Having been successful with their Gothic horror film BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, Robert S. Baker & Monty Berman next attempted to produce a black & white science fiction movie patterned after Hammer’s QUATERMASS series. Those movies dealt with alien invasions from outer space and how they were successfully thwarted. Once again they hired Hammer freelance writer Jimmy Sangster to come up with something. The basis of his screenplay was a British TV serial called THE TROLLENBERG TERROR that had first been broadcast in 1956 and had been produced by Baker & Berman. That made it a quick and easy adaptation to do. It was even shot in the same film studio.
This time around the setting isn’t England but Switzerland which may account for the presence of Jennifer Jayne who played Hedda Tell on the 1957 TV series WILLIAM TELL. A mysterious cloud has settled in on top of a Swiss peak known as the Trollenberg. Suddenly there are a rash of accidents where climbers have been found beheaded. An observatory near the top of the mountain has discovered that the cloud is radioactive so the head scientist sends for a U. N. specialist to try and get to the bottom of the mysterious deaths. The specialist arrives along with a sister mind reading act. It turns out that one of the sisters is particularly sensitive to whatever it is in the cloud.
The title was changed to THE CRAWLING EYE for U.S. audiences with Forrest Tucker as the required American presence needed to put 1950s British movies over in America. He made a handful of horror/sci-fi films in England and he acquits himself well as the U. N. researcher who is called in to investigate. Along with the aforementioned Jennifer Jayne, Janet Munro plays the other sister whose telepathic powers threaten the aliens. The rest of the cast consists of dependable British character actors including Laurence Payne of TELL-TALE HEART fame. This was the Baker/Berman team’s only stab at sci-fi and overall it’s pretty good. The Widescreen European Edition is the one to see as it is the original uncut British version. It has recently been released on Blu-ray. Most streaming copies come from inferior public domain prints.
