The Crawling Eye (1958)

A series of decapitations on a Swiss mountainside appear to be connected to a mysterious radioactive cloud.

Director:

Quentin Lawrence

Writers:

Jimmy Sangster (screenplay), Peter Key (story)

Stars:

Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Forrest Tucker	...	Alan Brooks
Laurence Payne	...	Philip Truscott
Jennifer Jayne	...	Sarah Pilgrim
Janet Munro	...	Anne Pilgrim
Warren Mitchell	...	Crevett
Frederick Schiller	...	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
Leslie Heritage	...	Carl
Jeremy Longhurst	...	First Student Climber

Storyline

A remote mountain resort in Switzerland is invaded by horrible alien creatures that like to decapitate humans. The beings are also in telepathic communication with people and inhabit a mysterious, radioactive cloud at the base of the Trollenberg mountain.

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Plot Keywords:

cloud | mountain | alien | telepathy | tentacle | 

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Taglines:

WARNING: If you've ever been hypnotized, do not come alone!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 December 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Crawling Eye

Filming Locations:

Alliance Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tempean Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The fighter pilot during the final battle with the creatures gives his call-sign as "Jolly Roger." Whilst not an historical individual pilot, the elite VF-17 "Jolly Roger" squadron was famous for producing more ace fighter pilots than any other squadron in the history of WWII. During the period of this film (1958), the audience would immediately understand in context, that if "Jolly Roger" had been called in, then the pilot was the best of the best.

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Goofs

The British bomber almost scrapes the top of the observatory building twice making its run.

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Quotes

Philip Truscott: Cute little things, aren't they?
Alan Brooks: Yeah. I'm gonna throw a bomb at that one. You watch on the screen, see what happens.

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Crazy Credits

The films opening credits flash onto the screen when the passenger train rolls into the darkness of a tunnel.

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Connections

Featured in The Sci-Fi Boys (2006)

User Reviews

Still a good movie, and what an original monster!

Not every monster to come out of the fifties was a guy in a rubber suit or a double exposed giant something-or-other. This effective British thriller offers one of the most original monsters ever. The creatures are aliens looking to colonise our planet but first they have to lower the temperature and eliminate one small obstacle . . .us! The cyclopean, tentacled terrors are prone to tearing off the heads of their victims but they possess the technology to kill certain Earth people and bring them back from the dead to do their bidding. Interestingly, the creatures brain waves are easily intercepted by anyone with even latent psychic abilities. This makes Janet Munro our required damsel-in-distress from not only the monsters but from the man (Andrew Faulds) they reanimate to get rid of her. Luckily this movie has two heroes, rough hewn Forrest Tucker (to make the movie appealing to American audiences) and British Lawrence Payne (later to star in Hammer's VAMPIRE CIRCUS). Okay I have a question. Midway through the film we see 2 mountain climbers, Brett and Dewhurst, halfway up the mountain where the aliens are. They take shelter in a small cabin. During the night Brett hears the aliens telepathic call and wanders up the mountain alone. Later Dewhurst gets up to look for him and (I guess) sees one of the aliens coming toward the cabin. He quickly bolts the door but then turns around and screams. Later a search party has to break down the front door and they find Dewhurst dead with his head torn off. WHAT THE HECK GOT HIM? The cabin is intact, not even a window broken, so how in the world did the alien monster kill him? And how does Dewhurst's head get inside the knapsack of Brett who is miles away? No, it isn't Brett who kills him because he could not have gotten into the cabin either. It is indeed a scary moment but very implausible if you stop to think about it. The rest of the movie is very good and quite memorable. Way back in 1957 it played on a double bill with THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X (a/k/a COSMIC MONSTERS) in America. That was a bit before my time and now I am kind of sorry I missed the era of the drive-in. Thank goodness for home video.