Starring Forrest (THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN) Tucker, Laurence (VAMPIRE CIRCUS) Payne, Jennifer (THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE) Jayne, Janet (DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE) Munro, Warren (THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF) Mitchell, Frederick Schiller, Stuart Saunders and Andrew (JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS) Faulds. Written by Jimmy (THE BRIDES OF DRACULA) Sangster, produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty (BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE) Berman, directed by Quentin (THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X) Lawrence.

United Nations investigator Alan Brooks (Tucker), together with journo Philip Truscott (Payne) and Professor Crevett (Mitchell), investigates strange accidents occurring on Mount Trollenberg in the Swiss Alps. Brooks thinks that these deaths, which sometimes involve the removal of the victim’s head, could be linked to similar incidents that occurred several years earlier in the Andes, which included the same weird, lurking, radioactive cloud formation. Anne Pilgrim (Munro), who is part of a mind-reading act with her sister, is staying at the same mountain hotel as the others… and she begins to sense intelligences within the cloud formation…

Known as THE CRAWLING EYE in the USA, this UK science fiction/horror movie is an enjoyable, low budget tale of cyclopean aliens lurking in a radioactive cloud that they can steer around the mountainside. The movie’s script was based on a six-part British TV series, which was also called THE TROLLENBERG TERROR. Actor Laurence Payne played the journalist character Philip Truscott in both the series and the movie adaptation.

The movie is a lot of fun, with obvious-but-pleasant matte paintings, model shots, decapitated victims, a siege in a fortified observatory, and undead human corpses. The real standouts, though, are the aliens, which are very cool-looking, one-eyed, blobby, vein-covered, tentacle-monsters that emit electronic wails and don’t like to be immolated with molotov cocktails!

With the hint of a Quatermass vibe about it, the film has a creepy atmosphere and boasts some startling scenes, such as when one of the huge extraterrestrials smashes down the hotel door to menace a child, its single, veiny eyeball filling the doorway!

The siege finale is tense and well-handled, Forrest Tucker is solid as the stoic, no-nonsense UN troubleshooter who thinks on his feet, and Janet Munro brings a conviction to her role and is unimaginably cute as the psychic who the aliens try to kill by sending a reanimated dead man to attack her!

I am fully aware that some folks might poke fun at the cheap, 50s-era special effects, but I think Les Bowie and Brian Johnson (both uncredited) did wonders with the meagre budget they must’ve had to play with, concocting some truly distinctive movie monsters that really stick in the memory. Great stuff!

Here’s a bunch of pulp-tastic posters…

THE TROLLENBERG TERROR, aka THE CRAWLING EYE, was released in a double bill with the British sci-fi-horror giant insect flick THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X, which was retitled COSMIC MONSTERS in the USA. The manly Forrest Tucker starred in both of these movies! What a guy!

Okay, I can’t help it, I’ve got to include another shot of one of those damn fine aliens…