It! (1967)

[Pye]

When I was a child I had a number of books on horror movies and quite a few had lavish pictures and text about this film, which starred Roddy McDowall and Jill Haworth and was about a museum curator who keeps his dead mother in his house and brings a Golem to life to kill his enemies and kidnap the object of his desires. I've never seen it turn up on TV or DVD, does anyone here remember ever seeing it?

[roxyhailey321]

name='Pye' timestamp='1286626107' post='481145']

When I was a child I had a number of books on horror movies and quite a few had lavish pictures and text about this film, which starred Roddy McDowall and Jill Haworth and was about a museum curator who keeps his dead mother in his house and brings a Golem to life to kill his enemies and kidnap the object of his desires. I've never seen it turn up on TV or DVD, does anyone here remember ever seeing it?

The movie was called "IT" and other then Roddy and the lovely Jill, nothing much happens at all. Very boring.

[John Hamilton]

name='roxyhailey321' timestamp='1286626472' post='481150']

The movie was called "IT" and other then Roddy and the lovely Jill, nothing much happens at all. Very boring.

Great performance from McDowell- when I say great I mean entertaining- as the twitchy Norman Bates lookalike museaum curator who seems to take forever to work out the Golem isn't just a statue but gets their in the end thanks to his trusty umbrella

[Gerald Lovell]

I watched this for the first time in years not too long ago. It's an uneasy blend of horror and black comedy which doesn't quite come off, IMO, and motivated, so I am led to believe, by Roddy McDowall's anxiousness to be in a horror film.

[Grant]

I quite enjoyed it as well. I picked up the R1 release from Warner which was on a double bill with 'The Shuttered Room'.

[John Hamilton]

name='Grant' timestamp='1286636401' post='481204']

I quite enjoyed it as well. I picked up the R1 release from Warner which was on a double bill with 'The Shuttered Room'.

Interesting double bill- haven't seen The Shuttered Room for years but love Carol Lynley

[wearysloth]

Let's hear a round of applause for Octopus books and their ilk and Alan Frank and Denis Gifford et al





Alan Sellers cursed to seek out Nivea cream for all eternity in It!

[Gerald Lovell]

name='wearysloth' timestamp='1286644778' post='481244']



Let's hear a round of applause for Octopus books and their ilk and Alan Frank and Denis Gifford et al





Alan Sellers cursed to seek out Nivea cream for all eternity in It!

Nice covers - I still have all those books! Alan Frank used to pop up on CLAPPERBOARD now and again and I think he said he had appeared as an extra in some Hammer films. Which ones, I sadly can no longer remember.

[GRAEME]

I definitely saw this on late night ITV in the Thames region - late-ish 70s.



Oh, and it's crap.

[wadsy]

name='wearysloth' timestamp='1286644778' post='481244']

Alan Sellers cursed to seek out Nivea cream for all eternity in It!

He's beyond Nivea!

[John Hamilton]

name='wearysloth' timestamp='1286644778' post='481244']



Let's hear a round of applause for Octopus books and their ilk and Alan Frank and Denis Gifford et al





Alan Sellers cursed to seek out Nivea cream for all eternity in It!

Great covers! The Gifford book was the first 'grown up' book I ever owned. Coming of age moment for me! Bought just before BBC2 started showing the double bills

[Rick C]

name='John Hamilton' timestamp='1286639316' post='481216']

Interesting double bill- haven't seen The Shuttered Room for years but love Carol Lynley

The theatrical partner for "The Shuttered Room" -for its 1967 UK double bill release anyway- was the early Francis Ford Coppola feature "You're a Big Boy Now".

[Gerald Lovell]

name='John Hamilton' timestamp='1286698468' post='481373']

Great covers! The Gifford book was the first 'grown up' book I ever owned. Coming of age moment for me! Bought just before BBC2 started showing the double bills

It was the Carlos Clarens book that I picked up unexpectedly in a bookshop in Edinburgh that cemented my love of horror films, closely followed by the Gifford book. I still have both books: they are battered but unbowed!

[John Hamilton]

name='Gerald Lovell' timestamp='1286726349' post='481471']

It was the Carlos Clarens book that I picked up unexpectedly in a bookshop in Edinburgh that cemented my love of horror films, closely followed by the Gifford book. I still have both books: they are battered but unbowed!

Believe it or not I had to have a tidy out when I moved from Glasgow to London and amongst the things that went to the local jumble sale was the Clarens book (as well as two of the three Alan Franks). How stupid do I feel now

[m35541]

I own all of thse books also. the Gifford book really annoyed me because it basically stopped at 1945 and didn't cover all of the stuff I was watching when I was younger - Hammer, Amicus Corman, etc. I haven't even looked at it for 20 years and now regard it as poorly researched and worthless. The Alan Frank stuff did cover the later stuff and I use to look at this a lot before I also realised how parochial it was (some great pics though). I have barely looked at it also for 20 years.



After that. it was the Aurum Horror Film Encyclopedia for me. Awesome book which covered so many horror films from Europe and US independents that i'd never hear of. Unfortuantely, once I started to see these obscure films it was all too obvious that the Aurum book's authors hadn't either and too much of it is plagiarised from the Monthly Film Bulletin.



Best horror/SF books:



Universal Horrors - the Tom Weaver/Brunas book

1950's horrors - the Bill Warren book (originally written in the late 1970s and a massive achievement. Recently updated and revised)

English Gothic/American Gothic - Jonathan Rigby (huge in scope and I agree with most of what he says)

Aurum Book - still has the biggest selection of stuff but a bit out of date now as only goes up to the mid 1980s.



Haven't really got anything on horror films of the last twenty years - wouldn't mind some recommendations.

[John Hamilton]

name='m35541' timestamp='1286787770' post='481649']



Haven't really got anything on horror films of the last twenty years - wouldn't mind some recommendations.

Beasts in the Cellar- written by er,...me!



Not sure there has been a comprehensive book on horror movies written in the last two decades other than Rigby's first class tome; lots of single subject stuff and too many Hammer books. I'd recommend anything by Tom Weaver

[Carmel]

This was on TCM a couple of months ago late at night so im sure it will be shown again soon.

[Pye]

name='wearysloth' timestamp='1286644778' post='481244']



Let's hear a round of applause for Octopus books and their ilk and Alan Frank and Denis Gifford et al





Alan Sellers cursed to seek out Nivea cream for all eternity in It!

Amazing, they are exactly the books I had, plus the Encyclopedia of Horror and the excellent Penguin Encyc of Supernatural and Sci Fi!

[m35541]

Beasts in the Cellar- written by er,...me!

I have got your tome John. Enjoyed reading it and it made me want to track down a copy of the uncut print of Not Now Darling !!



What i meant was books about horror films made in the past 20 years - I've got nothing after the slasher years of the first half of the 1980's.

[dremble wedge]

name='John Hamilton' timestamp='1286818189' post='481761']

Beasts in the Cellar- written by er,...me!



Not sure there has been a comprehensive book on horror movies written in the last two decades other than Rigby's first class tome; lots of single subject stuff and too many Hammer books. I'd recommend anything by Tom Weaver

The only Tom Weaver book I've read is his John Carradine one. Hugely informative but the author does go on for an annoyingly long time about having to watch a large number of terrible films... It's a book on John Carradine! He can't have been surprised!