Well, it calls itself “The Crawling Eye” and that’s pretty much what we get, big and in plural, even. The original title, “The Trollenberg Terror,” would have been much more evocative for Europeans, but “The Crawling Eye” is definitely going to get the attention of B-horror movie lovers, even if it kills some of the suspense. This one scared me as a kid, particularly the scene where the eye appears at the hotel doorway. It looks a lot less fake when it’s framed that way. However, even in my youth, the attack on the observatory looked silly as all get out. That earlier business of…something…emerging from the fog and ripping heads off, though…Brrr.
Tagline: “The nightmare terror of the slithering eye that unleashed agonizing horror on a screaming world!”
Well, they did attack a small village, anyway.
Aka: The Trollenberg Terror
WTF Factor: ** They aren’t exactly crawling eyes, but they are big and blobby.
Notable dialogue:
Phillip: “Cute little things, aren’t they?”
Alan: “Yeah, I’m gonna throw a bomb at that one.”
Synopsis: Three student climbers are on the mountain. One gets his head torn off in a cloud (off-camera). Roll credits. Anne (Janet Munro, right before her Disney contract) and sister Sarah (Jennifer Jayne) Pilgrim share a train compartment with American Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker). Anne faints in Alan’s lap, then insists that they are getting off the train at Trollenberg. In the car to the hotel, Anne seems to know all about the mountain, although she’s never been there before. She says the peasants are leaving and many climbers have disappeared.
Philip Truscott (Laurence Payne) visits with Alan at the hotel and says he now remembers that Anne and Sarah have a professional mind reading act. Phillip then checks up on Alan to find out who he is. Meanwhile, Dewhurst and Brett are getting ready to head up the mountain. Dewhurst says he’s going to “have a noggin before we start.” Heh. This is the only bit of (presumably) intentional humor in this movie.
Allen goes up the mountain to see his friend Professor Crevette (Warren Mitchell), who studies cosmic rays at the concrete bunker observatory. Crevette is concerned about the accidents and points out a weird, static, radioactive cloud on the mountain. He says that it’s “similar to what happened in the Andes.” Apparently whatever happened in the Andes was a debacle for Alan, who says he won’t stick his neck out this time. Alan says that all that’s missing here is “the mental compulsion,” then he remembers Anne.
Dewhurst and Brett arrive at the cabin and phone the hotel. Anne and Sarah do their mind reading act at the inn. Anne goes into a trance and describes what is going on at the hut. Brett is in danger and apparently he is “coming” up the mountain. She faints and is taken to her room. They call the hut and Brett is indeed gone. Dewhurst is not pleased; the cloud is approaching the hut. Sarah tells the professor that Anne is the real deal, a true telepath. Crevette tells Sarah to take Anne away from there as soon as possible. They keep exchanging calls with Dewhurst; the cloud is now at the hut. Alan is not pleased. Dewhurst is apparently attacked and the phone goes dead.
Anne spends a lot of time tossing in bed (with Sarah and Crevette).
The next morning, the men of the village head up the mountain to search for the missing climbers. This is represented by stock footage, followed by men standing in front of mountain photos. They converge on the hut and find Dewhurst’s headless body with everything covered in ice crystals. Anne tries to sneak up the mountain but she is intercepted at the observatory on behalf of Professor Crevette. The search for Brett finds his rucksack with Dewhurst’s head in it. Brett kills the two would-be rescuers.
Philip admits that he is a reporter who was following the story in the Andes, and he is skeptical of Alan’s thoughts on the matter. Crevette theorizes that the cloud holds aliens who are looking for a new world. The clouds are progressively moving down the mountain to acclimate to earth’s atmosphere and temperature.
Brett returns to the inn but he is not well, shaking and complaining about the heat. He then attacks Anne. Alan clobbers him but there is no blood, because Brett has been dead for hours. The same thing happened in the Andes; an animated corpse killed the local psychic. Brett later escapes from the cellar and attacks Anne with an axe. Alan shoots him and Brett melts when exposed to a lantern, reminiscent of a skeleton popsicle.
Spooky double exposure.
The observatory calls to say that the cloud is moving rapidly down the mountain until it has blocked the road out of Trollenberg. Everyone in the village heads for the concrete observatory except for Hans the bartender, who tries to drive through the cloud. The cloud arrives at the hotel as the last cable car load is ready to leave. Apparently no one’s watching the child(ren), because a little girl has gone back to the hotel for her ball (must be the world’s greatest ball). A giant tentacled eyeball blob appears in the hotel doorway and grabs the little girl. Allen saves her and the monster is not pleased. The cloud freezes the cable but the car makes it safely to the top and everyone is safe in the bunker. Now there are five clouds converging on the observatory.
Should be scary, although Quentin Lawrence could have directed the little girl to at least act vaguely perturbed. The whimpering dubbed on the soundtrack isn’t fooling anyone.
Hans arrives while Alan suggests hypnotizing Anne to find out what the creatures are thinking. Hans tries to strangle Anne but is stopped by Alan and Phillip. Anne is unfortunately out cold, so hypnosis is not on the table. However, Alan figures out that heat will work against the creatures.
The clouds arrive at the observatory. Alan has the villagers construct Molotov cocktails and calls for a firebomb raid with aircraft. Allen and Philip throw the bombs at the creatures but Phillip, or rather a plastic doll (see below), is grabbed by the aliens. Alan saves him, but they will have no more chances to throw the hand bombs. The planes arrive just as the monsters are coming through the walls of the observatory. Philip saves Alan this time. The planes firebomb the cloud and the critters are fried. The plane does a barrel roll in celebration. It looks like Philip and Anne will be getting together. Well, that wrapped up quickly.
Thoughts: I thought I would start with the same movie as MST3K. The Trollenberg Terror was originally a British mini-series, although Laurence Payne was the only major actor carry-over from the original, which did not include the Alan character at all. Maybe that expanded role for Philip accounts for the rather abrupt “romance” at the movie end (or maybe Alan and Sarah are wildly over-optimistic). The television version was also directed by Quentin Lawrence, who primarily worked in television.
The special effects for the movie were supervised by Les Bowie, who did the first and third Quatermass movies as well as a large number of classic Hammer movies. Bowie’s participation was not always credited. He also worked with Ray Harryhausen on Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and other films. Bowie said in interviews that he was “embarrassed” by the cheapness of the effects in this movie, but he had neither time nor money to complete them properly. The backdrops are clearly photos of mountains, and the cloud effect was achieved by gluing cotton balls onto a photo (it’s not the worst of the effects by any means). The monster is wisely kept under wraps until the last ~15 minutes, because the visually ambitious finale is well beyond the budgetary constraints of the movie.
The movie moves along rather briskly, which is a good thing considering the plot holes. Why are heads being ripped off? If Philip was reporting on the Andes story, why doesn’t he already know who Alan is? How did Dewhurst’s head get out of the hut when the door is locked from the inside (I guess the same way that the eye got in)? If the aerial tram cable was damaged from the cold, how are the villagers going to get down from the mountain? For that matter, how did Hans get up the mountain? What about the residual radioactivity from the creatures? Why am I worried about a movie I liked enough to buy on DVD as soon as it became available?
Suggested double feature: (Attack Of The) The Eye Creatures (1965) [sic]
Tagline for the coming attraction (another personal favorite): “Then… you were shocked by the great white shark – Now… you are at the mercy of 1000 jaws!”
