User Reviews

Some film fans may be understandably dismayed seeing screen legend Joan Crawford appearing in this kind of thing as her swan song. It also may be rather disconcerting seeing so many talented people - including director Freddie Francis and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson - wasting their time with such material. Admittedly, "Trog" is really for die hard fans of schlock (like this viewer) who can still have a good time provided that the material in question is laughable enough to be entertaining. And the movie does deliver in that regard.

The actors are made to mouth some hilariously absurd lines in this yarn about noted anthropologist Dr. Brockton (Ms. Crawford), whose associates discover what could be the missing link in some British caves. Nicknamed "Trog" - short for troglodyte, of course - he's coddled and trained by Brockton and company. However, this doesn't sit well with everybody, including a skeptical police inspector (Bernard Kay) and especially a foul tempered local big shot, Sam Murdock (Michael Gough), who's convinced nothing good can come of playing host to this "monster".

The rock solid cast play this junk with such admirably straight faces. Crawford doesn't seem to be embarrassed and gives a very sincere performance. Gough is great fun as the miserable jerk who sets the last act into motion. Kim Braden, David Griffin, John Hamill, Thorley Walters, Jack May, Robert Hutton, and David Warbeck co-star; the title part is played amusingly by Joe Cornelius, who's obliged to wear the so-so makeup that doesn't even cover that much of his body. Producer Herman Cohen, who specialized in these kinds of genre films, appears uncredited as a bartender.

The sets are entertaining to look at, if not exactly convincing, and there's a fine score by John Scott.

Overall, this is goofy fun for lovers of cinematic turkeys.

Five out of 10.

This 1970 British flick mingles elements of "Planet of the Apes," "Frankenstein" and various Sasquatch tales. The scenes where Joan studies Trog are like an inversion of the scenes in "Planet of the Apes" where the female doctor chimp (Zira) analyzes Charlton Heston. "Frankenstein" comes to mind because of the fairly sympathetic portrayal of the half-man/half-ape and his gentle treatment of a little girl. Being a low-budget English film directed by Freddie Francis it has a decidedly Hammer-esque look and vibe.

Some have mocked the film as "campy" but this simply isn't true; the story is played completely straight. Nothing about it is consciously artificial, exaggerated or self-parodying, like, say, Alan Rickman's performance in 1991's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." THAT's campy.

The ape make-up is similar to that of "Planet of the Apes," albeit with a more protruding maw. In fact, it looks like someone dug the ape mask out of the trash from the set of 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (which they probably did!)

This was Joan Crawford's final film and has been heavily panned. I don't understand this because it's not really THAT bad. As a matter of fact, the material is taken serious by all involved as the story tackles the question: What would it be like if the so-called missing link was actually discovered ALIVE? Of course, you have to take into account that the perspective of the movie is 1969, when it was shot. Given the period and the low budget, the movie has its limitations, which can be witnessed in two glaring ways:

(1) The overlong dinosaur sequence of stock stop-motion footage that I assume are images from Trog's memory; and (2) the appearance of Trog himself. In regards to the latter, the head and facial features of the ape-man look quite good for 1969, it's the rest that leaves much to be desired. Basically, Trog is just a small-ish white dude walking around in a loin cloth and fur "tennis shoes" with what looks like a short fur cape. This is the extent of the Trog costume and it looks lame, which is probably why people mock the film -- the "monster" is more laughable than fearsome.

Upon reflection, though, since Trog is half-human and therefore mostly hairless, it makes sense that he would obtain furs to make rudimentary clothing for warmth warm. This assumes, of course, that he'd have to occasionally leave the caverns to kill animals for furs; and likely food as well (after all, what would he eat in the darkness of the caves?). Since he's half-human he would have the intelligence to do this.

What makes "Trog" an essential purchase, besides being Crawford's last film, is the stunning Kim Braden, who plays Joan's daughter/assistant, Anne. Kim is fully clothed at all times, usually wearing cute short-skirt/dress outfits, proving that attractiveness is more than a matter of showing skin. What a cutie! Interestingly, Kim went on to play Captain Picard's wife in the Nexus in the outstanding 1994 film "Star Trek: Generations."

The film runs 93 minutes and was shot in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, England.

GRADE: C+

No doubt about it - Trog is a bad, bad film. yet, I think it is better than most give it credit for and wholly entertaining for its camp. The story is inane: some troglodyte had been frozen in nearby caves somewhere in England for centuries, found by exploring men, kills the exploring men, and then is taken alive to go to the Brockton Scientific Research Center run by a high-coiffed Joan Crawdford. Crawford plays the scientist out to get a name for herself, her institute, and for added measure, science itself. But she is not the cold, dispassionate stereotype of a scientist. No, here she plays ball outside with what she affectionately calls Trog. She plays games with him. Gives him toys. Beams when he learns a new trick and mothers him in general. The trog, while in no way could I argue it was good make-up - what little there really is - is better than it could be. And at the very least, the trog costume/make-up is able to convey feeling and emotion to some degree. The rest of the story is preposterous as some local decides to let trog out - for reasons I never fully found convincing - so trog could go out and do his obligatory rampage through a small English village. Don't look for much in this movie. Freddie Francis, the old Hammer stalwart himself, directed this muddle and it is sub-par for a man with his talent that directed The Creeping Flesh and so many other great horror films of the 70s. From a directorial perspective, Trog is a major disappointment. But, if it is high camp you want and entertaining camp - I was never bored - then Trog might just be to your taste. What can be all bad about seeing a sixty-plus Joan Crawford don neon lab coats, throw rubber fish and lizards into a cage, throw a ball to a man in a troglodyte costume,or tote a hypo gun acting with all the seriousness of a Robert Stack. Those scenes were well-worth the pain one might incur during the "talky" scenes so many seem to have mentioned. I found the film to be surprisingly short at 93 minutes. The last two "major" films Crawford made were for legendary B producer Herman Cohen - Berserk! and Trog. Yes, they were dramatic departures for a legend such as Crawford, but they were acting jobs that still were mainstream cinema to some extent. And I am sure no one - including Crawford most of all, would have thought these two films would be her last(least if you will). Michael Gough is also in the picture in what I can only term as a completely throw-away role meant to make a plot that shouldn't move - move.

