WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Crawling Eye 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.239 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.079 And I am Joe McCormick, and today we're going to 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.239 be discussing the nineteen fifty eight British sci fi horror 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.600 film The Trollenberg Terror, which was released in the United 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:32.400 States and probably better known overall as The Crawling Eye, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.360 a title that is in really bad taste because I 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.600 think it flagrantly destroys the tension and mystery leading up 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.279 to the revelation of the monster's true form in the 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.800 final act. Rob, you and I were talking about this 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.760 the other day. I love how careless titling and other 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.760 movie meta used to be with just ruining all the 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.480 surprises of the story. Here. I believe we have the 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.800 Distributors Corporation of America to thank for this title. And 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.840 I have to think like if Citizen Kane had been 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.600 a foreign film and they had released it in America, 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.040 they would have called it like Sled Problems or something. 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.759 Yeah. I think we still do see trailers in our 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.560 modern day that give away way too much and reveal 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.440 like most of the plot. I've seen trailers where afterwards 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.160 I'm like, okay, that's that's most of the movie. I 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.360 could maybe just watch the last five minutes of the 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:29.000 film to see how it wraps up, and I'd be 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:30.959 good at this point instead of watching the whole two 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.560 hour plus. But yeah, these films of this nature where 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.959 it was it was something being released to the US 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.160 market and then packaged in a different way, so as 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.600 I guess, just try to maximize the eyeballs on it, 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.360 and maybe too, there is the idea it's like, look, 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.440 the American teenager just wants to know what they're going 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:52.440 to be making out to. We're just going to go 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.360 ahead and make sure the monster is mentioned in the. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.280 Title transparency and advertising. 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.280 And also maybe leaning more on like the I don't know, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.640 like the drive and spectacle of the thing. You know, 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.160 it's like crawling eye. Don't you want to see that 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.560 as large as life? I don't know, that's my best bet. 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:12.640 I think it's mostly though, just take this thing from 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.120 the UK and just try and get the most attention 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.280 gathered around it, and so yeah, go ahead and spoil everything. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.840 To be fair, Trollenberg is not a word that most 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.320 people would recognize, and for good reason, because this is 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:28.680 not a real place in the movie, like the movie 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.400 makes up this mountain in Switzerland called Trollenberg. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.000 The Trolenberg Terror is a better title in many ways though, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.640 because I think the Trolenberg Terror gives you more of 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.280 a taste of the slow build and a slow burn 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.560 aspect of the picture. That the picture is more mysterious, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.760 and it is not really a giant monster movie except 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.640 for you know, just like the last what fifteen minutes 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.200 or so of the picture, but. 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.840 Then it really goes whole hog on Giant Master movie. 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.880 Yeah, it's rather ambitious and its special effects towards the 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.560 end with mixed result but also some great results. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:07.160 Yes. Yes, On the subject of sloppy marketing material, I 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.160 would like to submit into evidence the poster for the 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.040 US release of The Crawling Eye. Sometimes we talk about 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.600 movie posters, I think, especially with movies from the fifties, 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.680 this was just a golden age of posters and we've 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.160 really got some meat to chew on here. So on 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:30.720 the Crawling Eye poster, we have emerging from a black void, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:37.160 a giant, distinctly human eye, complete with tear ducts and 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:41.400 lids and lashes highlighted by makeup. You can see mascara 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.240 and eyeliner, so it does look a little freaky, but 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.520 it does not suggest eyeball monsters from another planet. I 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:56.560 think it implies instead a supernatural, disembodied human observer reaching 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.840 out through some kind of dark space. Maybe you could 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.720 say that the eye on the poster here connects more 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.800 to the psychic and esp themes of the movie than 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.120 to the giant physical eyeballs that we will be hurling 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.480 firebombs at later in the film. But I think that 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.320 that's kind of a stretch to say that's really what 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.520 it's going for, especially since the psychic character is not 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.479 threatening at all in the movie and this eyeball is 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.400 clearly coming to get you. Yeah. 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:22.840 Yeah, I think that's a good read on it. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:28.400 Also, this human eye on the poster has translucent yellow 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.400 and pink octopus arms, but only four of them, so 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.680 I guess this would be a tetrapus arms, and the 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.520 arms are wrapping around the body of a shrieking, recumbent 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.560 woman in a yellow party dress and high heels, who 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.040 I'm pretty confident does not appear in the movie unless 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.080 this is supposed to be Janet Monroe, but it does 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.120 not look like her. To me, and I don't think 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:51.760 she ever wears an outfit like this. