The Crawling Eye is a 1958 science fiction movie starring Forrest Tucker. I've noticed a lot of fairly good films posted to YouTube. I'm picking out some of the more interesting ones to do posts on. Most of my favorite 1950's SF films are American but there are several British films that make the list. This isn't a big favorite but I've seen it several times over the years. The original title in the UK was The Trollenberg Terror. Funny thing, according to the IMDb's Error page on the film: Trollenberg isn't in Switzerland nor in the Alps. The travel posters in the Trollenberg train station depict the Matterhorn probably as seen from Zermatt, Switzerland. Trollenberg however is actually located in Germany's Black Forest nearly 400 KM away. The closest rail station access to Trollenberg is in Loßburg about 4 KM away. Zermatt, however in the shadow of the Matterhorn, does have a train station and cable gondola service to Furi and Schwarzsee. Goofy film makers, huh. Still, the movie isn't even filmed in Switzerland, so who cares. It was filmed at Alliance Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK. It was written by Jimmy Sangster, who was a big player at Hammer Studios. He wrote scripts for other companies too. The movie was directed by Quentin Lawrence who directed some fair bit of British tv. Some good tv programs in his body of work. I'd sure like to see the 6 part made for tv version of The Trollenberg Terror from 1956. Sadly, it's lost. The movie was produced by Robert S Baker and Monty Berman. They worked as a team and produced a lot of movies in the 1950's. Some I've seen and others not. They were also the producers on my favorite tv show, The Saint.
Forrest is up a mountain at a Swiss resort when some crazy murders happen. People, with their heads ripped off, all over the mountain. Things move along and clues are uncovered. The monster can use thought control on humans, forcing them to kill at his will. There's a dangerous fog associated with the monster. John Carpenter said he was inspired by this film to make his own movie about fog.
The Crawling Eye isn't a great film but it's still fairly entertaining. It's moody and atmospheric. They use stock footage well and they know to open with a grizzly murder that's sold more by what you don't see. The Mystery Science Theater 3ooo guys featured it on their show. That was a fairly good episode. The movie is just goofy enough to spark a few good laughs from the SOL crew and good enough to enjoy on it's own. There's a link for each version in the post.
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