It! (1967)

It! belongs to a rather obscure horror movie genre, the golem movie. There haven’t been very many such movies. There was The Golem co-directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen in 1914. Paul Wegener and Carl Boese directed a remake in 1920. There was The Legend of Prague, directed by Julien Duvivier in 1936, and one or two others.

The golem is a Jewish legend, or a series of Jewish legends, of inanimate figures usually of clay that can be brought to life. The most famous such story is of a golem created by the 16th century rabbi of Prague, Judah Loew ben Bezalel. This golem served to defend the Jews of Prague who were under threat at the time. This is the version of the legend on which It! is based.

It! was written, produced and directed by Herbert J. Leder and released by Seven Arts in 1967.

Professor Grove (Ernest Clark) is a museum curator in London. His assistant is Pimm (Roddy McDowall). There is a major fire in the warehouse in which some of the museum’s collection is stored. Only one piece survives the fire, a very large 16th century European primitive statue.

Professor Grove is killed in an accident, an accident involving the statue.

Pimm is an amateur occultist. He lives with his mother, a spiritualist and medium. His mother is in poor health. Very poor health. In fact she’s dead. But Pimm is a devoted son and continues to care for her.

As you may have gathered Pimm is just a bit mad.

Pimm is in love with Professor Groves’ daughter Ellen (Jill Haworth). She is clearly not interested. Pimm is somewhat upset that his feelings for Ellen are not reciprocated.

He has another reason to be bitter. He assumed that he would succeed Professor Groves as curator but the job is instead given to Weal (Aubrey Richards), a humourless martinet who takes a dislike to his young assistant.

Pimm is convinced that the statue has certain powers. There’s a Hebrew inscription on the statue which leads Pimm to believe that it is a golem. In fact he has reason to suspect that it is the golem created by Judah Loew ben Bezalel.

According to the inscription the golem can be brought to life by placing a scroll in its mouth. All one has to do is find that scroll and Pimm thinks he knows how to find it.

The golem has no will of its own. If it is activated it will serve the man who activated it.

For a man like Pimm this is a major temptation. The golem could help him get all those things he wants, like the curator’s job. And Ellen. Pimm figures that the way to succeed with women is to impress them. His ideas on the things that a woman would be impressed by are a little strange and disturbing.

Pimm does have a problem. An American museum has made an offer for the golem and they’ve sent an expert to close the deal. That expert might not just take the golem away, he might take Ellen as well.

Pimm also discovers that while the golem can give him unimaginable power that power comes at a price.

The biggest strength of this movie is Roddy McDowall. He was just so good at playing frustrated inept characters like Pimm. Jill Howarth is reasonably good as Ellen. The other cast members are adequate enough.

The golem itself looks cool and genuinely scary and menacing. It even looks fairly convincing when it walks. The special effects are OK. For what was obviously a modestly budgeted movie It! looks reasonably impressive. Leder has wisely avoided being too ambitious with visual set-pieces. He’s stuck with things that can be done without spending a fortune. The bridge scene however is very iffy since it really was too ambitious to be carried off successfully.

The stuff about Pimm’s dead mother is an obvious attempt to give the movie a Psycho vibe. It’s an unnecessary distraction which just makes the movie seem a bit confused. But I guess Leder thought it would help the movie at the box office. It would have been better to concentrate on Pimm’s feelings of sexual and career inadequacy which are the elements that actually provide his motivations.

This movie has just enough slightly off-the-wall moments and a performance by Roddy McDowall which is nicely unhinged. Maybe not quite a neglected horror gem but It! is interesting and fun, slightly unusual and generally pretty entertaining and it’s recommended.

It! was released on DVD in the Warner Archive series paired with another overlooked 1967 horror film, The Shuttered Room (which is also worth seeing making this disc a very tempting buy).