john_vance-20806
I have a weakness for this kind of 1950s B-film so I'm biased, but I find it to be among my favorite guilty pleasures.Having heads torn off by an invisible malevolent force was pretty bold stuff in that era, and showing fairly graphic shots of the separated portions would have been shocking. Forest Tucker and Janet Munro display some fine acting chops in helping to pull off some of the mundane dialog and implausible plot.Technically, the film lacks a lot. The matte work appears to be unnecessarily poor. Some of the scenes show stumbles that could have easily been re-shot. The special effects of the creatures aren't bad and in that era may have been considered quite impressive, but today they look pretty hokey.In the end, I'll watch it just to see Janet Munro, on whom I developed a crush during "The Horsemasters" Disney series. She died far too young and was a loss to the industry.
Austin Cross
This was among the first old sci-fi film in a string of old sci-fi films that I watched in the last month or so. I do not really remember where I came upon it. I do remember that I was searching for another old film and ended up finding this one instead. And I have to tell you, I am glad that I watched it.The plot of this film is based around a mysterious cloud that never moves from a certain spot on the Trollenberg mountain and the connection between a mind-reading act from London and United Nations troubleshooter. As it turns out, this connection leads to the realization of what this mysterious cloud is and what dark secrets are harbored within it.This was quite an enjoyable film, and being a science fiction film from the 1950s, it was put together really well. The dialogue and story was on point and I really felt like I was in suspense during the whole film. One of my favorite aspects of the film is the how a woman from the mind reading act somehow knows part of everything that is going on.The monster, or in this case monsters, in this film is not particularly scary. They were probably very frightening when the movie first came out, but it isn't, at least me, now.Overall, I give this film a seven out of ten, for a very believable story and relatable dialogue. I do believe that this film has the makings of a remake in its future.
ajrg-17-381639
I was scared to death by this movie at 6 when it was 2 years old. Later I found it in a movie store marked as one of the worst science fiction movies of all time. I bought it. The movie no longer scares me but it is well written and can be watched again and again if you don't mind drinking,smoking and offering the same to others when you want to be polite. I liked the acting, writing and story which to me were not over the top and let me add I like movies but am not a huge fan of 1950s science fiction. I am not fond of classics from that era when we were fighting the cold war and the aliens represent evil. The special effects are not special but if that makes no difference to you, this is a good movie.
JoeB131
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.
AD
