After a warehouse fire, museum director Grove and assistant Pimm find everything destroyed, only one statue withstood the fire mysteriously undamaged. Suddenly Grove is lying dead on the ground, killed by the statue? Pimm finds out that the cursed statue has been created by Rabbi Loew in 16th century and will withstand every human attempt to destroy it. Pimm decides to use it to his own advantage.
***The original Terminator, but nowhere near as good***
A London museum acquires a Golem, an indestructible Hebrew statue originally created to protect the community. The assistant curator (Roddy McDowall) discovers how to control the thing but uses it for selfish, destructive purposes. You know what they say: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I've seen a few illustrations of Golems over the years where it looks very block-like (see Wikipedia), but none look like the Golem depicted in this film. Here it's pretty hideous and not block-like at all. Someone described it as a giant turd.
I couldn't help thinking of "The Terminator" while watching, but "It!" (1967) isn't nearly as successful in giving the impression of an unstoppable force, which is likely due to budget constraints and lack of imagination. There’s a “Psycho” (1960) element, but it’s irrelevant and feels tacked on. Thankfully, Jill Haworth is easy on the eyes, albeit nothing exceptional; and the rest of the main cast is good.
The build-up is well-done and interesting but the filmmakers fumble the ball in the final act. It's not even remotely believable that this slow, cumbersome statue could hold off a platoon, let alone an entire battalion. Why don't they just storm around the stone creature since they ridiculously outnumber it? Still, "It!" is worthwhile for a number of reasons, especially if you like Hammer films of that era since it has a strong Hammer-esque vibe.
The film runs 96 minutes and was shot in London.
GRADE: C+
