AaronCapenBanner
William Castle directed this fantasy comedy that stars Tom Poston(later costar on the "Newhart" TV series) as college professor Jonathan Jones, a teacher of ancient languages that comes into possession of a magic(!) coin that has three powers: to inflict pain, to slow down, or to kill, depending how you use the coin and pronounce "Zotz!". Problems arise when Soviet spies get wind of it, and plot to steal the coin, no matter the cost...awful film is both unfunny and stupid. Tom Poston makes a most unlikely heroic lead, and actors like Jim Backus and Cecil Kellaway are wasted. A profound disappointment from Castle, and an instantly forgettable film.
Michael_Elliott
Zotz! (1962) ** (out of 4) Off beat production from William Castle about Professor Jonathan Jones (Tom Poston) who discovers the mysterious powers of an ancient coin. It turns out that if you hold the coin and use your finger to point at something then you can make it blow up, slow down or do various other tricks. Jones plans to do the patriotic thing and turn it over to the government but sure enough things don't go as planned. I've been fairly critical of Castle and some of the films he made during this period of his career and while this movie isn't nearly as bad as some I still couldn't help but scratch my head and wonder who this thing was meant for. I'm going to guess that this thing was meant to be a rip-off of THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR but no matter what it was trying to do in the end it fails. I think the biggest problem is that the screenplay is pretty lame and director Castle clearly has proved that he wasn't the best when it came to comedy. The screenplay pretty much has Poston doing on silly thing after another as soon as he discovers the powers of this coin. We get one scene after another where he either accidentally destroys something with the coin or he tries to prove the coins powers to people and they simply don't see it. Take a look at one scene where the Professor turns loose a lot of mice at a party with plans of "zapping" them but it turns out he left the coin at home. This is a scene that could have worked but it just comes across very empty in terms of laughs and extremely uneven. Another problem happens at the end once Poston has all these people trying to track him down. It's simply not funny. Poston is fairly good in his role as you certainly believe he's absent minded but the screenplay doesn't give him much to work with. Julia Meade, Fred Clark and Jim Backus have supporting roles that are fairly lifeless due to the screenplay. ZOTZ! moves along at a decent pace but when you watch a comedy you expect laughs and this one here just doesn't have enough to make it worth viewing.
MartinHafer
This is a movie that failed--mostly because the writing was very poor and because William Castle was not very adept at comedy (this film and 13 FRIGHTENED GIRLS prove that). The idea itself, though weird and silly, could have worked--but the movie failed again and again--mostly due to a dopey script.The film starred Tom Posten as a goofy professor of ancient languages. His niece receives an ancient medallion from her boyfriend who is on a dig. Posten is happy when he notices that he can read this medallion and finds that it's a powerful charm--allowing the user to cause pain by pointing at someone, make them slow down or even kill. When he tries to show this to the US military, they think he's some kind of nut and the only ones who believe are the evil Russians. There's more to it than this, but frankly it all seemed like a kooky and less well made version of THE ABSENTMINDED PROFESSOR.As I said above, the script was really sub-par. Again and again, Posten's character (who was supposed to be a genius) behaved stupidly. When he was kidnapped by the Russians, though he had these great powers he forgot to use them until the end of the film. When he was trying to demonstrate his powers for his boss, he didn't make sure he had the medallion on him. These sort of brain-addled moments abounded in the film--and made it embarrassing and irritating to watch.A good idea but a failure.
Charles A. Miller
"The Magic Word for Fun...ZOTZ!"Thus reads Columbia Pictures' withering one-line ad campaign for William Castle's "Zotz!" (starring Tom Poston, Jim Backus, Margaret Dumont and Cecil Kellaway), an alleged comedy that debuted to no particular acclaim in 1962. Obviously the marketing department was slap out of lipstick for this pig.What's regrettable is that "ZOTZ!" could have been a smart and even sexy flick if Castle had stuck to the premise of Admiral Walter Karig's novel of the same name.For those scratching their heads, Karig's 1947 story was a fanciful metaphor for the dilemma of the Age of Nuclear Weapons... What do we do with a weapon capable of annihilating any thing, any enemy, any country, and with as little effort as pointing a finger?What do we do? Well, for starters, we learn not to point fingers and threaten our neighbors, or we might very well destroy ourselves. A simplistic observation for those of us with nearly 60 years of Cold War hindsight; but it was a revelation to Walter Karig when he wrote "Zotz!" (just two years after the bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki).The plot of "Zotz!" was just as simple: Prof. Jonathan Jones (a professor of ancient Eastern languages) comes into possession of a cursed amulet; Jones deciphers the amulet's powers to cause pain, to retard motion, and to kill, and he immediately suffers the consequences of his discovery. This is where the book and the movie part company.Karig's story went on to explore some of the dire (and truly comical) consequences of absolute power, including sexual dysfunction: Prof. Jones realizes to his horror that pointing ANY part of his body at another living creature will send the victim into spasms of debilitating pain. This is a lousy realization for him to make during an intimate encounter with a beautiful woman--that the erection in his pants is as dangerous to her as a red-hot poker!Now, this shows comedic promise: Here is a man of unlimited power who must vigilantly remain flaccid, lest he inflict unspeakable physical agony on his love interest. That's the stuff of classic cinema!Ah, but does William Castle even attempt what could be one of the most awkwardly comic sexual encounters ever put to film? He does not. Well, in truth, he cannot... remember, it was 1962. Sex in mainstream entertainment was barely out of the box at the time. And William Castle wasn't a terribly clever film maker.Instead, Castle's movie offers up a series of dry, two-dimensional vignettes merely demonstrating the ZOTZ effect: Professor Jones kills a moth; Professor Jones kills a lizard; Professor Jones becomes drunk at a faculty dinner and utters the magic word ZOTZ...zany hijinx ensue.Unlike Karig's book, the closest this film comes to making a political statement against weapons of mass destruction is when Professor Jones attempts to turn the terrible ZOTZ amulet over to the Department of Defense; but the Pentagon bigwigs are too dimwitted to hear him out.Granted, William Castle's "Zotz!" did employ some unusual special effects for its day, including a rooftop "slow bullet" sequence: Intoning the mystic word ZOTZ, Prof. Jones freezes a .45 slug in mid-flight and steps easily out of its path; then Jones leaps from the rooftop and falls about twenty floors in slow motion, end-over-end, to the sidewalk, as normal-speed action continues in the background. I doubt that such a surreal sequence had been attempted in film before.It's in the final moments of the film, however, that Castle finally admits to his audience that he doesn't understand or doesn't give a damn about Walter Karig's intended message. Under Castle's ham-handed direction, Ray Russel's screenplay inexplicably finds us on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Tom Poston mouthing patriotic platitudes--then fade to the fluttering American flag with churchbells ringing liberty across all the land. And roll credits...What does it mean? Is this fun? It can't be humorous, because, hey, the flag, right? Almost as an afterthought, Castle attempts to turn Karig's thoughtful anti-nuke metaphor into a pathetic piece of flag-waving Cold War propaganda. And he fails even at that.How and why Walter Karig's much more whimsical ending was omitted from the film is one of the great mysteries of William Castle lore. As Walter Karig penned it, Professor Jones--after a roller-coaster flirtation with godhood-- chooses to chuck it all and seek a thoroughly anonymous role in society... that of a pest exterminator, whistling as he works, zapping roaches and rats one "ZOTZ" at a time.Alas, William Castle (in his questionable wisdom) chose not to end a comedy on a comedic note; even though Karig's ending would have been perfect for Tom Poston, and may have conceivably salvaged Castle's dismal, downward-spiraling romp.
