TheCrawlingEye

The Crawling Eye (1958)

Note: The DVD that I watched for this review is called The Crawling Eye, but is actually a copy of the British version of the movie under the title The Trollenberg Terror. It is longer and in my opinion a much better version of the movie then the shorter US cut.

Time to get back to my roots. I grew up watching these old classic science fiction and horror flicks from the 50s and 60s. The Crawling Eye is one of my favorites. The story is set at the foot of the Trollenberg Mountain. Alan, played by the excellent Forrest Tucker, is called in by Professor Crevett, a scientist friend of his, to investigate odd accidents on the mountain. Seems that there have been a few too many deaths and the bodies are disappearing. This reminds Crevett of another similar experience on another mountain that he and Alan investigated. Also on the train are a pair of sisters, Anne and Sarah, who are on vacation and end up stopping in Trollenberg. After a few more deaths it becomes obvious that there is something on the mountain and that it is making it’s way down towards them all.

The Crawling Eye is such a great movie. It starts off very serious with a gruesome (for the 50s anyway) death and follows that up with a very creepy and atmospheric hour or so. You have monsters lurking in the shadows and a nifty twist with zombie like puppets doing their bidding. If the whole movie had been like this I would have gotten a kick out of it, but it is made even better by the eventual appearance of the monsters. The last 20 or so minutes of the movie are top-notch movie grade “B” cheese! Of course the title the Crawling Eye sort of gives it away, but it still needs to seen in all it’s glory.

The movie also is filled with great performances. In far too many of these movies it seems that the cast is “phoning” it in. But that certainly isn’t the case here. I wanted to mention a couple of the performances specifically. I’ve already mentioned that the great Forrest Tucker is in this movie. He play Alan, who is one of the central characters, and does a wonderful job. I think that most of the fans who just know him from F Troop would be very surprised to see him carrying a movie as the lead like this. Also most of us (at least guys my age) know Janet Munro from her Disney work. In this movie you get to see a serious side to her as she portrays Anne. These are just two stand out performances in a solid cast.

Lets talk special effects, shall we? I’ll be completely honest and say that when the monsters do show up on screen they look goofy. The special effects appears to be some rear projection and some bad puppet work. It really doesn’t hold up well to today’s standards, but for 1958 was some good work. But then again if you are going to go back and look at a 50 plus year old movie you can’t expect to judge it by the technical standards of today. That said I would still take this over a bunch of CGI!

I really do love this movie. The characters, change in tone, and goofy monsters all just appeal to me. I’ve spent the last few years recommending this movie to anyone that would listen. The funny part is that it is only now that I’m actually writing a review for it. This is among a very short list of genre flicks from the 50s that I feel comfortable recommending to everyone.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer