The Creeping Terror (1964)

A newlywed sheriff tries to stop a shambling monster that has emerged from a spaceship to eat the citizens of an American town.

Director:

Vic Savage (as A.J. Nelson)

Writer:

Robert Silliphant (story)

Stars:

Vic Savage, Shannon O'Neil, William Thourlby

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vic Savage	...	Martin Gordon
Shannon O'Neil	...	Brett Gordon
William Thourlby	...	Dr. Bradford
John Caresio	...	Col. James Caldwell
Brendon Boone	...	Barney the Deputy (as Norman Boone)
Byrd Holland	...	Sheriff
Jack King	...	Grandpa Brown
Pierre Kopp	...	Bobby
Ken Savage
Mark Field
Les La Marr
Mary Price
Louise Lawson	...	Blonde in Gold Pants
Myra Lee
Buddy Mize	...	Guitar Player

Storyline

A creature that looks like a cross between a Chinese dragon puppet and the Pope sucks up people into its maw. A sheriff, his wife, and a "handsome" scientist battle it to the end, with a sub plot about the evils of bachelorhood.

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Plot Keywords:

child eaten off screen | sheriff | spaceship | monster | accidental nudity | 

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Taglines:

2000 pounds of creeping, crawling horror from beyond space!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Crown International Pictures

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Crawling Monster

Filming Locations:

Film Center Studios, Glendale, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metropolitan International Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Creep Behind the Camera (2014) covers in detail the making of this film.

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Goofs

The soldiers attack the monster in a gully next to some trees and the overturned car. Seconds later, as Caldwell prepares to throw the grenade, the very slow-moving monster has somehow moved into an open field. After Caldwell throws the grenade and the others rush to his aid, he's in the gully by the trees.

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Quotes

Narrator: That afternoon, in Mungreeve Park, a group of neighbors got together for a hoot-e-nanny.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Black Love (2014)

User Reviews

This movie sucks canal water - big time!

I usually get a kick out of watching science fiction movies made forty or more years ago, especially those where the inside of the spaceship is so spacious with an enormously large amount of headroom, the astronauts dressed like factory workers, the equipment on board looking hopelessly cumbersome gawky and ineffectual. The story line was usually lame and the special effects usually extremely amateurish and sometimes laughable. But to some extent or other they are good fun to watch and are funny since no sensible person could possibly take such movies seriously. One just sits back and enjoys the ride. There are exceptions, however. Those include movies which unabashedly demonstrate the lowest possible acumen in ALL departments namely plot, story line, quality of cinematography, editing, sound, special effects, props, acting, revealing mistakes etc. A lot of movies are deficient in all of these but most directors make some sort of attempt to ensure some sort of acceptable standard otherwise, why bother, right? The other night I watched TCT on the Drive-In channel and, as the movie progressed, I was scarcely able to really believe what I was looking at. It was rock bottom in ALL departments. It was almost as though the people involved in this movie did not really want to have anything to do with it but they were somehow or other obliged to persevere, to the detriment of the actors, crew and ultimately the audience. The Swiffer, Shag pile..no sorry I mean err umm Monster (yes, that's the word I was looking for), the absolutely superb acting, the incredibly high quality sound track, the really authentic looking spacecraft (later eagerly emulated by the producers of 2001 - A Space Oddyssey), the crack troop of soldiers with their pop guns and water pistols, the Oscar nominated editing work. All these facets were displayed and undertaken at the lowest possible standard. In fact, the producer of this movie must not simply have scraped the bottom of the barrel, he must have looked underneath it!

Whoever it was that conceived and executed this DUNGHEAP of a movie must be severely smitten with such a level of masochism as to warrant their being incarcerated into a lunatic asylum. When they had finished this movie, and then reviewed the pre-release pilot and agreed to circulate it, what on earth went through their heads? How ANYBODY in their right mind could POSSIBLY have thought that this movie had ANY merit whatsoever is mind boggling. Did anybody at the original review REALLY think "Wow, is this ever a GOOD movie. Can't wait to see how it is received!" No cinema that showed it could have possibly felt happy about doing so (the viewpoint that a movie is good because it is so bad did not have prevalence in those days).

A deserved career suicide for ALL concerned.