It! (1967)

Herbert J. Leder set out to do what any good producer and director should do, which is copy a winning formula and hope to make money off of it.  The winning formula in this case was Hammer's brand of horror films.  Hammer had not only cornered the market in England - although Amicus and Tygon had a bit of success riding their coattails - but had done so in the U.S. as well, despite heavy competition from American International.  The blend of blood and sex was just the thing for a generation that was starting to come into its own and a film industry that was leaving its old ways behind.

It! also owes quite a bit to something much older that Hammer.  Paul Wegener was an early film director and makeup artist who had a hit in 1915 with his horror film Der Golem.  Now lost except for some scenes of the ending, it told of the modern-day rediscovery of a creature that had been created to protect the Jewish ghetto in Prague against a pogrom.  In Wegener's movie it goes berserk after it falls for a woman who spurns its advances.  In It! a few details are changed, and unfortunately it doesn't have the same wild ending, but in many ways it is a retelling of that story.

Arthur Pimm (Roddy McDowell) is assistant curator in a British museum.  After a warehouse fire the only surviving artifact is a large stone statue, under which the curator Mr. Grove (Ernest Clark) dies mysteriously.  After bringing the statue back to the museum other deaths involving the edifice occur, gaining it a reputation and an audience.  Trimingham, the administrator of the museum, is anxious to be rid of it and begins negotiations with Perkins (Paul Maxwell) who represents a museum in New York.

There are a few things about Pimm.  We find out he is devoted to his mother, such that he steals jewels from the museum for her to wear, and that mother is pretty much past caring about jewelry.  He is also obsessed with his coworker Ellen (Jill Haworth), who sees Pimm as just a friend and becomes quickly enamored with Perkins.  Pimm figures out there is something strange about the statue and, after consulting a rabbi, realizes that it is a legendary golem.  Pimm learns of its secrets and begins controlling it, realizing too late that his actions may have doomed everyone. 

McDowell puts forth quite a performance as Pimm and I think it was wise to make it clear from the beginning that our main character is jealous, narcissistic and quite delusional.  The golem itself in this story is merely a tool for him to carry out his revenge and try to win Ellen for himself.  In many ways he fills in for the scorned creature from Der Golem, however Pimm is in no way a sympathetic character. 

Neither Jill Haworth nor Roddy McDowell had any fond memories of making the movie and, indeed, there is quite a bit wrong with it.  Without him in the lead there would have been no reason to watch this as everything interesting pretty much happens before the golem comes to life.  Once it does things rush toward a ridiculous ending with nary a thought toward any logic, outward or inward.  Where many horror films of the time come to abrupt halt because they have reached a natural stopping point, It! just leaves viewers wondering why they bothered.

It! (1967)

Time: 96 minutes

Starring: Roddy McDowell, Jill Haworth, Paul Maxwell

Director: Herbert J. Leder