Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I have a weakness for this kind of 1950s B-film so I'm biased, but I find it to be among my favorite guilty pleasures.Having heads torn off by an invisible malevolent force was pretty bold stuff in that era, and showing fairly graphic shots of the separated portions would have been shocking. Forest Tucker and Janet Munro display some fine acting chops in helping to pull off some of the mundane dialog and implausible plot.Technically, the film lacks a lot. The matte work appears to be unnecessarily poor. Some of the scenes show stumbles that could have easily been re-shot. The special effects of the creatures aren't bad and in that era may have been considered quite impressive, but today they look pretty hokey.In the end, I'll watch it just to see Janet Munro, on whom I developed a crush during "The Horsemasters" Disney series. She died far too young and was a loss to the industry.

The filmic adaptation of a 1956 UK TV serial of the same name, The Trollenberg Terror is a whole bunch of fun and not deserving of the stinker reputation it has in some sci-fi loving circles.Action is set in Trollenberg, Switzerland and concerns a creature from outer space that has taken residence in a radioactive cloud atop of the Trollenberg mountain. As the bodies start to pile up and various climbers go missing on the mountain, the United Nations send a boffin to help the local scientists to hopefully solve the mystery.The effects work has been the source of some disdain, and in truth it's poor but not the worst from the 1950s pantheon of "B" schlockers. The back projection scenes are crude, but again in keeping with the fun aspects of the genre and era. However, Jimmy Sangster's screenplay is tight and produces brainy conversations and strong sequences.Horror comes by way of headless bodies turning up and that once sane people turn into maniacs as "the terror" weaves its magic. On the normal human side the narrative is given a boost by Janet Munro's (excellent) telepathic darling, something which troubles the visitors greatly and puts her in grave danger. The psychological aspects of the story mark this out as a genre piece of worth.Elsewhere director Quentin Lawrence does a study job with what is available to him, Forest Tucker is the hero in waiting, playing it reserved like, and Warren Mitchell proves good foil for Tucker and the Terror! It's not a great film, but it is a good one, let down in some tech departments for sure, but strengths elsewhere make up for its flaws. 7/10

This movie started out kind of interesting, but then got real slow in the middle. It picks up again at the end, but it just moved to slowly and refused to reveal the monsters for to long to be a good movie. The story has these two sisters on a train making their way to Geneva, however, one of the sisters apparently has a vision or something and they end up stopping in this one resort mountain town where some strange things have been happening. Seems a lot of climbers are disappearing and there is even an incident where one climber lost his head in an unexplainable way. Well a guy visiting the area seems to suspect something and his friend at the observatory also believes something is happening that is more sinister than just a bunch of freak accidents. However, during the middle portion of the film there is just a bit to much speculation and way to much build up before they finally let us see the monsters in all their glory. They do not look that bad for the time, as I have seen a lot worse monsters in films made much later than this one. The film is also rather more bloody with a couple of people who have lost their heads along the way. The film was just very close to being a good movie, perhaps a better cast could have helped this one as I had a hard time understanding the ones they had at times during the film. Also, they could have been a lot less skittish about their monsters and give us an earlier peek. So while overall I did not like it, it was not boring and borderline good.

... By 1958's standards, "The Crawling Eye" was really scary for children. such as I. It remains such, for those-with-imaginations still, even in 2010! The music, acting & decent black-&-white cinematography all adds up to a well-produced movie of its time. Lead actor Forrest Tucker heads-a-professional cast in a believable plot-&-building drama. True, the "monsters" in their own right, are what-they-are, but the film doesn't dwell on them for a good reason! They're not-that-great, but work well in context with thee entire effort. Just sit back & enjoy this trip back into the late 1950's, when UFO's & mental telepathy were just coming into-their-own! Grab the microwave pop-corn & Coke. Let yourself go & get ready-to-scream!