Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

MARIO GAUCI Although William Castle hit the jackpot when he almost exclusively dedicated himself to Horror from 1958 onwards, he still made the occasional detour to other genres, mostly Comedy. His first such excursion was this Fantasy spoof about a nerdy Ancient Languages professor who comes in possession of an old amulet that has the trifold powers of instilling bouts of acute pain at persons being pointed at, make people act in slow motion when the magic titular word is spoken and, when both actions are combined, make the subject in question instantly combust! Tom Poston – who a year later reunited with the director in the ill-conceived Hammer Films remake of James Whale's sublime THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) – stars as the healthy-lifestyle-freak hero who, apart from tending to his youthful niece, is contending the soon-to-be vacant position of the college Dean (currently held by Cecil Kellaway) with pompous European Languages professor Jim Backus. To further confound the impending promotion issue, the undecided Kellaway hires a female professor (Julia Meade) that fits both faculties; as it turns out, Poston had already met the latter just as he discovered the supernatural potential of the amulet…although, bafflingly enough, this initial evidence manifests itself through the outbreak of a massive thunderstorm which robs Meade of all her attire when she is struck by lightning! The highlights of such displays of the amulet's power occur during Kellaway's farewell party – where Poston makes Backus warble his way protractedly through his tribute speech – and in the aftermath of an earlier party at Kellaway's house where Poston follows his niece (who is wearing the amulet and is unaware of its powers) around town as she is mowing down pained pedestrians when indicating the directions to her driver beau (who also happens to be Backus' son)!The thing is that the Zotz amulet only works when in possession of the person speaking the word or pointing and, in fact, Poston makes a veritable fool of himself at Kellaway's house when, wishing to impress his outgoing superior and perhaps secure his promotion, he unleashes a bunch of mice during the above-mentioned party among the guests with the express intention of neutralizing them within seconds…which, of course, does not happen and leads to much panicking by the frazzled guests (including Kellaway's wife, played by former Groucho Marx foil Margaret Dumont). When Kellaway sends Poston to a psychiatric re-evaluation and a stretch of forced leave, the latter goes to Washington with the intention of selling his "invention" to top Army brass like Fred Clark (who completely misses a near-plane crash caused by Zotz!) as his attention is focused on his indoor golf playing. The same cannot be said of his Russian counterparts who kidnap the women in Poston's life – held captive by muscleman Mike Mazurki – while Poston is flied to Moscow! Thankfully, the young professor is too clever for his own captor, convinces them to turn back the plane and resolves matters (with a little help from Zotz, of course) in a rooftop chase with the three baddies.Although the tricks of the amulet get to be repetitive after a while, the frothy concoction still pleases on the whole and the ironic conclusion – with the exotic coin finding itself at the bottom of the city sewers and Clark's assurance to the collected press that efforts are underway to retrieve it – is complemented by the amusing animated credits: in the opening ones, Castle "zotzes" Columbia's Torch Lady and, at the close, the studio logo is made to cheekily utter, "Zot's all, folks!"

mark.waltz Tom Poston got the short shrift with his two William Castle films, both lame comedies where even his subtle comic talents can't save him from the unfunny scripts. This science fiction spoof is about a rare ancient coin that shows things down, speeds them up, freezes them or kills them. He's the nerdy college professor trying to give this to the Pentagon, which results in Russian spies going after him. (Those spies are conveniently outside General Fred Clark's office posing as window washers). There's one funny scene concerning some loose mice (with Margaret Dumont, of all old biddies, present as Persephone Updike!) and such other vets as Cecil Kellaway and Jim Backus there as well. Backus's one big comic moment (his speech being slowed down to make him appear drunk) is embarrassingly unfunny. With such talent, you'd think there'd be more humor (even if the plot is beyond ridiculous) but the result is a zero. Nertz to Zotz.

Wizard-8 Director William Castle, upon seeing the end results of this movie of his, seemed to have realized that this movie wasn't up to his previous movies. For one thing, the gimmick that he came up for this movie was to give patrons a copy of the coin seen in the movie. (Whoopie!) *I* certainly thought that this was one of his weakest efforts.The premise of the movie, while not really original (even when the movie was made), still did have some promise. But there are two main problems that shoot down the movie. The first is that the characters act pretty stupid for most of the movie. Our hero is a college professor, yet the coin-related actions he does suggest he has put little thought into what he has discovered and what he should do with it.The second problem is related to that first problem, in that most of the movie is devoted to him *not* using the coin to his advantage (which is what most people would do), or being responsible with the coin. You will keep wondering just when some conflict will come into the movie, and he will be forced to struggle, to bring some ACTION into the movie. Eventually (after more than an hour of the running time has passed), our hero is challenged, but he acts (again) so stupidly when someone with even average intelligence would figure out how to use the coin to end the conflict in just a few minutes.Not even worth two cents.

Scarletfire-1 I have always a vague memory of a movie I saw one afternoon back in the early 1970's when I was a little kid. I've been wondering for years what the name of it was and I finally found out what it was.The movie was about this guy who had this magic coin that would make everything stop or move very slowly. I recalled a scene with him sitting in a bathtub and a scene where someone is falling off the roof of a building, but falls very slowly because of the magic coin. I also had a vague memory of someone firing a gun, but the bullet being stopped in mid-air by the coin.Somehow I came across some info on IMDb for a William Castle film called Zotz! and realized that I had found it at last. I got a copy of it and watched it again after about 30 years. One thing that I had forgotten about completely was the scene where he is riding the bike with that bracket on the handlebars for reading a book. Strange how a long closed section of your memory banks can be reopened again years later.Zotz! wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I can see how a little kid might think it was fun, but it didn't really hold up that well for an adult. Castle's movie called "13 Ghosts" on the other hand is one that can be enjoyed by kids and adults as well.