The Crawling Eye - run for the hills! No run away from the hills!

Oh happy day! Did I find a GREAT stinky Limburger cheese of a film today! We didn't make it to the bookstore this past weekend due to an ice storm but I am glad we went tonight. Today's movie rant is about the unforgettable 84 minute cornea assault known as "The Crawling Eye". Maybe they should have called it "Oversize Moaning Tentacled Eyeballs of the Alps" instead. The hills were definitely alive ~ but with what leaves you wondering as it certainly wasn't music.



Come to think of it, the eyes did crawl....


Here's my description of this highly underrated cinematic masterpiece: Mountain climbers keep turning up headless or not at all. Then while the hero and star of the film (Forrest Tucker of F-Troop fame) is heading to the film's ground zero, he meets on his train 2 sisters, one of which is clairvoyant. So they all go to the same hotel and find out about the disappearances when they arrive.



Then our hero meets with a scientist friend who has a lab on an observatory conveniently located on the same mountain responsible for all the disappearances and deaths. Here we learn about a mysterious and radioactive cloud (hey, this is from the 50's!) that seems to move with a certain amount of intelligence... Which is a good thing because that is the ONLY intelligence in the whole film. Anyway, after the cloud whacks a few more folks; all the living survivors, lab staff and the whole village of about 17 people end up seeking refuge in the observatory. There they wait for the inevitable - death by cheesy movie monster.


Now I know you will want to run out, buy this film and see it for yourself so I refuse to divulge how this one ends. But I will tell let you in on some 0f the exciting aspects of this sadly Academy overlooked brilliance: Molotov cocktails! Thrilling escape scenes! Murderous zombified people! Little girls almost grabbed by evil alien tentacles! Then there's that heart stopping moment when you just don't know if the cable car will make it to the top or come crashing down the rocky mountain with all it's helpless passengers -aaaarrgghhh there's just too much suspense! You MUST see it to find out..... Or at least to laugh your bummy off like we did.

I think living in a Pixar world, sometimes we take for granted the special effects we have nowadays. We should probably appreciate more of the old sci-fi effects as I'm sure movie makers did the best they could to pull off a movie in the 1950's whose guest stars were giant eyes with tentacles. Brilliantly using the old 'blow up the front door so all you can see is a HUGE eyeball looking in at a tiny victim' scene. Used to great affect in this gem.

OK, maybe appreciate is too strong a word but I get a strong feeling that a large amount of tequila may have been involved with the making of this film. That's cool with me though, especially since you don't need large amounts of tequila to enjoy this film.... But you may need to if you lack a sufficient sense of humor to get through the ending!!!