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The Trollenberg Terror

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The Trollenberg Terror
Theatrical release poster
Directed byQuentin Lawrence
Screenplay byJimmy Sangster
Story byPeter Key
Based onThe Trollenberg Terror
1956 TV series
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMonty Berman
Edited byHenry Richardson
Music byStanley Black
Production
company
Distributed byEros Films
Release dates
  • 7 July 1958 (1958-07-07) (United States)
  • 7 October 1958 (1958-10-07) (United Kingdom)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Trollenberg Terror (U.S. title: The Crawling Eye; also known as Creatures from Another World [1]) is a 1958 British science fiction horror film produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman and directed by Quentin Lawrence. The film stars Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Janet Munro, and Jennifer Jayne.[1] The special effects are by Les Bowie.[2] The story is based on a 1956 British ITV "Saturday Serial" television programme[3] written by George F. Kerr, Jack Cross and Giles Cooper under the collective pseudonym of "Peter Key". The film was released as The Crawling Eye in the United States on 7 July 1958 by Distributors Corporation of America and as The Trollenberg Terror in the United Kingdom in October 1958 by Eros Films.[2] It played on a double bill with the British science fiction film The Strange World of Planet X, retitled Cosmic Monsters for its American release.

The Trollenberg Terror's storyline concerns United Nations troubleshooter Alan Brooks, later joined by journalist Philip Truscott, investigating unusual accidents occurring in the area of a resort hotel on the fictional Mount Trollenberg in Switzerland. Brooks suspects that these deaths are related to a series of similar incidents which occurred three years earlier in the Andes Mountains, which involved an unexplained radioactive cloud formation believed by locals to be inhabited.

Plot

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On the Swiss mountain Trollenberg, one of three climbers is suddenly killed, his head ripped from his body. Two sisters, Anne and Sarah Pilgrim, a London mind-reading act, are travelling by train to Geneva when Anne faints as the train passes the mountain. Upon waking, Anne insists that they must get off at the next stop.

UN troubleshooter Alan Brooks, in the same train compartment as the sisters, is going to Trollenberg's observatory to meet with Professor Crevett. Crevett goes on to explain that, despite a series of climbing accidents, no bodies are ever found, and an always-stationary radioactive cloud is regularly observed on the mountain's south face. Brooks mentions similar incidents that took place in South America in the Andes three years earlier, just before a similar radioactive cloud vanished without a trace. Local rumors circulated that something was alive in the heavy mist of the cloud.

Anne is giving a mind-reading demonstration at the nearby hotel when she "sees" two men in a base camp hut on the mountain. Dewhurst is asleep when the other man, Brett, under some kind of mental compulsion, walks outside as the cloud envelopes the hut. Anne suddenly faints again. Brooks phones the hut, Dewhurst answers, screams, and then the connection suddenly goes dead.

A rescue party, including Brooks, climbs up to the camp hut looking for both men. Anne, in a trance-like state, urges the rescuers to stay away. Inside the hut, the rescuers discover that everything is frozen solid, despite the door being locked from the inside. Dewhurst's body is found under a bed with its head missing. A spotter plane arrives and circles overhead, and a man is spotted a half mile away. The first rescuer finds a rucksack at that location with a severed head inside. He is set upon and killed by Brett, who also kills the second rescuer when he arrives.

Later at the hotel, Brett suddenly staggers in, claiming that he had been lost on the mountain. Soon after, he attacks Anne with a knife, but Brooks manages to subdue him. Brett sustains a severe head gash during the struggle, but no blood flows from the wound. He is heavily sedated and locked away. Brooks recalls to journalist Philip Truscott a similar incident in the Andes that followed a similar pattern: a man murdered an elderly woman who allegedly had psychic abilities like those displayed by Anne. The killer's body was discovered to have been dead for at least 24 hours prior to his murder of the old woman. Brett escapes his improvised cell and resumes his hunt for Anne, this time armed with a handaxe. Before he can reach her, Brooks dispatches him with a pistol. Brett's flesh appears crystallized upon inspection and rapidly decomposes in the heat.

The cloud has begun to move down the mountainside towards the hotel, so the guests retreat up to the fortified observatory. A mother realises that her young daughter is missing as they enter the cable car. In a thickening mist, a giant tentacled creature with a single huge eye appears at the hotel, smashing down the front door. Brooks manages to rescue the child from the lobby, both of them narrowly escaping. They return to the cable car, but the delay gives the mist a chance to reach the car platform. The transport motor begins to freeze, starting and stopping, the cable slipping, but the cable car arrives safely. The single cloud has now split into five while converging on the observatory.

Hans, who left the hotel by car, suddenly turns up at the observatory. Once inside, he begins exhibiting the same obsession with Anne. Hans tries to strangle her, but Brooks and Truscott stop him as Brooks stabs him. As the monsters near the observatory, everyone makes Molotov cocktails to combat them. By radio, Alan orders an aerial firebombing raid against the observatory, which has reinforced walls and concrete roof that can withstand the assault.

Truscott strikes one of the creatures with a Molotov cocktail, setting it ablaze. He is caught by a tentacle from another monster now atop the observatory's roof. Brooks sets that one ablaze with another Molotov cocktail, forcing it to drop Truscott. Later, Truscott firebombs another creature that manages to breach a portion of thick wall to get at Anne. The aerial firebombing assault begins and successfully torches the remaining monsters.

Cast

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† Reprising role from TV version.

