Is one Castle film that desperately needed a gimmick to bring audiences in, but the best he could come up with this time was a full-size plastic replica of the amulet given to audience members as a promotional item during the initial run of the film. Hardly a big draw, the replicas were essentially identical to the film amulet, with the. Zotz Racing specializes in Porsche street cars and race cars. Family owned independent Porsche service. Your Porsche Track service, Performance, Alignment, Maintenance, and Coaching.

• Zotz Coin
• Zotz Candy

Zotz! is a 1962 fantasycomedy film produced and directed by William Castle. It stars Tom Poston, Julia Meade, Jim Backus, Fred Clark, and Cecil Kellaway. The plot is about a man obtaining magical powers from a god of an ancient civilization. It is based on Walter Karig's 1947 novel.

Plot[edit]

Zotz Coin

A brilliant but peculiar professor of Ancient Eastern languages, Jonathan Jones, finds that an amulet sent to his niece Cynthia by a boyfriend from an archeological dig has magical powers.

Whoever has the amulet in their possession can 1) cause great pain by pointing at another living creature, 2) cause time to go into slow motion by saying the word 'Zotz!', or 3) cause instant death by simultaneously pointing and saying 'Zotz!'. Both government and Communist agents immediately develop an interest in the amulet's possible military use. (This is a metaphor for the age of nuclear weapons, as the novel was written two years after atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

In the meantime, Jones and rival professor Kellgore are both in line for a promotion to take over from retiring Dean Updike as head of this California university's language department. A new colleague and possible romantic interest, Professor Fenster, is startled by Jones' behavior, particularly at a party thrown by Updike's wife that turns into chaos.

Cast[edit]

• Tom Poston as Professor Jonathan Jones
• Julia Meade as Professor Virginia Fenster
• Jim Backus as Professor Kellgore
• Cecil Kellaway as Dean Updike
• Margaret Dumont as Persephone Updike
• Fred Clark as General Bullivar

Promotion[edit]

During the initial theatrical run, theater patrons received a full-size plastic replica of the amulet as a promotional item. In color, size and design, the replicas were essentially identical to the film amulet, with the additional feature of a small hole drilled at the top, for a key chain.

DVD release[edit]

On October 20, 2009, Zotz! was released on DVD by Sony Pictures as part of The William Castle Collection box set.^[1]

See also[edit]

Zotz Candy

References[edit]

1. ^'The William Castle Film Collection'. Retrieved 5 December 2010.

External links[edit]

• Zotz! at IMDb
• Zotz! at the TCM Movie Database
• Zotz! title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database