The Trollenberg Terror (1958)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Quentin Lawrence

Writers:

Peter Key (story)
Jimmy Sangster (writer)

Release Date:

31 December 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A man dissolves...and out of the oozing mist comes the hungry eye, slave to the demon brain!

Plot:

A remote mountain resort in Switzerland is invaded by horrible alien creatures that like to decapitate humans...

Plot Keywords:

Mountain | Radioactive | Alien | Cloud | Window

Cast

Forrest Tucker	...	Alan Brooks
Laurence Payne	...	Philip Truscott
Jennifer Jayne	...	Sarah Pilgrim
Janet Munro	...	Anne Pilgrim
Warren Mitchell	...	Prof. Crevett
Frederick Schiller	...	Mayor Klein
Andrew Faulds	...	Brett
Stuart Saunders	...	Dewhurst
Colin Douglas	...	Hans
Derek Sydney	...	Wilde
Richard Golding	...	First Villager
George Herbert	...	Second Villager
Anne Sharp	...	German Woman with Little Girl
Leslie Heritage	...	Carl
Jeremy Longhurst	...	First Student Climber
Anthony Parker	...	Second Student Climber
Theodore Wilhelm	...	Fritz
Garard Green	...	Search Plane Pilot
Caroline Glaser	...	Little Girl
Jack Taylor	...	Jim

Directed by
Quentin Lawrence

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peter Key		story
Jimmy Sangster		writer

Produced by
Robert S. Baker	....	producer
Monty Berman	....	producer

Original Music by
Stanley Black

Cinematography by
Monty Berman

Film Editing by
Henry Richardson

Art Direction by
Duncan Sutherland

Makeup Department
Eleanor Jones	....	makeup artist
Joy Vigo	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Ronald Liles	....	production supervisor (as Ronald C. Lisles)
Charles Permane	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Norman Harrison	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Richard A. Smith	....	sound recordist (as Dick Smith)

Special Effects by
Les Bowie	....	special effects (as Anglos Scottish Picrues Limited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Desmond Davis	....	camera operator

Music Department
Stanley Black	....	conductor

Other crew
Yvonne Richards	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Tempean Films

Distributors

• Eros Films (1958) (UK) (theatrical)
• Distributors Corporation of America (DCA) (1958) (USA) (theatrical)
• Catcom Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Dark Dreams Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Englewood Entertainment (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• Englewood Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox Hills Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Network Enterprises (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (????) (USA) (VHS)

Special Effects

• Anglo-Scottish Pictures Ltd.

Other Companies

• SounDrama  electronic sound

Also Known As:

Creature from Another World
The Crawling Eye (USA)
The Creeping Eye
The Flying Eye
Trollenberg Horror (UK)

Runtime:

Germany:82 min | USA:84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2006) | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Southall Studios, Southall, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

Tempean Films

Trivia:

John Carpenter has said that this film, with its creatures hidden in the clouds, was the inspiration for his film The Fog (1980).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As Truscott throws his Molotov Cocktail at the creature outside the door another creature on the roof grabs Truscott by the neck an lifts him off the ground. Crevett alerts Brooks who then bounces a Molotov Cocktail off Truscott's forehead.

Quotes:

Philip Truscott: Keep an eye on your roping, won't you.
Brett: Why roping, particularly?
Philip Truscott: Uh, student business last week.
Dewhurst: That's right. Nasty business. Very nasty.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Svengoolie: The Crawling Eye" (2004)

X-Files, 1950s style. But better!

I have a huge and very soft spot for 1950s sci-fi films with freakish aliens and/or monsters. Be forewarned - my view of this film is definitely colored by my unhealthy interest in these films.

This is a true archetypal classic of the genre.

*** Weird psychic sisters, *** alien mystery clouds, *** giant creeping cyclopes with tentacles, *** secret government agencies investigating the paranormal, *** possession, *** zombies, ***

Forest Tucker(!)

- it's all here.

This is a very entertaining low-fi, low-brow, B/W monster movie. I am convinced that the writers were asked to include every element of contemporary supernatural, sci fi and imaginative fiction stories and, kudos to them - they pulled it off! Stephen King's Dreamcatcher owes a huge debt to this beauty. If you think about it, Dreamcatcher is almost a rewrite of this film, with aliens that are just a little less ridiculous and a different narrative. And the biggest surprise of all - Forest Tucker can act! His F Troop character was not the only personality in his repertoire!

Remarkably, the absurdity of the plot is not used as an excuse for exceedingly bad special effects.

This is a little gem of a 50s pulp film. It's goofy as hell, fun, well executed, and well worth a sleepless night. Far more entertaining that the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and many others.