Trog
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Movie Reviews of Trog
Movie Review: Trog Rules!!
Summary: 4 Stars
For trashy "B" movie lovers - Trog Rules! It has all the elements one looks for in campy movies, with the infamous Joan Crawford center stage. As scientist Dr. Brockton, Crawford delivers a credible performance with all the poise of a legendary film star. The Trog creature is enjoyable to watch and actor Joe Cornelius does a fine job displaying a variety of emotions. The movie is of the Hammer Horror genre with some great scares (Trog jumping out of the screen at you several times), some skin (young British cave explorers strip down to their underwear), and blood (several gruesome Trog killings, especially the meat hook scene).
With a veteran movie actress like Joan Crawford, a classic villain in actor Michael Gough, and a sympathetic monster - what more could you ask for??
Movie Review: I Can Die a Happy Man
Summary: 4 Stars
.....TROG is finally coming out on DVD! This is a sad yet funny movie, as it's really generally quite awful, but also Joan Crawford's final film roll. All the classics she starred in and it ends with her feeding a man in a bad prehistoric-ape costume 'fish and lizards'. Pour a glass of wine, pop this baby in, sit back and watch one of my favorite great-bad movies ever. Just like scientist Cliff, you'll keep repeating, "Like I have never seen......"Movie Review: Joan Crawford's swansong
Summary: 3 Stars
Ah, I tell you...Joan Crawford must have really been in need of work. TROG has the dubious honour of being Ms Crawford's last film appearance. Her performance is the only thing which gives this half-baked epic any sort of credibility.
When a mysterious half-man half-ape creature is discovered dwelling in a series of underground caverns, respected anthropologist Dr Brockton (Joan Crawford) organises for the creature to be sedated and brought to the surface. Brockton realises that this just might be the missing link between humans and apes...a thing she calls a Trog.
Despite public unrest, Brockton continues her studies and begins to make great leaps in Trog's progress; until disgruntled - not to mention annoying - Sam Murdock (Michael Gough) breaks into the Institute and goads Trog into a deadly killing spree.
Filmed entirely on location in England, TROG features some talented Brits among the supporting cast (Bernard Kay, Kim Braden, Thorley Walters, Chloe Franks, and that infamous serial upstager Michael Gough). As you would expect from one of Hollywood's greatest movie queens, Joan Crawford plays the role of Dr Brockton completely seriously; adding another layer to the camp factor is Crawford's strange blonde beehive wig.
The creature itself is played with good feeling by Joe Cornelius (allegedly wearing one of the leftover remnants from "2001: A Space Odyssey"). In the great tradition of movie monsters, Trog is quite kind and gentle until he's betrayed and abused by humankind. The Trog mask used in the close-up shots featured an automated mouthpiece with realistic wolf canines. Of special interest to monster fans, TROG also features the only surviving scenes from the hallowed Willis O'Brien/Ray Harryhausen/Irwin Allen movie "The Animal World" (1956). The scenes run for about five minutes and give a good background to Trog's past.
It might be the movie Joan Crawford wished she hadn't done; but for lovers of trash cinema, TROG is one hell of a good howl!
The DVD includes the trailer. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).
Movie Review: The Missing Link In Your DVD Collection
Summary: 3 Stars
Trog is one of those movies that has a reputation in the filmworld for being downright terrible. Right up my alley! Not as legendary as Plan 9 From Outer space, but it's a title that comes up once in a while when discussing bad films, especially bad films that feature an A-list star. The fact that such a highly recognizable and respected actress stars in this film is the only reason it has the reputation it does. Frankly, I was disapointed in Trog. I was disappointed coz it didn't live up to it's reputation. Sure, it is bad and rather silly, but not as much as you're led to believe. It's bad, but damn it, it's just not bad enough! That's unfortunate coz this film could have been very funny. Opportunities to see major actors in total schlock don't come along often. We get the occasional Hudson Hawk or Caligula, and that's good coz sometimes a major star's bad decision can be quite rewarding. Unfortunately, Trog just barely qualifies as a truly fun, campy experience. It was directed by Hammer regular, Freddie Francis, and that makes sense coz the film does look like a bottom of the barrel Hammer production. It even stars Hammer regular Michael Gough, and hardcore horror fans should be on the lookout for The Beyond's David Warbeck in a small role. Fairly simple plot: Crawford finds missing link-type apeman and wants to study it, but not everyone shares her enthusiasm. In Frankenstein tradition, he breaks free and runs amuck, and everyone gets the "Kill Trog" mentality....except Crawford of course. Not bad, a couple of laughs here and there, but not as awful as you'd expect. The acting isn't Shakespeare quality or anything, but it's not dreadful, especially on Crawford's and Gough's end. The dvd itself is pretty bare bones, but how much hidden vault material on Trog could there be? All in all, it's worth watching to say you've seen it. Trog!Movie Review: An Inglorious End to Joan Crawford's Feature Film Career
Summary: 2 Stars
TROG is famous for one reason and one reason only: it was Joan Crawford's last starring role in a feature film.
Joan Crawford (1905-1977) was among Hollywood's greatest "golden age" stars. She began her career in silent films, became an overnight sensation in OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS in 1928, and went on to a career starring as leading lady in numerous classic and near-classic films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. By the 1960s, however, good roles were hard to find--until, in 1962 Crawford and long-time rival Bette Davis teamed for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? The success of the film touched off a cycle of inexpensive shockers starring fading leading ladies, and with such films as STRAIT JACKET, I SAW WHAT YOU DID, and BESERK! Crawford was easily the leader of the pack.
Filmed in England, TROG sought to capitalize on Crawford's new-found fame as a "scream queen" by casting her in the role of Dr. Brockton, a famous anthropologist who captures a prehistoric troglidite--and who, much to the annoyance of real estate developer Sam Murdock (Michael Gough), seeks to test, explore, and in general renovate him to gain knowledge of the prehistoric era. Needless to say, things go awry and Trog eventually runs amuck--but not before we are treated to endless images of Crawford with blonde hair and expensive, if extremely dated and very matronly, clothes.
Say what you like about Crawford, but she never, ever gave any project less than one hundred and ten percent. When the script calls for her to be sweet, she's very sweet; when it calls for her to be emphatic, you feel it to the marrow of your bones; and when it calls for her to be angry, you suspect she could gouge your eyes out without turning a hair. Even so, Crawford herself was vocally displeased about the production. According to film lore, the budget for TROG was so low that her costumes came straight out of her own closet, and there was no dressing room in which she could change when shooting on location. In later interviews, Crawford said that she decided TROG would be her last film long before shooting wrapped: when you've reached a point where you have to change costumes in the back of your own car, it's time to go.
As for the film itself--The story is silly, the script is horrendous, and Trog himself is about as frightening as left over cafeteria banana pudding. When the film at last debuted, it was so savaged by critics and public alike that Crawford jokingly said she'd have been tempted to kill herself from embarassment had she not recently become a Christian Scientist.
Now, in actual truth, TROG isn't any worse than a lot of other cheapie British horror films of the time. But the dividing line between enjoyably bad films and unenjoyable ones seems to be pace--and even though it clocks in at around ninety minutes, TROG seems to go on forever, an endless collage of bad dialogue, aggressive performances, and uninspired everything else. It's not simply bad: it's dull. Crawford did not fade immediately into the dark following the film, doing a handful of television shows before a complete and reclusive retirement about 1972, so one can't say that TROG was so awful it ended her career; all the same, it a rather inglorious conclusion to her feature film career, to say the least.
I can't really recommend TROG, not even to die hard Crawford fans or cult movie enthusiasts. More than silly, it is just plain dull. The DVD offers the film trailer, which is actually more entertaining than the film, and a so-so widescreen edition of the film itself--but in truth, this is one you're really better off catching on the late-late show.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer