The Trollenberg Terror (1958)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Forest Tucker meets two attractive sisters on a train to a mountain in Switzerland. Instead of going on to Geneva, one of the young women (part of a pair of professional mind- reader) feels compelled to stop at a remote town which is known for its mountain climbing. It turns out that several climbers have met their fates (including one which we witness at the beginning). So the threesome end up in a mountain chalet with people who are interested in scaling the peak. It turns out that people are being found with their heads missing and it has something to do with a cloud that sits next to the mountain. Everything gets jumbled up. It's the usual thing where people go ahead and stupidly make their way into danger, totally unprepared or ignorant of the dangers. Forest is the hero and he finds himself in the middle of all this. One of the girls is empathic and keeps getting herself in danger. Of course, we eventually see the "crawling eye." It looks like a big pastry with one eye and skinny tentacles. There is also something about the temperature on the mountain. Anyway, it eventually gets down to fighting with fire. It's not that I don't appreciate these kinds of films, but lets not get carried away with praising them, other than their sentimental attraction to drive-in movie goers of the fifties.

Quentin Lawrence directed this British science fiction horror film that stars Forrest Tucker as UN science investigator Alan Brooks, who goes to a remote mountaintop Swiss Village where a series of mysterious decapitation murders have taken place. Also there is Professor Crevett(played by Warren Mitchell) and a young woman with psychic powers(played by Janet Munro) who discover strange aliens who are crawling eyeballs who travel in the fog! The survivors try to escape their hotel to find a way to defeat them. Strange film is atmospheric but hurt by its silly monsters and inadequate F/X. Would have been better to keep them more in the fog, where they would have been eerie.

Monster fans, rejoice! This great-looking DVD from Image offers us the baby boomer favorite "The Trollenberg Terror," from 1958, with the original, NONspoiler British title that is so much more preferable to the American appellation: "The Crawling Eye." In the film, sturdy as always Forrest Tucker plays Alan Brooks, a U.N. physicist/investigator (or something on that order...after two recent viewings, I'm still not clear on that point) who comes to the Swiss village of Trollenberg to investigate a recent string of mysterious deaths, as well as the radioactive, stationary cloud that hovers over a nearby mountain. Viewers must wait a full hour before getting a look at the title creatures, during which time they should be amply entertained by the plight of Janet Munro's character--a pretty young woman who is in telepathic contact with the creatures--and by the zombie cat's-paw who is sent by the unseen foes to do their bidding. The viewer's patience is ultimately rewarded by some of the most memorable-looking monsters in screen history; creatures that are fondly remembered by all baby boomers who watched the classic '60s TV show "Supernatural Theatre," which showed the crawling eye expand each week during its opening credits. Though filmed on the cheap, these aliens look impressively yucky. The picture, on the whole, is uniformly well acted by all (Tucker, especially, underplays his role nicely), Stanley Black's subtle yet eerie score works wonders in ratcheting up the tension, and director Quentin Lawrence keeps things moving along briskly. I find this to be a quality example of horrific sci-fi, despite the lack of top-tier FX, and not at all campy (well, perhaps a bit cheesy!). And thanks to this great new print from Image, we may never see "The Trollenberg Terror" look any better. Reason to rejoice, indeed!

(some of the details discussed my be considered "spoilers" for anyone unfortunate enough that they have not already seen this movie... several times)The Crawling Eye is both excellent sci-fi and a study in the psychology of 50's culture.Only the special effects suffer in this B&W classic, though not badly for the era. Produced in the atmosphere of the dawning nuclear age it was a pioneering effort, speculating on the possibility of life on other worlds. Special effects at the time were limited for the most part to chocolate syrup for theatrical blood and scaled miniatures and backdrops to add depth to a studio scene, and silly rubber costumes. The fact that the monsters seem a little artificial shouldn't spoil this film for anyone.The storyline is quite brilliant for the era. Xenobiology and serious scientific speculation on the nature of life, what form it might take, how it might look, didn't exist yet. We had only our imaginations and the understanding that life on other worlds would likely be very different... a huge bulbous brain/eye with tentacles, was as valid at that time as any other guess, and it was creepy, gross, and unexpected. What the Crawling Eye was NOT, more than anything else... was a monster that looked like some poor guy dressed up in 50 pounds of latex.Comments by scientific giants of the day that discounted the notion that intelligent life was unique to Earth as hubris, became the seed for the wonderful Sci-fantasy stories that followed. The possibility that we might not really be alone, but drama requires a villain. The bigger the threat, the greater and more dramatic the effort required to overcome it.We had just finished a horrible world war, Russia had gone from our ally to our most powerful enemy almost overnight, unrest stirred in Asia as Korea was embroiled in civil war and we replaced these threats in cultural fiction with much more fearful threats. More terrible than Hitler and Stalin combined, alien life with advanced technologies beyond our understanding, space flight, tremendous intellect, and inhuman evil provided the antagonist. Once again the Earth was saved not by brilliance, or super weapons, but by heroism, stalwart character, and the refusal to submit to tyranny... The paragon of western values. Our fictional monsters had to be more horrible than life, because we'd already beaten Hitler... and we really had to dig down into our imaginations to find something more evil, more cunning, and more horrible to defeat... We found it for the moment in a tentacled abomination with one huge eye and the force of will to control men's thoughts, even onto death.I suggest a large box of popcorn, a soda in a too large leaky paper cup and more ice than necessary, and a bit of gum or a milk-dud stuck to the seat for the full effect.