'It!' AKA 'Curse of the Golem' (1967).Been many years since I've seen this one - had a chance to see it again recently. It is an odd film, something a bit different from the normal horror films.The first of the film is how the statue came in to the hands of Arthur Pimm (McDowall) and the museum he works for, then comes some history on the statue of the golem, and after about 40 minutes you will watch Arthur (Roddy McDowall) go mad with power for he controls the golem. But how can the golem be destroyed? Not a bad film - it's quite fun! BTW it's Roddy McDowall's performance that makes this film good.7/10

Herbert Leder's IT!, or CURSE OF THE GREAT GOLEM (the name the film really should have had) is one of the most bizarre and eclectic little monster movies ever made. It's a misunderstood or better yet misguided little project that had really good intentions, a decent cast, a respectable mid-line budget, some decent writing, but ultimately falls a little flat. My association with the film and enthusiasm for it is nostalgic: This used to play on our Monster Movie Matinée and Eivom weekend afternoon/evening local film slots. At the age of 11 or so I thought it was one of the coolest movies ever made ... my more mature mindset sees it's flaws but still loves every stupid, stiff, very British minute of it.Roddy McDowall plays a very strange young man named Pimm who works for a respectable British antiquities museum and happens upon a statue slated for display there which may or may not be one of the last of the Golems -- clay juggernauts of destruction made by Hebrew alchemist/artist mystics to protect their people from outside oppression. They are infinitely strong, completely indestructible, and have absolutely no will of their own. The problem is that such power corrupts humans infinitely as well, and once you get started on being the most powerful 24 year old nebbish on the planet it's hard to make yourself -- and It -- stop. Especially when you can't get rid of the damn thing. The film is broken up into three stages: Part one involves a series of strange unexplained deaths in and around the museum that McDowall rather slowly realizes must be the work of the Golem. Part two involves his quest to learn how the thing works and his rapid descent into near madness after he learns the secret. And part three involves his ultimately futile attempts to get rid of the thing as it ruins his life, rampages across the countryside, drives him completely insane, and finally walks off into the ocean after the British Army tries to blow it up with an atom bomb. Presumably it is still wandering around down there somewhere.Along the way we meet various people who touch on Pimm's life, most notably his stuffy museum curator bosses, the pretty daughter of one of them (Jill Haworth), a couple of British police inspectors (one of them cult horror legend Ian McCulloch), and a visiting expert professor on Golemology from America. We also get to meet Pimm's mother, who is dead, and her partially embalmed body is Pym's partner in life. He "borrows" rare jewels from the museum for her to wear, fixes her tea and after dinner toddies while he talks with her about the day's events, and introduces her to others with a kind of blasé offhandedness that suggests we are getting it wrong by reacting with horror to the corpse. The scene where Pimm, the Golem and his mother terrify a museum matron is the best laugh in the movie. All the while the power of the Golem is getting under his skin, leading to the film's finest scene where he asks a Hebrew scholar to translate a script that had been etched into the Golem's side. The subsequent scenes of destruction as the Golem runs rampant pale to the chills sent down the spine by the old man's solemn intonation.Another great scene is when Pimm loses control of a situation and orders the Golem to commit murder for him, and it is at that point that the narrative begins to spiral out of control. We see a few scenes of carnage but for the most part the film is McDowall's, and fortunately even in 1966 he was a good enough actor to more or less carry the project. His Pimm has an odd ambiguity about him that is certainly "evil", yet sympathetic in the way that is very reminiscent of Anthony Perkins' PSYCHO character. We actually feel suspense hoping he will not get caught and perhaps figure out a way to free himself from the curse of the Golem, but alas he torches an elderly librarian, barricades himself in a secluded manor, and pouts like a spoiled brat when Jill Haworth tells him he is about to be blown up with an atom bomb. All this is a good premise, but aside from a single incident when Pym looks at the Golem's arm's to see them bent, looks back up in astonishment at it's face, then back down at the arms to see them straightened, then back again to gawk at the stone face, the film lacks any kind of artfulness, existing more as an act of "craft". At one point Pym even tries to light the thing on fire by spilling fuel oil all over it and the director allowed him to shake the can and snarl "This will finish you ..." like he was Daffy Duck. One other problem the film has it is that it was made at the wrong time: By 1966 London was going "mod" and this film is about as square as they come. Hammer Films was making big waves with their Gothic shockers and a stiff, somewhat talky movie about a giant walking slab of clay didn't have much resonance compared to Christopher Lee in his Dracula cape. IT! was more or less forgotten except as off-hour TV viewing for 11 year old boys who would think it was the coolest thing ever made, perhaps.7/10 nonetheless: Deserves a restoration for DVD where IT! could prove to be a cult hit of some magnitude ... and if anyone ever is of the mind to put one together, give me a call.

**** SPOILERS **** This seems to have been written for a male teenage audience . The anti-hero Arthur Pimm comes across as a figure all alienated 17 year old lads will be able to relate to . He works for a completely unlikeable boss and finds the girl of his dreams is having it off with an older more sophisticated man . This is something I think we - And when I saw " we " I mean any male who`s ever been 17 - can all relate to that no matter what we don`t get what we deserve in life , we get considerably less than we deserve , especially where career and girls are involved , and we would just love if we came across a golem to control . Yeah that`d be brilliant send the golem out to waste anyone we didn`t like especially boys who were having sex with girls we fancied , man that`d be brilliant . Hey if I had one wish I`d wish for a golem in my christmas stocking . I think this feeling is called " teenage angst " or " male grief " but director/screenwriter Herbert J Leder puts a serious fly in the ointment by making Arthur Pimm a sort of British Norman Bates and I mean that literaly , Arthur`s mother is a decomposed corpse sitting in a rocking chair ! Yep he`s one hundred per cent whacko which means he becomes too over the top to relate to , and seeing as there`s so much teen angst and violent petulence on display Leder makes a mistake in casting Roddy McDowall as Pimm . McDowall is best known for his good guy roles and doesn`t make a very convincing sociopath especially when he was aged 38 when this was made , logically speaking the character of Pimm should be in his early 20s at the most . In other words Herbert J Leder seems to have misunderstood his audience There`s other flaws to the film . Despite the chilling image of the golem standing inside the burned out warehouse - A rather bleak one too I might add - IT! isn`t a very scary film and in many ways it`s just plain daft as we see the golem walking about under the command of Arthur Pimm

i loved this show myself. i wish they release it on DVD. The Golem would of been a better name for it. this show is a classic. Roddy McDowall shows are aways good.