A Moeda Mágica

A professor of ancient Asian languages (Tom Poston) comes across a coin sent to his niece from a former student. After translating the coin's inscription, he finds that the bearer has godlike power: he can slow time, or even kill living things simply by pointing his finger and saying "zotz".

This is one of the lesser known William Castle films, not even released on DVD until October 20, 2009 (which you should pick up in the magnificent Castle Collection available now). It is less horror, more science fiction and a healthy dose of comedy. We have the absent-minded professor, some goofy Russians, and some cheesy special effects. Critics have complained that the film cheapens the book for the sake of focusing on special effects: I don't agree. The effects are amusing, but not a focal point of the film for me.

As for the book, which I confess I haven't read, it seems that Castle did not stray too far from the source. Written as an allegory about the danger of nuclear weapons during World War II, only one major change was made: moving the setting to the Cold War. The nuclear weapon analogy is there, and we have the hint of an arms race, which I think is a far more poignant issue than World War II's nuclear concerns.

I enjoyed this film greatly. As I said, you must pick up the William Castle Collection. He's truly a master of the genre, and even forgotten films like this illustrate that. I hope this film's release generates a resurgence of interest in Castle's films, or at the very least additional showings of them at screenings and on networks such as AMC.

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.

Ya gotta admit it's a great title and Tom Poston is rather watchable for the nine-year-olds who are the target audience. It's just a silly chase over a coin with silly magical powers, and if one can overlook the Cold War propaganda was a fun fantasy for playacting with my little friends afterwards.

Watching it again as an adult I found it rather charmless but not a total bore.

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.

I own an original copy of this movie on VHS and a copy of Walter Karig's book of the same title. They are both little treasures and should be enjoyed when they are available to you.

Karig's book is a satirical little allegory and ends in a manner quite unlike the movie. I don't want to give away the ending of either, but I can assure you that you will enjoy reading the book even if you have already seen the movie (and vice-versa.) I will warn you, though, that the ending in the book is NOT necessarily a happy one.

As for the movie, it is indeed a departure from the norm for William Castle, but he dabbled in comedy in several other movies, so it is not THAT out of character. After all, the movie deals with what are essentially supernatural forces.

Contrary to what some other reviewers have written, I would argue that this move is much closer in tone to Disney's "Absent-Minded Professor" movies. There are the usual bumbling academics, the sexy-but-safe women, the well-meaning but suspicious Federal agents, the vaguely- threatening-but-incompetent foreign agents, and the likable and innocent hero. When the day is done, the hero defeats the villains, the self-righteous get their comeuppance, the girl gets the guy, and the "secret" is lost again...maybe.

The FX are about average for B-movies of that period. As a kid, I was astonished, but they definitely show their age when I watch it now.

I really think that kids today would enjoy seeing this movie. Give it a chance, if you get one. This is one rare movie to find on tape.