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.320 No, no, you know, liked we've talked about before on 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.200 the show. If you could at all get the monster 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.359 carrying a screaming woman on the poster, you absolutely did it. 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.520 The monsters in this film, maybe it's a little more 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.640 of a stretch to imagine them carrying a woman, and 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.640 therefore this is just a rough approximation of what that 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:12.400 might consist of. 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.599 The only person we see them carrying in the movie 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.480 is the newspaper guy. We see he gets grabbed up, 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.599 but he has not even held horizontally like the woman 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.800 shown in the poster. They're holding him firmly vertically. Yeah, 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.320 and it implies that they usually pick people up vertically 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.039 because they got to pop the head off, so they're 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.440 going to be going around, you know, kinda like around 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:36.400 the neck near the top. Anyway, nothing about this poster, also, 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.120 I would point out, suggests that the movie has to 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:43.599 do with mountains or mountain climbing, which it does. Next, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.560 there is the copy on the poster. It says, the 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:51.479 nightmare Terror of the Slithering Eye that unleashed agonizing horror 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:56.080 on a screaming world. Now On one hand, I'm hesitant 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:01.159 to nitpick because I myself completely the ability to write 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.560 with any style when what's needed is some kind of 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.560 marketing or promotional copy like that. I just kind of 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.880 freeze up mentally there. But this is too wordy. Not 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.360 every now needs a modifier, but more to the substance 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.040 of what they're trying to say with taglines like this 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:22.960 that unleashes agonizing horror on a screaming world. This got 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:29.080 me thinking about how titles and taglines and plot descriptions 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.120 of horror and sci fi movies from the nineteen fifties 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:41.560 display an incredibly strong trend of plot scope misrepresentation. By that, 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.880 I mean like the actual plot and the events of 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:49.720 the film are incredibly local and small ball, but the 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.720 title and the description imply a feeling like the end 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.840 of the movie Independence Day, where it's the alien Horde 0:06:55.880 --> 0:07:00.159 against a coordinated attack by the entire planet Earth. And 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.720 usually in these movies, only a few characters are involved 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.080 or presumably even aware of the events of the story. 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.840 Probably the whole thing takes place within a five mile radius. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.760 That's usually the case with these Roger Korman movies and stuff, 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.160 And yet the movie will be called the monster that 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:17.720 conquered the planet Earth. 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.520 Yeah, like it conquered the world. As a classic example 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.600 of this, as we discussed in the show, it basically 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.080 conquers the Tri County area. 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.880 Yeah, but it's like bigger than just those few examples. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.560 It happens over and over again. The actual story is local, 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:37.440 but the title suggests a world, world spanning events. And 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.679 I'm kind of curious about this, Like, why did advertisers 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.000 always want to make it seem like the plot had 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.680 big implications involving millions of people. There's nothing wrong with 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.640 small stories. Small stories that affect only a handful of 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.200 characters can be just as thrilling. In fact, I would 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.320 argue it's easier to make a small scale story thrilling. 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.160 Was there actually any evidence to suggest that drive in 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.800 audiences would always prefer the plot of an alien monster 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.160 movie to involve the entire world? 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.960 This is an interesting question. I imagine some folks have dug 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:14.720 into this. There might be some sort of a Cold 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:19.920 War read on the ramifications here. But yeah, but I 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:22.600 do certainly agree with you that, like the lower stakes, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.480 the localized stakes can certainly be just as thrilling, And 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.760 I think many of these movies are not merely like 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:35.480 incidentally having like a low stakes, like small hometown invasion angle, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.120 Like that's the kind of thing that people can relate to, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.280 like the aliens are coming here, the zombies are coming here. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.320 It is actually what makes the story work in the 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.200 cases where it does work. I mean not to say 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.920 there are some movies from this period that there are 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.360 more kind of world stage in terms of their actual mechanics. 