The Trollenberg Terror

The Trollenberg Terror

Directed by Quentin Lawrence
Produced by Robert S. Baker
Monty Berman
Written by Jimmy Sangster
Story by Peter Key
Based on 1956 TV series[1]
Starring Forrest Tucker
Laurence Payne
Jennifer Jayne
Music by Stanley Black
Cinematography Monty Berman
Edited by Henry Richardson
Production
company
Distributed by Eros Films Ltd. (UK)
Distributors Corporation of America (US)
Release dates
  • 7 October 1958 (1958-10-07) (UK)
Running time
 84 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The Trollenberg Terror (aka The Crawling Eye, Creature from Another World, The Creeping Eye, and The Flying Eye) is both a 1956 "Saturday Serial" ITV UK television programme and a 1958 independently made black-and-white British science fiction film. Both versions were directed by Quentin Lawrence. The film version was produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman and stars Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne, and Janet Munro. The film was distributed in the UK by Eros Films Ltd. and in the US by Distributors Corporation of America.

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

Plot

On the Swiss mountain Trollenberg, one of three student climbers is suddenly killed, his head ripped from his body. Two sisters, a London mind-reading act, are travelling by train to Geneva when one of them, Anne Pilgrim (Janet Munro), faints as they pass the mountain. Upon waking, she decides they must get off at the next stop.

UN troubleshooter Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker), who was in a compartment with them, goes to an observatory on the Trollenberg, where Professor Crevett (Warren Mitchell) has asked for his help. Brooks is told that despite many climbing accidents, dead bodies are never found, and an always stationery radioactive cloud is observed on the mountain's south face. Similar incidents took place in the Andes three years earlier before a similar radioactive cloud vanished without a trace. Rumors circulated that something lived in the cloud's mist.

Anne is giving a mind-reading exhibition at the hotel when she "sees" two men in a base camp hut on the mountain: Dewhurst (Stuart Saunders) is asleep when the other man, Brett (Andrew Faulds), under some kind of mental compulsion, walks outside. The cloud has now moved down to the hut's location. Anne suddenly faints again. Brooks then phones the hut but no one answers.

A rescue party goes to hut looking for both men. Anne, in a detached state, says the rescuers should stay away. They discover everything inside is hard frozen, despite the hut being locked from the inside. Dewhurst's body is found under the bed, its head missing. As a spotter aircraft arrives and circles, a man is seen off in the distance. The first rescuer arrives at that spot and finds a rucksack with a severed head inside. He is quickly killed by Brett, who also attacks and kills the second rescuer when he arrives.

Brett arrives at the hotel and suddenly attacks Anne. He is subdued, but his head is sliced open during the skuffle; no blood comes from the wound, and he is locked away after being sedated. Brooks recalls a similar incident which happened in the Andes. A man murdered an old woman with mental powers similar to Anne's. The man's body was later discovered to have been deceased for 24 hours prior to his killing the old women. Brett escapes, looking once again for Anne, this time with a small hand axe; he is quickly shot and killed by Brooks.

News arrives that the cloud is moving down the mountain, so its decided to retreat to the heavily fortified observatory. As the guests begin loading the cable car, a mother realises that her young daughter is missing. In a thickening mist a giant tentacled creature with a single eye arrives at the hotel and knocks down the front door. Brooks rescues the child from the lobby, both of them narrowly escaping the one-eyed monster's grasp. They make it back, but the delay has given the thickening 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 and become four while converging on the observatory.

Hans (Colin Douglas), who tried to leave the hotel by car, suddenly turns up at the observatory. Once inside, he begins exhibiting the same obsession with finding Anne. Hans tries to strangle her, but the group can only stop him by killing him. The tentacled monsters are almost at the observatory, but everyone has been making Molotov cocktails to combat them. In the meantime, by radio, Alan orders an aerial firebombing raid against the observatory, which has a reinforced concrete roof and walls that can withstand the assault.

Journalist Philip Truscott (Laurence Payne) strikes one of the creatures with a Molotov cocktail, setting it ablaze. He is caught from above by one of the tentacled monsters on the observatory's roof. With another Molotov cocktail, Brooks sets that one ablaze, forcing the burning creature to release Truscott. Later, Truscott does the same as another one-eyed monster manages to breach a thick wall, trying to get at Anne. The aerial firebombing assault begins and is successful at torching the remaining creatures.

Cast

Production

The Trollenberg Terror was the final film produced by Southall Studios, one of the earliest pioneer film studios in the UK, and was one of the last films released by Distributors Corporation of America.

Actor Warren Mitchell's role was originally meant to be played by Anton Diffring, but Diffring pulled out of the part at the last minute.[2]

Reception

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 "The Trollenberg Terror" about cloud-hiding alien invaders on a Swiss mountaintop. Maltin saw the film was "... hampered by low-grade special effects."[3]

In popular culture

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 Comedy Central. It was also briefly mentioned at the end of the final episode of the show.[4] An episode of Freakazoid spoofs the opening credits of the film, as well as key elements of the plot (though with victims being turned into clowns instead of being killed).[5] The film is mentioned in Stephen King's 1986 horror novel It as having been watched by one of its protagonists, and The Crawling Eye itself later appears as a manifestation of the novel's title monster.[6]

A song called "Crawling Eye" is featured on American horror punk band The Misfits' 1999 album, Famous Monsters. The song's lyrics directly reference the plot of the film.[7] The main title music from "The Crawling Eye" is featured on the album Greatest Science Fiction Hits V by Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra on GNP Crescendo Records.[8]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "'The Trollenberg Terror'." IMDb. Retrieved: 20 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Hamilton 2013, pp. 48–51.
  3. ↑ Maltin, Leonard. "Leonard Maltin Movie review." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: 21 January 2015.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Lenburg 1999, pp. 637–638.
  6. ↑ King 1986, p. 12.
  7. ↑ Blush 2001, pp. 201–202.
  8. ↑ Norman, Neil. Greatest Science Fiction Hits IV Soundtrack Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra." Amazon. Retrieved: 21 January 2015.

Bibliography

  • 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, UK: 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 ed.). 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 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: 1982). ISBN 0-89950-032-3.

External links

Mystery Science Theater 3000


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