Production

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The Trollenberg Terror was the final film shot at Southall Studios, one of the earliest pioneer film studios in the United Kingdom, and was one of the last films released by Distributors Corporation of America.[citation needed]

Mitchell's role was originally meant to be played by Anton Diffring, but Diffring pulled out of the part at the last minute.[4]

Reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Several sequences in this Alpine science fiction production are genuinely alarming, although much more could have been made of the dramatic moments. The film gives the impression of having been shot and edited in a great hurry and the characteristic addiction to close-ups of such details as severed heads and melting flesh is more in evidence than in most science fiction pieces. More accomplished direction might have resulted in a film as effective as the Quatermass film series".[5]

In the 1 January 1959 issue of The New York Times, film critic Richard W. Nason reviewed the double feature starring Forrest Tucker and opined that "...The Crawling Eye and The Cosmic Monsters do nothing to enhance or advance the copious genre of science fiction".[6]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Efficiently suspenseful British cheapie marred by awful special effects. Two bits of cotton wool stuck on a mountain photo make do for the cloudy snowscapes in veteran Hammer scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster's screen version of the BBC [sic] TV series. Forrest Tucker is miscast as the hero, but Janet Munro is affecting as the telepathic heroine the aliens seize as their mouthpiece."[7]

Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin considered The Trollenberg Terror as "ok, if predictable", a feature that showed its humble origins, being adapted by Jimmy Sangster from the British TV series (also called The Trollenberg Terror) about cloud-hiding alien invaders on a Swiss mountaintop. Maltin noted that the film was "hampered by low-grade special effects".[8]

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The main title music from The Crawling Eye was featured on the album Greatest Science Fiction Hits V by Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra, released in 1979 on GNP Crescendo Records.[9][10]

The Trollenberg Terror was one of the inspirations for writer/director John Carpenter's 1980 horror film The Fog.[11]

In Stephen King's 1986 horror novel It one of the protagonists, Richie Tozier, watches the film and it terrifies him. A crawling-eye creature later appears as a manifestation of It, the novel's title monster.[12]

Under the title The Crawling Eye, the film was the first of many productions to be mocked on the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000, after the series moved from KTMA to The Comedy Channel. The episode aired on 11 November 1989. It was also briefly mentioned at the end of the season 10 finale (the original series finale) covering Danger: Diabolik.[13]

A scene of the film was briefly seen in the 1998 film Small Soldiers when the Gorgonites, Slamfist, and Ocula are watching a wrestling match on television and one of them accidentally hits the TV remote which changes the channel showing a scene of the film's crawling eye creature.

The Freakazoid episode "The Cloud" spoofed the film's opening credits, as well as key elements of the plot, though with the victims being turned into clowns instead of being killed.[14][15]

A song called "Crawling Eye" was featured on American horror punk band the Misfits' 1999 album Famous Monsters; the song's lyrics directly referenced the plot of the film.[16]

The film was shown on the MeTV show Svengoolie on 26 November 2022.[17]

In the 2023 Riverdale episode "Betty & Veronica Double Digest", a 4D screening of the film is held to increase popularity of a financially struggling movie theater.[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b "The Trollenberg Terror". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b Warren, Bill (1986). Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties: Volume II, 1958–1962. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 736–737. ISBN 978-0-8995-0170-3.
  3. ^ "'The Trollenberg Terror'." IMDb Retrieved: 20 January 2015.
  4. ^ Hamilton 2013, pp. 48–51.
  5. ^ "The Trollenberg Terror". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 25 (288): 145. 1 January 1958. ProQuest 1305820071 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Nason, Richard W. (1 January 1959). "Screen: Science-Fiction Bill at Local Theatres". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  7. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 960. ISBN 9780992936440.
  8. ^ Maltin, Leonard. "Leonard Maltin Movie review." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: 21 January 2015.
  9. ^ Norman, Neil. "Greatest Science Fiction Hits IV Soundtrack Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra." Amazon. Retrieved: 21 January 2015.
  10. ^ "Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra – Greatest Science Fiction Hits (1980, Vinyl)" – via www.discogs.com.
  11. ^ Coming Soon. The Beginning of the End: John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned (2015)
  12. ^ King 1986, p. 12.
  13. ^ Thomas, Kaitlin. "Previously Unavailable Episodes of _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ Will Soon Be Streamable on Vimeo." TV Guide, 17 September 2014. Retrieved: 21 January 2015.
  14. ^ Lenburg 1999, pp. 637–638.
  15. ^ ""Freakazoid!" In Arm's Way/The Cloud (TV Episode 1995) - IMDb" – via www.imdb.com.
  16. ^ Blush 2001, pp. 201–202.
  17. ^ "MeTV.com - Svengoolie". 1 February 2023. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  18. ^ "Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six: Betty & Veronica Double Digest" – via www.imdb.com.

Bibliography

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  • Blush, Steven. American Hardcore: A Tribal History. New York: Feral House, 2001. ISBN 0-922915-71-7.
  • Hamilton, John. The British Independent Horror Film 1951–70. Hailsham, U.K.: Hemlock Books, 2013. ISBN 978-1-903254-33-2.
  • King, Stephen. It. New York: Viking, 1986. ISBN 0-670-81302-8.
  • Lenburg, Jeff. "Steven Spielberg Presents Freakazoid!". The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (third edition). New York, New York: Checkmark Books, 1999. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  • Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2009. New York: New American Library, 2009 (originally published as TV Movies, then as Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide), first edition 1969, published annually since 1988. ISBN 978-0-451-22468-2.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties: 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009 (first edition: Volume 1 (1982), Volume 2 (1986)). ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
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