CRAWLING EYE, THE (Trollenberg Terror, The) (director: Quentin Lawrence; screenwriters: Jimmy Sangster/from a Peter Key novel; cinematographer: Monty Berman; editor: Henry Richardson; cast: Forrest Tucker (Allen Brooks), Janet Munro (Anne Pilgrim), Jennifer Jayne (Sarah Pilgrim), Laurence Payne (Philip Truscott), Warren Mitchell (Professor Crevett), Andrew Faulds (Brett), Stuart Saunders (Dewhurst), Colin Douglas (Hans), Frederick Schiller (Klein), 1958-UK)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A "B" movie, based on a British TV serial called The Trollenberg Terror, that is not to be taken seriously while it provides enough unintentional funny material and hokem to possibly get a mute to laugh aloud. There are no pretenses, this is one of those bad movies that is enjoyable in a non-intellectual way. It features dialogue that is so stilted, it might knock your head off, if while you were listening you tried to actually digest it for its meaning. To enjoy one of these early science fiction thrillers, made before quality special effects became a sci-fi prerequisite, one must keep an open mind for how cheesy the film looks and have a special feel for low brow culture. This stuff ain't Spielberg, it ain't even up to Robin Williams' low standards-- it's bad alright, but not that bad that it can't be laughed at!
At the remote Swiss Alpine village of Trollenberg, people are disappearing and one mountain climber is found with no head. The mystery of how these mountain climbers are being killed off, turns out to be that there is hidden in the stationary radioactive clouds, some one-eyed, tentacled, extra terrestrials. Please refrain from yodeling any uncalled for responses, upon learning that these outer space creatures have invaded Switzerland, having just come from the Andes. It seems that these nonmoving clouds can only survive in the extreme cold and therefore choose mountain tops as their choice spots of habitation. Warning: watch out for later on in the film, when these same clouds move!
Allen Brooks (Tucker) is a U.N. scientist, who is as serious as a heart attack. He has an urgent message from his old scientific friend, the nutty Professor Crevett (Mitchell), to come at once to Trollenberg. Allen got his reputation burnt recently by reporting the possibility of extra terrestrials in the Andes and could not offer any proof, so when told by the professor that he suspects the many accidents occurring to climbers, is due to that mysterious cloud, the same type of cloud that was in the Andes, which he is observing in his observatory tower, that is built like a fortress on the side of the mountain, complete with steel-shuttered windows (no explanation is given why it was built this way). Allen must be thinking to himself, give me proof, man, don't leave me hanging again, what are the other scientists going think of me! Don't tell me, professor, that you can't report it to the authorities yourself because you're a serious scientist, busy studying cosmic rays-- I'm serious, too! But, of course, Allen doesn't say this to the professor, he just says, we must have more proof before we ask for help.
Anne (Munro) and Sarah Pilgrim (Jayne) are English sisters who developed a mind reading act; and, due to Anne being telepathic, she picks up a signal to get off in Trollenberg rather than go on to their intended Geneva destination. She feels something pulling her to stay here that is stronger than her sister's signal to move on, and joins Allen, who was on the same train, in staying at the Hotel Europa, where the genial but concerned innkeeper is Herr Klein (he's losing business big time). Also there is a British newspaper man, Philip (Payne), who smells a story here after seeing Allen unpack a pistol from his suitcase when arriving and soon recalls him from the alien story on the Andes. There are also a pair of climbers staying, Brett (Faulds) and Dewhurst (Saunders), who are not concerned about the accidents, saying they are not superstitious, just give them a drink before they start the climb and they'll be fine.
When the two climbers reach the hut on their first day, they plan to spend the night there, but Anne freaks out, seeing a vision of Brett disappearing. Sure enough, when Allen calls Dewhurst in the hut, he reaffirms that Brett is mysteriously gone. When the search party reaches Dewhurst, they find him with his head torn off. Later, Brett returns to the inn, but it turns out he is a dead man, sent by the aliens to kill Anne, because she's on their frequency. When Brett is cut after attacking Anne he doesn't bleed, but he folds up like a cheap suit when Allen puts a few slugs in his belly. Brett was kept alive by being frozen and when killed again, he melts away to a skeleton.
Allen and the professor now feel confident that they are dealing with monsters and thereby gather everyone in the inn to go up to the observatory in the cable-car, where they will have a better chance of surviving. At last, they come across the monster, and all I can say, it was smart of the filmmaker to wait till nearly the end of the film to see what they look like. Rather than being scary, the monsters looks a lot like an overweight Oprah, interviewing a political candidate from the right-wing and frowning at his politically incorrect responses with her one gigantic eye.
Allen puts two and two together, and decides since these creatures can only live in the extreme cold, he better fire-bomb them and get some airplane support from the British Royal Air Force to bomb them, and before you can say Jackie Robinson, these monsters are out of here.
There are no surprises in this film. If you see it, you know what kind of film you are getting. The Crawling Eyes may be a good film to see on late night cable TV while you are hoisting a few at the bar. In the film, everyone of the characters either has a brandy or a Scotch to drink at some time, when shook up or about to climb the mountain or just to be sociable. Therefore, they might know something about this film that others don't, that it might be best to have a few nips while viewing to enhance the quality of the film, not that I am an advocate of drinking, but what the hell...it can't hurt in this case. Children wouldn't need any artificial stimulants, the movie should be right on their level. I saw it sober, just for the record. So my grading of the film should be more favorably skewed for those who might be inclined to imbibe.
REVIEWED ON 4/27/2000 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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