ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Joan Crawford's last film wasn't Joan Crawford's best. She plays an anthropologist who discovers a living troglodyte (Joe Cornelius) and brings him back to the city. Classic music soothes the savage beast, but rock 'n roll angers him.

The villain is land developer Michael Goughe ("They Came from Beyond Space"), who lets the large, ape-faced Trog loose so that Crawford will be discredited by the damage and injuries Trog causes. The caveman makeup is poorly done, looking entirely too much like a Halloween monkey mask.

All in all, not a very well-crafted film, but it does feature several scenes from the "lost" Ray Harryhausen film, "The Animal World" (1958), which are offered as Trog's memories (?). Also starring Kim Braden, David Griffin, John Hamill. Directed by Freddie Francis.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Rick]

I saw this when it was brand new, leading a drive-in triple feature.

The second feature, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, was great, one of the greatest movies ever... though my gorgeous young date and I really didn't see two minutes of it. Heh heh.

The third movie was FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, certainly one of Hammer's best. And I mean that, because my lady friend slept through it and I actually watched the thing.

TROG, though...oooo, TROG... It's a really really (add several more "reallys") awful movie. I haven't seen it since and I don't care to.

I did read the whole long making-of article in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS magazine and that was pretty fascinating. Even terrible movies can provide fun background entertainment.

And it is a painfully lousy farewell for a great movie star.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Bogmeister]

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____________________ TROG (1970) trailer


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I've heard and read about this one for a long time and finally got around to seeing it. There's a Cult Camp Classic DVD release from Warner. (2007 DVD, 91m.)



This isn't a simple caveman monster picture as I expected (like Eegah — another one I plan to watch soon) because it does throw in the debate concerning strict creationism and evolution.

It's still silly, even if it is directed by Freddie Francis, who prevents it from degenerating into complete excrement. The Trog character is obviously just a typical human where he isn't covered with fake hair (actor Joe Cornelius), topped by the Trog apelike mask.

The face make-up isn't really bad; it's just that it's combined with nothing else for the rest of the body. According to some trivia, the face mask was actually a leftover from one of the ape characters of 2001:A Space Odyssey.



Crawford plays I nice elderly scientist here (against her rep), while Michael Gough is the wild, over-the-top creationist. I never really understood why Michael Gough was so upset over Trog's emergence, though it's mentioned that he's a businessman whose actual concern may just be money.

Trog was actually minding his own business in his cave (he's a troglodyte, dontcha know?) until he was accidentally discovered by a trio of young archaeologists. Then the rest of civilization forces him out.

Typical of the camp atmosphere: when Trog first emerges, everyone there, including cops, freezes or panics in terror, except old lady Crawford, who calmly fetches a trank rifle and downs the savage beast.

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Later scenes of classical music calming the beast man are fine, but rock 'n' roll music angers him, and watching Crawford play catch with Trog is laughable. I'm sure Michael Gough was instructed to act like a primitive himself when he wrecks the scientist's lab (he even lets his tongue hang out) in order to impress on us the irony of the 'civilized man' behaving more crudely than the missing link. Thorley Walters pops up as a judge and even he constantly instructs Gough to shut up.

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Trog's escape and rampage in the final act is surprisingly violent, including grisly murder (from Trog's pov, he's just defending himself). This was 1970, so by this point restrictions had been lifted on showing or suggesting extreme violence.

Trog is also quite strong, able to turn over a car (the car then inexplicably bursts into flame, as if covered in gasoline). He didn't look that strong to me of course, but in this film if he's angry with a person it's like getting beaten by a full-sized gorilla — you are pulped.



The highlight of this film, at the one-hour mark, are the dinosaur scenes from the unfinished/lost Animal World (1955). It makes no sense, of course, for Trog to 'remember' any of these scenes — but hey, they're cool to look at, especially on a nice DVD version.

The trailer for this one is suggestive of even more horrific violence: 2 shots are edited in such a way that it seems as if Trog stamps out the life of a little girl. A more serious and believable version of this story was the film Iceman (1984).

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


____________________ Mick Garris on TROG


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

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________________ Trog (1970) Official Trailer


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__________________________ Trog (1970)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[WadeVC]

I remember seeing this many moons ago, and once was enough.

I think it was a sort of sad farewell to Crawford's movie career...how far her star fell.
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"You look like a pooped out pinwheel."
-Robot Monster

[Bud Brewster]

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I've yet to see Trog, and for years I wasn't a fan of Joan Crawford . . . until I saw her in a few 1930s and 1940s films on TCM which made me appreciate her work.

Silly me, that talented lady could do comedy, for example — I didn't even know it!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)