It! ** (1967, Roddy McDowall, Jill Haworth, Paul Maxwell) – Classic Movie Review 7292

‘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.’ Producer, screenwriter, director Herbert J Leder’s 1967 British horror film It! stars Roddy McDowall as the mad London assistant museum curator Arthur Pimm, who brings to life the evidently indestructible statue of the Golem of Prague, created by Rabbi Judah Loew in 16th century, and uses it for his own evil purposes of murder and mayhem after it survives a fire at the museum’s warehouse and kills the museum curator Harold Grove (Ernest Clark).

It! (alternate titles: Anger of the Golem and Curse of the Golem) is made by Seven Arts Productions and Gold Star Productions in the Hammer Films style, both in sound and cinematography (it is shot in Eastmancolor by Davis Boulton), and released by Warner Bros-Seven Arts in the United States after Seven Arts Productions acquired Warner Bros in 1967.

The UK theatrical release poster of It! (1967).

Also in the cast are Jill Haworth as Ellen Grove, Paul Maxwell as Jim Perkins, Aubrey Richards as Professor Weal, Oliver Johnston as Curator Trimingham, Noel Trevarthen as Inspector White, Ian McCulloch as Detective Wayne, Richard Goolden as the old rabbi, Dorothy Frere as Miss Swanson, Tom Chatto as the young captain, Steve Kirby as Ellis the electrician, Russell Napier as Boss, Frank Sieman as museum workman, Brian Haines as museum guard, Mark Burns as first officer, Raymond Adamson as second officer, Lindsay Campbell as policeman, John Baker as second museum guard and Alan Seller as the Golem.

Leder’s moderately entertaining creature feature often verges on the ridiculous but it is busy, relatively inventive and entertaining, with some suspense and credibility, if not too much. McDowall, Haworth and the British character actors give it more than it is worth. McDowall, especially, game for anything, makes it a little bit memorable. Certainly, he makes his Norman Bates-style character memorable, though it is a mystery why Leder wants to mix Psycho with The Golem – because he can, I suppose. Obviously, It! does not bear comparison with the German silent masterpiece The Golem [Der Golem] (1920), but it is still an interesting attempt to bring The Golem back to life.

Jill Haworth (1945–2011).

Haworth so detested the film that years later, when McDowall brought her its poster, she took out a pen and wrote ‘Sh’ before the title. She claimed she only made it for the money, but why else do actors act? British Sixties free-spirit Jill Haworth (1945–2011) died suddenly in her Manhattan home of ‘natural causes’ at the age of 65.

It! was released in the US in 1967 in a double bill with The Frozen Dead.

For home viewing, It! was released by Warner Home Video on 9 December 2008 with The Shuttered Room in its series of Horror Double Feature DVDs.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7292

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