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Summary: Gothic Entertainment for the Sci-Fi Buff
Review: I saw this movie when I was a little girl of 5-6 and it really scared me. I believe it has some great special effects for the time the movie was made (1958). Forrest Tucker was a great actor and this movie is great for stormy afternoons.
Rating: 
Summary: surprising good though still a bad 50's scifi movie
Review: I watched The Crawling Eye because I knew it as the first Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie. I watched it and was surprised by how decent a movie it really was. It was on AMC and Leonard Maltin introduced it. In that intro he notes how, as in Jaws, we never see the monster until late in the movie. This makes for a fine movie... until we see the monster. At that point the movie starts to degrade. Even the dialogue becomes rather, well, stupid in the end. It starts provoking laughter when previously it was a respectable and enjoyable film. Leonard Maltin's bit here mentions the bad effects. They are aren't effective and I guess that makes them bad but I was impressed by the detailed models they made for this movie. They were impressive in detail but didn't fool anyone. It does have numerous down sides but most of it was much better than I expected. This is not a great movie but it was a fine movie and I enjoyed it.
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Summary: One of the best DVD transfers I've ever seen
Review: I'm not going to rehash the fairly well known the plot. The other reviews have already covered that pretty well. The story is gripping and the acting is exemplary. The special effects were done on a shoe string budget and show it, but still pull it off marginally (if you suspend your disbelief a bit).So why the five stars? The DVD film-to-video transfer was made from pristine source materials resulting in a viewing experience I've not had with this movie since I saw it's theatrical release in 1958. Presented in its original 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio, it offers a completely restored version totally lacking any scratches or bad cuts. In addition, this version is the European edition with the main title reading "The Trollenberg Terror". The sound is still mono, but the fidelity is rather good. Nice crisp highs, good bass response, and no hiss. Even with extra material consisting of just the trailer, this DVD is well worth it. Especially to a fan of the film. I also found the liner notes to be emtertaining and very interesting. They include a lot of backgroud to the film, the genre, and I was especially amused at an anecdote about Forrest Tucker. If you're a fan of the film (or not), I recommend this DVD release.
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Summary: Million Dollar Movie
Review: If you're from the New York City, Tri-state area, and you were born in the 1950s, you'll remember being totally scared watching this on channel 9, "Gone With The Wind Music" playing to the intro for Million Dollar Movie. Every night they would run the same movie for a week and announce at the end of the movie: "If you missed all or part of this movie you may watch it tomorrow at the same time." I am pretty sure "The Joe Franklin Show" came on after this. Going back and watching this now is a gas. There is more to this movie then meets the "Eye". I loved it! After watching you can answer the questions: Was the mountain climber's head torn off? And wasn't it a little cold for just a sweater? By the way, it's all we had back then. best wishes, Jean's husband Jim
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Summary: Fantastic DVD and Fantastic movie!!
Review: Image Entertainment have done a fantastic job on this classic, presented here in widescreen and in it's original european form with the title 'Trollenberg Terror'. There is a selection of stills plus the usual trailer. Well worth the money and this would make a brilliant Christmas present for any lover of 1950s Sci-Fi movies - Buy it you will love it!!
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Summary: Great buy on a well handled DVD release!!
Review: Let me start off by saying this is how all 50's sci-fi DVD releases should be handled. Nice crisp picture, original widescreen transfer, theatrical trailer and a most EXCELLENT creepy menu. The only thing lacking here was the cover art. Surely the original theatrical art was better.
The Crawling Eye is a great little film that is full of the mood, atmosphere and characters that make these old monster movies so much fun. The mountaintop sets were well done and added an element of isolation that helped build the suspense. The special effects scenes were also quite ambitious for their time.
For those who haven't seen this film, don't be put off by the cheesy looking eye monster on the cover. This image in ABSOLUTELY NO WAY even slightly resembles the actual army of creatures that terrorize the mountaintop. Although you will not see them until the last 20 minutes, the actual creature effects are very well done and are probably above average for films of this era. Check out the cover of It Came From Outer Space. There's another 'cover' monster that doesn't resemble the actual creature in the least.
