay-rise that much even more than forty years after this was made.
Filmed in the UK this has nice enough production values although it's maybe not quite as good as the best hammer films from the period. The late veteran actor Roddy McDowall gives an suitably unbalanced performance while Jill Hayworth ably provides the glamour.
It! is a strange film that is hard to categorise & as such maybe it's worth a watch if your after something a bit different but the ridiculous climax & an overall lack of something stops It! from being a forgotten gem, more of a misplaced piece of costume jewellery.
This American British co-production was written, produced & directed by Herbert J. Leder & is a rather odd little film that I imagine many won't have even heard of let alone seen. I am not quite sure what the makers of It! were thinking but the overall message seems to be that absolute power corrupts although in the case of Pimm who just happens to stumble on an infinitely powerful Golem he's more than a bit mad to start with as he steals jewels from his museum to give to his dead mummified mother whom he keeps at home. Yeah, there's a definite Norman Bates from Psycho (196) vibe going on here even to the extent Pimm steals his mothers corpse back at the end. The story starts off alright with this living Golem thing but then is looses it's way as Pimm who finds a way to control the Golem uses it's infinite power to try & impress a bit of skirt, yeah sure the blonde chick is sort of cute but she's just a bird & if I had infinite power in my grasp I can think of better ways to use it other than to try & get inside some girls panties. At almost 100 minutes it's a bit too long with a laughable ending in which this slow lumbering Golem manages to keep the entire British army out of a fenced castle where Pimm is holded up, can't they just go round the back or something? So while It! has a message & is watchable for what it is it's a little bit too odd to appeal to the masses & a really prolonged silly climax spoils a fairly decent build-up.
It! does look very much like a Hammer horror production from the period with lavish sets, costumes & nice colour photography & the Golem itself does look quite imposing & creepy at times to start with but once it comes alive & starts walking around it looks a lot sillier. There's no real violence or gore & little actual horror either as the film focuses on it's moral message about the corrupting influence of power. There's a poor sequence trying to show the destruction of Hammersmith bridge & the dropping of a nuclear warhead which date the film badly & are also sloppily edited. At one point Pimm is given a 3 pound a week rise which at first I thought was rather low but then realised that I have never even had a pay-rise that much even more than forty years after this was made.
Filmed in the UK this has nice enough production values although it's maybe not quite as good as the best hammer films from the period. The late veteran actor Roddy McDowall gives an suitably unbalanced performance while Jill Hayworth ably provides the glamour.
It! is a strange film that is hard to categorise & as such maybe it's worth a watch if your after something a bit different but the ridiculous climax & an overall lack of something stops It! from being a forgotten gem, more of a misplaced piece of costume jewellery.