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.800 I think, you know, The Day the Earth Stood Still 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.640 is more kind of a world stage movie involving those 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.640 big stakes, but a lot of yeah, they're actually quite local, 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.320 and when they work, they work because they're local. They 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.959 set the scope of the plot correctly to the ambitions 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.840 of the story they're going to tell. But then the 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.160 other thing I was going to ask is I think 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.720 the answer to this question is more clear. But I 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.679 was thinking specifically with these lower budget movies, if they 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:25.360 thought audiences wanted a huge story with global implications, why 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.680 did they not actually write a story like that? Why 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.120 did they make these local stories? I think the answer 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.880 there is just got to be budget, right, Like the 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.560 bigger story requires more actors, probably more sets, And so 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.400 I think you sometimes see these movies trying to bridge 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.240 the gap by having the direct plot be very local 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.640 with a small number of characters, but like the well, 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.840 they'll have a character like placing a phone call to 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.240 a general in Washington, you know, to like relay the 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.360 events or something, as if that that kind of gets 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.160 you halfway to the feeling of world spanning events. 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.480 Yeah, throwing a few phone call, throw in a little 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.080 stock footage and you're good to go. News footage as well. 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.560 Oh that's a good one, yes, yeah. 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:09.760 Yeah, Like, you know, a great example of this is 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.160 Santa Claus Conguers the Martians, you know. Yeah, they actually 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.800 pull a number of levers in that picture to really 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.319 drive home the international scope of the of the threat. 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.679 That's a really good point. Yeah. So anyway, I was 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.160 thinking about this, and I did have another thought back 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:26.560 on the other side, which is that with a lot 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.600 of these movies, you could make the argument that, well, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.280 the direct plot doesn't really involve the whole world, there 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.640 are a lot of downstream implications for the whole world. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.040 Like I was thinking about how many of these fifties 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:44.920 alien monster movies essentially have the same basic plot situation, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.280 and it's that a small group of humans encounter a 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:54.480 some sort of advance team or small contingent of alien invaders, 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.199 usually just a single alien individual, with the idea that 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.520 if this one a monster, is not defeated, it will 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.800 pave the way for a full scale invasion and takeover 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.360 of Earth. So even though the actual plot you're seeing 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.840 in the movie is small and local, it presages a 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.960 global conflict. And yet in this case, I've been promised 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:19.720 by the poster that the world will be screaming, not 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.200 just that a guy named Hans will be sam A 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.520 couple of other great things about this poster. I love 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.600 posters that try to make you feel like your life 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.120 might be in physical danger by seeing the film. This 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.640 one says warning, if you've ever been hypnotized, do not 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:36.680 come alone. 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.319 I like that, and that's that's some William Castle will 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:41.720 be proud. 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.679 Uh huh. Also we get the like a second tagline, 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:48.200 as if the first one wasn't good enough. We see 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:53.360 a man dissolves ellipsis, and out of the oozing mist 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:58.480 comes the hungry eye, slave to the demon brain. How 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.520 well does that describe the movie? That's interesting because it 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.440 those are all words that would to describe things in 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.920 the movie, but in this sentence they refer to the 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:08.840 wrong things. 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.120 This is back when they would employ poets to compose 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.000 a short poem that could go on the poster that 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.240 that speaks to, you know, some theme or a particular 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:20.200 scene from the picture. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.640 That's right. And then final thing on the poster. We 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.360 get a DCA release again, this Distributors Corporation of America, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.520 and it's it promises that this is the company that 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.960 brought you rodin. I mean, come on, yeah, yeah. 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.960 And then then also star Forrest Tucker's name is in 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.520 red letters. Uh really, you know, going after that F 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.960 Troop audience, make sure they make it end for the picture. 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:45.959 I don't even know what that refers to. What is 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:46.480 F Troop? 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.080 F Troop was a TV show that Forrest Tucker was on. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.000 Oh okay, I have questions about what you're supposed to 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.920 get out of Forrest Tucker in this movie. He's not 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.280 bad in it, but he is. He's such a roast beef, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:12:59.720 you know. 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.240 Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely talk about his performance. But I 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.560 think in general, it's the nineteen fifties, there's an interstellar threat. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:11.199 You need a tall, strong man to potentially lean your 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.480 head on and that's where Forrest Ducker comes in. 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:17.240 Yes, now, all of this said, I actually think The 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:22.080 Crawling Eye is not bad. It is, in my opinion. 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:23.960 I wonder if you agree, Rob, this is one of 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.440 the better drive in sci fi monster movies of the era. 