This is probably the best buy you'll ever get on any 50's sci-fi DVD release. I hope Image continues releasing these older monster flicks with such loving care...
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Summary: The Clouds Have Eyes...
Review: Mountain-climbers are having more than their fair share of fatal "accidents" on mount Trollenberg. Heads are popping off their shoulders like dandelions in weed-whacker country! Something in a strange, mobile cloud is killing people. Enter Alan Brookes (Forrest Tucker), a UN investigator sent to, yep, investigate. A geologist and his companion climb the mountain. The geologist is decapitated and his friend is zombified by whatever is creeping about inside the mysterious cloud. Anne and Sarah Pilgrim (Janet Munro and Jennifer Jayne) are staying at the Trollenberg hotel. Ann is a psychic who has tapped into the alien consciousness within the fog. The zombie-guy is sent to kill her, but fails. Hans the barkeep is also zombified and sent after Ann. Everyone ends up in a fortress-like observatory on the mountainside for a last stand against the hideous monsters. TCE is a good movie. It would have been a great movie if they hadn't shown so much of the wobbly, pitiful creatures, or the doll that we're supposed to believe is a man. The shots of the beasts through the doorway / wall are awesome, and would have been plenty. It's still well worth owning...
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Summary: The Clouds Have Eyes...
Review: Mountain-climbers are having more than their fair share of fatal "accidents" on mount Trollenberg. Heads are popping off their shoulders like dandelions in weed-whacker country! Something in a strange, mobile cloud is killing people. Enter Alan Brookes (Forrest Tucker), a UN investigator sent to, yep, investigate. A geologist and his companion climb the mountain. The geologist is decapitated and his friend is zombified by whatever is creeping about inside the mysterious cloud. Anne and Sarah Pilgrim (Janet Munro and Jennifer Jayne) are staying at the Trollenberg hotel. Ann is a psychic who has tapped into the alien consciousness within the fog. The zombie-guy is sent to kill her, but fails. Hans the barkeep is also zombified and sent after Ann. Everyone ends up in a fortress-like observatory on the mountainside for a last stand against the hideous monsters. TCE is a good movie. It would have been a great movie if they hadn't shown so much of the wobbly, pitiful creatures, or the doll that we're supposed to believe is a man. The shots of the beasts through the doorway / wall are awesome, and would have been plenty. It's still well worth owning...
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Summary: Them There Eyes
Review: Not the greatest sci-fi ever, but very diverting in an excellent transfer with good notes. Forrest Tucker, before F-Troop, Janet Munro, before The Day the Earth Caught Fire, and a good supporting cast fight some nasty looking monsters from somewhere in outer space. The lines in German are delivered with notable non-German accents, but give the producers credit for setting this monster flick somewhere besides a big city. It's scary not because there are endless scenes of mass destruction but because for most of the flick, we do not know exactly what the monster is, we just know it resides in a mysterious cloud surrounding a mountain and that a telepath, played by Munro, knows who is going to encounter it next. The method of destroying the monster is predictable but it happens just as the monsters are about to break into the last refuge of the scientists and villagers who have fled. At the end, we still don't know where the monsters came from and why they are on the earth, but it really doesn't matter. The important thing is that the performers seem genuinely scared as the mystery gets stranger and stranger. If your kids aren't into decapitations, you might want to wait until they are a little older to let them see The Crawling Eye. It isn't really gory but not for tots.
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Summary: One Of Benjamin's Favorites
Review: Of all our collection, I think this one has held his attention the most. Benjamin (4 years old) walks around the house with anything he can find to whip around for tenticles. At Dupar's coffee shop he drew a giant crawling eye, tenticles and all, which they put up on the wall! Next week we plan to take a trip up the Trollenberg (the Palm Springs cable car) to see the snow and to try to see if we can find any radioactive clouds with eyes in them. This movie is great fun, monsters, mind control, walking dead, explosions and army guys. How can you lose?
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