Professor Jonathan Jones (Tom Poston) is a professor of ancient eastern languages at a university. He lives with his niece, Cynthia (Zeme North). Cynthia corresponds with a young man who is on an archeological expedition. The young man, Eddie, sends her a charm bracelet. On the bracelet is a coin from a temple they uncovered during the dig.
Jonathan becomes intrigued with the coin and begins to research the ancient language inscribed on it. Jonathan deciphers the inscription on the coin and figures out that it contains magical powers. When the person holding the coin says the sacred name of the god Zotz the holder possesses three powers. When they point their finger at a living creature it will cause serious pain to the victim. When the holder of the coin says Zotz, time slows down. When the holder of the coin points and says Zotz, whoever he or she is pointing to is destroyed.
Jonathan goes to the pentagon to tell the government about the coin and its powers. The government thinks he is nuts. Listening in outside the window is a spy from a foreign government. The enemy agent sees the power of the coin and wants to steal it and use it as a weapon. The spy, who calls himself Mr. Bates (Carl Don) has his cohort, Igor (Mike Mazurki) kidnap Cynthia and Jonathan’s coworker and love interest, Professor Virginia Fenster (Julia Meade) hoping to keep Jonathan in line until they can get their hands on the coin and learn how to use its power.
“Zotz!” was released in 1962 and was directed by William Castle. It is an American comedy fantasy. The film is loosely based on a novel written by Walter Karig in 1947. Apparently Karig met someone who was named Zotz and thought it was exotic enough to use as a magic word.
The movie is, for the most part, light entertainment. Castle is mainly known for his mysteries, horror films and his gimmicks but he did do a few films that, perhaps weren’t comedy, but did have comedic elements, such as “The Old Dark House” 1963 and “13 Ghosts” 1960. The foray into fantasy may not have been the best of his work but it was still enjoyable enough. I realize that being able to cause people severe pain and killing them with a word is not funny, but black comedy is still comedy. When Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff holding an anvil, everyone laughs.
In the scene where Cynthia and Jimmy are at the drive-in, the movie playing is “Homicidal” 1961, one of William Castle’s films.
William Castle’s gimmick to promote the film was to distribute plastic coins to theater patrons. The coins were duplicates of the one featured in the film, including the ancient scripture on it. The distribution of the coins had to be discontinued when children thought that they were real and actually possessed magical powers. Many children were injured trying to jump off of roofs thinking they could fly or try to outrun vehicles.