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:32.360 I found it quite engrossing, not boring, with a lot 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.280 of the same kind of goofy character tropes you often 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.400 see in these films, but with some pretty good dialogue 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.440 and some intrigue, some actually quite scary moments, especially with 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.640 like the zombie assassins later on and the scenes in 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.160 the cabin up on the mountain and stuff. There's some 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:50.840 stuff that actually works his horror. 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.840 Yeah, absolutely, I think The Crawling Eye is a pretty 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.679 solid picture. It works better as the trollingburg Terror though, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.400 again because yes, it's ultimately that sort of film. There's 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.920 a lot of a lot of mystery. It gives you, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.120 gives you some things to think about leading up to 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.240 the monster battles, which again is it's only going to 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.560 be the last ten to fifteen minutes of the picture, 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:13.920 and at that point they do attempt to pull out 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:14.559 all the stops. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.240 Yes, and regarding pulling out the stops in terms of 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.360 the visual effects, I want to say, also, this has 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.440 got to be one of the glorioust films I have 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:28.400 ever seen from the nineteen fifties, so actually rather shocking gristle. 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.400 The scene I was thinking of is when they pull 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.320 the geology professor Dewhurst out from under the bed and 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.440 you just see a bloody stump on his neck. You 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.320 don't see other fifties movies like this. 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:46.160 Yeah, yeah, I thought that the gore was shocking, you know, 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:47.520 certainly for the nineteen fifties. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.040 As for the monster design, this is one that has 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.800 gone down through the ages as a as a widely 0:14:55.320 --> 0:15:00.960 mocked monster design, and I do the design is indeed hilarious, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.040 Like the effectively scary moments sort of dry up after 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:08.720 the monster's true form is revealed. But also I really 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:13.160 admire this monster. It's not hilarious in the attack of 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.960 the the eye creatures way like that. It's hilarious in 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:22.120 its shoddiness. This is hilarious in its exquisite detail. I 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.040 really admire when movies of this era would commit to 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:30.840 a fully realized, absolutely insane monster anatomy like we get here, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.600 rather than trying to like tone it down, make it 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.600 maybe look more tasteful or plausible. Take less risks. No, no, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.680 you fools get weirder, risk more, and they absolutely did here. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.080 This is a swinging for the fence's monster design, and 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.160 it looks weird, and yes, it looks funny, but it is. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:50.520 It makes the movie. 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.520 Yeah, absolutely, I really like the monster design here, and 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.520 I agree that. I don't know. On one hand, I 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.000 certainly agree that people have left at it over the years, 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.160 and we'll get into some of the reasons why. And 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:04.520 you know, I made sure to point it out to 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:06.600 people in my household so that they could laugh at 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.280 it as well. But I don't know. I don't that 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:11.040 I didn't think it was that funny. I thought it 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.720 was pretty effect like it looks real, like I feel 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.640 like it's a real monster. And if I'm laughing at it, 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.600 I'm not laughing at it because it's an effect, but 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.800 I'm like mocking an alien life form. 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:23.160 It's just funny that aliens look this way. 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.760 Yeah, I mean it's some of it, to be clear, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.040 Some of the shots are shot here looking than others, 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.040 But like that main shot of the crawling eye coming 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.080 directly at you, I think that's pretty amazing looking. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.040 The smoke coming up around it. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.840 Yeah, Yeah, I think that's a that's a solid sequence, 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.000 and that's one of the reasons they use it several 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:44.640 times like that. 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.440 I also like how many different themes are thrown against 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.720 the wall in this movie. I think it it keeps 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.360 the plot feeling kind of fresh, the fact that it's 0:16:54.400 --> 0:17:00.000 not just an alien invasion movie. We get themes of mountaineering, mystify, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:06.440 curious fog, psychic powers, and esp international intrigue kind of espionage, 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:11.400 like themes witchcraft and Resurrection of the Dead. There's there's 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.960 a lot of stuff going into the stew Yeah. 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.199 A lot of times in nineteen fifties films, there's this 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.640 feeling of a very straight laced world and then there 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.000 is the strange element that is the threat. And here 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.199 there are enough of strange elements that kind of create 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.120 a world itself that feels a little off kilter from 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.280 the buttoned up world we might expect to encounter. The 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.680 psychic aspects of the plot particularly interests me because while 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:40.919 the sisters that we'll get into here, while they are entertainers, 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:46.160 one of them does have psychic abilities, and the reality 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:50.000 of psychic phenomena in the film feels widely accepted. I 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:51.440 don't know to what extent this is just kind of 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.520 an accident of the writing, or if this was a 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.440 part of their vision for it, but this would seem 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.399 to be a world where psychic phenomena is legitimate, but 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.880 also perhaps not widely understood or certainly capitalized upon. 