In fact, it`s not bad at all. I think this movie has been misjudged because many evaluate it from the standpoint of a vehicle for Joan Crawford. In that context I don`t suppose it is a very good outing for her even though her acting is more than adequate in my opinion. I judge Trog on it`s effectiveness as a sci-fi horror movie. Joe cornelius` make-up is effective and it has a great early John Scott score.
shareI agree. If you want to drink beer and catcall or lament Crawford's career decline that's fair, I wouldn't begrudge you. Yes, Herman Cohen was a schlockmeister and the cheese is laid on rather thick. But look at it like this: we have a star past her prime as the sole intelligent and passionate character contrasting an extremely dirty, brutal, noirish, primeval, prehistoric world unleashed on a quaint English countryside--almost like the young, hungry Phil Karlson or Fritz Lang directing a British creature-on-the-loose film. And like a good thriller each side makes harsh, elevating, violent strikes at each other; if you take away the childish melodrama and plotting of TROG this is an excessively pessimistic world--people die ruthlessly and bloodily (I mean a kid's PG-rated film literally hanging a man on a meathook; IMHO it's done here more effectively than a similar one three years later in Tobe Hooper's supposedly superior TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.). And when feminists were complaining about weak screen females you'd think they'd defend Crawford here not taking guff from anyone, especially men, and committed to handling the increasingly unstable Trog herself (that ridicule about Crawford's ongoing stridency about her 'hypo-gun' would make ultimate sense if the line readings were hysterically consistent, but she actually tones her voice and bearing down on that issue near the end before she implores the officers to allow her to capture the creature herself, she's not even objecting to them killing it as long as she can at least begin a form of euthanasia). I was also pleased to read through a letterboxed TV broadcast in director Freddie Francis' technical ideas here a type of brusque, lurid color scheme and angular visual formations that really soak the material into a type of nightmarish Grimm's Fairy Tale that a cynical or knowing adult would naturally reject but that a younger or more open mind would understand as a type of movie 'dream-state' that sci-fi films don't really attempt anymore in contemporary metropolitan settings, going from the passive and orderly suddenly lurching into the demented and nightmarish. And yes, John Scott's music is rather professional for this type of film (I especially like how he kept locking off very different sections of his orchestra from each other to mirror how the characters refused to behave toward each other, like when he used only his strings in an Samuel Barber-type apassionata when Trog steals the little girl from her mother and Crawford refusing to stop on police orders to enter the caves near the end). No Oscar winner, I agree, but to keep placing this film next to Ed Wood is a little condescending.
shareSouthbase - I applaud your sensitive and intelligent post. I couldn't agree with you more. TROG is no classic but I feel people bemoan the fact that it is Crawford's last film rather than looking at it from a "B" sci-fi film perspective. And Crawford does her best by it.
shareIt's bad, but only in the way many British horrors of that era were bad.
I don't think it stands out as being especially awful in comparison. As you say, it's just the fact that it's such an ignominious swan song for Joan Crawford.
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I don't think it stands out as being especially awful in comparison. As you say, it's just the fact that it's such an ignominious swan song for Joan Crawford.But, that's the whole reason I watched it was for Joan. And, I don't see what everyone's problem is. The fact that is so out of line with what people would expect of a grand dame like her is what makes it worthwhile.
POSSIBLE SPOILER
I'm with you. I thought Trog's first appearance outside of the cave was very effective and that the music really helped it along. I do think the movie sort of lost sight of it's vision with the meat hook scene. I mean, if Trog was supposed to be a scared and confused animal, that was a bit of a cold calculated move. Maybe it was supposed to indicate too much time around people?
In any case, it's better than awful and very entertaining to fans of the monster movies of the era.
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