The Trollenberg Terror (1958)

Forest Tucker meets two attractive sisters on a train to a mountain in Switzerland. Instead of going on to Geneva, one of the young women (part of a pair of professional mind- reader) feels compelled to stop at a remote town which is known for its mountain climbing. It turns out that several climbers have met their fates (including one which we witness at the beginning). So the threesome end up in a mountain chalet with people who are interested in scaling the peak. It turns out that people are being found with their heads missing and it has something to do with a cloud that sits next to the mountain. Everything gets jumbled up. It's the usual thing where people go ahead and stupidly make their way into danger, totally unprepared or ignorant of the dangers. Forest is the hero and he finds himself in the middle of all this. One of the girls is empathic and keeps getting herself in danger. Of course, we eventually see the "crawling eye." It looks like a big pastry with one eye and skinny tentacles. There is also something about the temperature on the mountain. Anyway, it eventually gets down to fighting with fire. It's not that I don't appreciate these kinds of films, but lets not get carried away with praising them, other than their sentimental attraction to drive-in movie goers of the fifties.

... 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!

I remember this film from the 1970's, when it used to be one of the staple Sci-Fi/Horror films they showed on UHF stations on Saturdays. It's actually a much better film than I remember. I have to assume that the Americanized version I watched as a kid was heavily edited so the context was lost.It was usually titled "The Crawling Eye" in the US, and the fact that it had Forrest Tucker (later better known for Comedy) makes you forget that this was in fact a British film.The plot is that a mysterious cloud appears in the Swiss Alps, accompanied by a number of unexplained deaths. A team of heroes which includes a mind reader and her sister, a scientist, a reporter and a UN investigator, fight a bunch of monsters who live in super-cold clouds.The climax is when they are trapped in the observatory, battling the beasts who are finally revealed to be one-eyed giant octopi. In many ways, the ending is anti-climatic because they did a very good job of building suspense without showing you the monster, but when the monster is revealed, well, it just kind of looked silly and could be easily defeated with Molotov Cocktails.This movie also has the distinction of being the first film mocked by Mystery Science Theatre 3000, which is kind of sad, because it isn't that bad of a film.

It's 1958, and that's as good a year as any for some low-brow hokum.I also saw this as a kid, though some time in the early 1960's and on television. And I don't mind saying that it gave me quite a scare.Tension builds surprisingly well for what is patently a B-movie. And that is a clue to good direction. The actors are all from the second division, which helps in a way because it makes the 'ordinary' characters they play seem more believable.There are some suitably gruesome killings which ratchet-up the tension as the 'mysterious cloud' begins to drift about. Whatever's in there must be pretty nasty. 'Mysterious Cloud'; has there ever been a horror/thriller that didn't have one? 'The Fog', 'Independence Day', 'War Of The Worlds', 'The Mist'; you just can't beat a mysterious cloud for - well, clouding things with mystery.When the monsters finally disclose themselves, you either laugh out loud or hide behind the sofa. Huge eyes with a bunch of whiplash tentacles: no evident brain, no discernible digestive tract; these are just horror-props plain and simple. Interestingly, the beasties attack an avalanche-proof observatory and manage to shatter the thick, concrete walls. Presumably they just stare them to bits.Half a century ago; a credible, unquestioning audience gobbled their popcorn in a state of shock at the terrible aliens, 50 years on we can all have a good laugh at such truly terrible aliens.The bug-eyed monster never got better than this.