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.280 I think in the nineteen fifties there were probably a 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:12.440 lot of people who generally thought that among those in 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:17.800 the know, parapsychology phenomena were widely accepted, that it was 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.919 to some people thought of as a kind of a 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.320 kind of thing that the elites were just aware of, 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.800 that parapsychology really is onto something. There really is something 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:33.200 strange going on. There are powers we don't quite understand, 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.920 and that the people at the highest levels of society, 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.160 the real operators out there, all know about and accept this. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:41.000 Yeah. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.440 Yeah, I think a pretty good read on it. And 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.879 certainly we do have historical evidence for some of the 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:50.280 things that were being researched, either in the military or 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.080 by groups adjacent to the military at the time, just 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.479 to at the very least see if there was anything 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.800 to them. But yeah, but it's one of the things 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:00.879 I did like about the picture this idea that like 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.040 nobody was like, Oh, those silly psychics, what can they 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:07.080 teach us about this this real world threat. They were like, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.040 I don't know, get the psychics in here, let's see 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:09.880 what they can figure out. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.320 Well, yeah, and I would say also within the structure 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.520 of the movie, there's no real way that the psychics, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.040 that the main one psychic character could be trying to 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.680 like scam anybody. There's like nothing she's going to get 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.800 out of trying to trick anybody into thinking she's psychic. 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:31.439 She's just like clearly experiencing some kind of information download 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.320 from extraterrestrial sources, and this is having an effect primarily 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.159 on her more than on anybody else. And so the 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.919 other characters are trying to be helpful, and yeah, you 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.880 don't see any like undue hostility toward her or anything. 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:48.240 But I also like the scene where they talk about 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.840 how the sisters used to be tricksters, that they started 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.080 off doing their psychic mind reading act by using a 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.520 code where they would just be you know, sleight of 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:02.920 hand type stuffy. They discovered through their career that oh, 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.920 just so happens one of us actually is fully psychic 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.879 and we don't need to use tricks anymore, which I 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.000 thought that was interesting because that almost suggests it's not 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:17.639 a that in the world of this movie, psychic powers 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.040 are not something you're born with, but maybe something you 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.119 develop through training that somehow by playing the part of 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:28.000 a psychic that is how she actually developed the psychic powers. 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:28.760 Yeah. 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.879 Yeah, Anyway, I thought maybe we should hear, just do 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.320 a basic plot summary and then we can refer we 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.119 can know what we're talking about when we refer back 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.879 to things throughout the connections section and stuff. So the 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.720 basic plot is that you've got the Trollenberg Mountain in Switzerland. 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.480 This has long been a popular destination for sightseers and 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.919 mountain climbers. It's got a mountain side observatory that you 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.440 can reach by suspended cable car, a selection of well 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.800 established routes to the summit, and a cozy village in 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.720 the foothills offering accommodations for travelers. They don't really play 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:04.959 up anything in this movie like, ooh, you know there 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.399 are legends about this mountain going back centuries that you 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.359 know there's something evil afoot. It really is more like 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.960 this is a beautiful, well known mountain and lately something 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:16.720 weird has started happening here. 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:21.040 Yeah, it's not something old that is threatening, folks, it's 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:22.400 something entirely. 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.560 New, right, And what is that new thing? It is 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:29.000 a series of grizzly accidents in which climbers have disappeared 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.000 without a trace, or in a few cases, have been 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.639 found with their heads torn off. So in the action 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.640 sort of begins with an American agent of the United Nations. 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.359 That's an interesting main character here, a guy who's like 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:50.360 a U N fixer, basically named Alan Brooks, who has 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:54.080 been sent to meet with the observatory's lead scientists to 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:58.399 investigate this phenomenon. Also visiting Trollenberg are a pair of 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.600 sisters named Anne and a pilgrim who perform a traveling 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.919 mind reading act. They were originally on their way to 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.000 Geneva by train, but when passing under Trollenberg, the truly 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.280 psychic sister of the two and is overcome with a 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.800