The Crawling Eye

The Crawling Eye (1959) aka. The Trollenberg Terror, starring Forrest Tucker, Warren Mitchell, Janet Munro, Jennifer Jayne

The Crawling Eye – classic sci-fi horror starring Forest Tucker. Something is going on on the mountain. Hikers are getting decapitated! And …

Prof. Crevett: And then dere is da cloud.
Alan Brooks: What cloud?
Prof. Crevett: Come on, Alan, you know what I’m talking about. Da cloud where there should be no cloud.
Alan Brooks: Where there are mountains, there are always clouds.
Prof. Crevett: But dis one remains static. On da side of da Trollenberg it never moves.
Alan Brooks: A freak of nature.
Prof. Crevett: A radioactive freak of nature?

Review

The Crawling Eye is one of those horror films that’s very enjoyable …. Until the creature is actually seen on screen. It simply looks silly. And really detracts from an otherwise interesting story, with characters the audience comes to care about.

The basic story is interesting. Something strange is happening at the Swiss town of Trollenberg. There’s been an unnatural number of hikers dying. By decaapitation, no less. There’s a stationary cloud on the mountain — that’s radioactive. And, the audience finds out that something similar happened in the past, in the Andes. And it doesn’t bode well …

Cast of characters

• Forrest Tucker (The Strange World of Planet X) … Alan Brooks. The primary protagonist. The U.N.’s science investigator. It’s revealed in his conversation with Professor Crevett that he ran into something similar in the Andes. But, all evidence disappeared by the time others got there, and it hurt his reputation. So he wants concrete evidence before sticking his neck out …
• Laurence Payne (A Farewell to Arms 1966) … Philip Truscott. A newspaper man
• Jennifer Jayne (They Came From Beyond Space) … Sarah Pilgrim. The older sister, who performs a psychic stage act with her sister. Protective of her younger sister.
• Janet Munro (The Day the Earth Caught Fire) … Anne Pilgrim. The psychic sister, who feels compelled to come to Trollenberg.
• Warren Mitchell (Jabberwocky) … Professor Crevett. He’s here in his laboratory on the mountain to study cosmic rays. The lab’s protected against avalanches …. And possibly other things. There’s a strange cloud by the local mountain, that never moves. And is starting to show signs of radioactivity. Almost as though something’s hiding there.

Secondary characters

• Frederick Schiller … Klein
• Stuart Saunders … Dewhurst. One of the two climbers on the mountain. They stop at a shack for the night. The other man vanishes in the night, and Dewhurst sees — something — terrifying. The next day his body’s found – decapitated.
• Andrew Faulds (Jason and the Argonauts) … Brett. The other climber. He becomes controlled by …. something. And then used to murder people, who get too high on the mountain, too close to the mysterious cloud. At least, it seems to be Brett.
• Colin Douglas … Hans. Poor Hans. Later, also killed and controlled by the mysterious invader to try & kill the psychic young lady.
• Derek Sydney (Doctor Who: The Romans) … Wilde