and then shoot me with it...this is an absolute howler!! See Joan face down the troglodyte with her "hypo-gun"!!! See Joan's wardrobe of pink, white and tan lab coats!! See Joan bully the troglodyte into submission!......The sad end to a glorious career for sure,but let there be no doubt, it's still the one and only Joan.....kicking troglodyte ass no less. Heck, if I had a murderous troglodyte on the loose, I'd call Joan.............Crawford is quite game with her role as the scientist(?) and maintains a straight face throughout....no matter if she is tossing rubber lizards to the troglodyte or crawling around in the dark calling out to the TROG! This is a gloriously bad movie. MOMMIE DEAREST was no crueler than this.

The good: There is precious little but the ultra professionalism of Joan Crawford even in dreck like this is impressive indeed. She was aware what she was involved in and while many actors would have just phoned in a blank wall of a performance Miss Crawford would never allow herself to lower her standards to that level. At least by providing her own wardrobe, a budget necessity, she at least guaranteed that although matronly she was at least stylishly dressed amongst the mess that was surrounding her. A pity that this was her cinematic swan song after such a fabled career. She was offered a few more parts, albeit supporting roles in both Airport '75 and Airport '77 which are hardly masterpieces but at least more distinguished than this, but had lost her confidence and totally withdrawn from public view.

Beside Joan keeping a stiff upper lip while encircled by junk there are some pretty views of an English village and the surrounding countryside and some very buff actors in the first sequence who strip down to their undies and take a dip to go exploring a cave. Those are the sum total of worthwhile elements in this clunker.

The bad:everything else in this terrible movie. Only for completist fans of Joan or extremely bad movies.

It is said Bette Davis commented that if she had found herself starring in "Trog," she'd commit suicide. Alas, poor Joan Crawford, who obviously felt she couldn't be fussy if she wanted the work, descended to this cut-rate, Herman Cohen-produced monster movie. Ironically released in the States by Warner Brothers (on the bottom half of a double-bill with "The Torture Garden"), the studio for which Ms Crawford made several of her hits including "Mildred Pierce", the only scary thing about "Trog" is the sight of a once-glamorous, legendary leading lady schlepping around in a lab coat (she plays an anthropologist), obviously tipsy as she slurs inane lines like "Trog lives on a diet of fish and lishardsh." Let's face it: under the circumstances, you'd drink, too.

Trog is cutesy for troglodyte: a primitive missing-link cave-dweller portrayed by a burly actor in an Alley Oop-like caveman get-up and an over-the-head, dime-store Halloween mask. Discovered by a hunky and shirtless, albeit unfortunate, team of spelunking college students, Trog is captured and put under the observation of Dr Brockton (Joan).

The true villain of this piece is Michael Gough (also slumming it), a representative of the opposing townspeople who, in a public confrontation with Joan, causes her to explode in a moment of impassioned fury. Regrettably, she does not give Gough her trademark slap in the face.

Trog eventually escapes to wreak some customary monster-movie havoc and Joan hunts him down with her "hypo-gun" across the bleak fields of the northern English countryside and down into his cavern, dressed in a smartly tailored tan jacket, slacks and boots ensemble.

Hollywood Royalty? Joan tries to maintain her dignity and poise despite having to deliver lines like, "Put the child down, Trog!" and occasionally looking a little woozy. This sad swan song to a long, brilliant career, amid the preposterous mise en scene, gives "Trog" the feeling of a tragi-comedy. Like one of her memorable screen characters, the real Joan Crawford endeavors to be strong and, ultimately, to triumph against all odds.

Joan Crawford's infamously bad swan song, the story of an anthropologist (Crawford) who makes a study of a missing link, whom she dubs "Trog" (short for "troglodyte"). The film is extremely cheap and cheesy. Hey, I like extremely cheap and cheesy. If it were only that, I probably would love the movie. But what makes the movie bad is its slow pace. People talk interminably about stupid things, and the boredom sets in and never leaves. The scenes where Trog and Crawford play ball are the very definition of camp, and I would have much preferred Trog's final rampage to last 80% of the film's run. So, due to boredom, this truly is a terrible movie. It may be bad, but I still liked it more than Love Story, which was released the same year.

Poor Joan Crawford, she had a brilliant career that spanned what 50 years and then she is reduced to this crap? She must have been drunk, desperate or both to get involved in this mess. I think poor Joan just literally had a death grip on her fame and wouldn't give it up. She couldn't stand not to be a *STAR*, but if one has to star in a movie such is this, it's time to call it quits. The storyline is basic, Joan plays an anthropologist (can you even believe that?) who helps to discover the missing link, TROG as she affectionately calls him. The movie is so lame, the killings are not scary, Trog running amok across the English countryside, frightening children (and the viewer with this insanity)on a playground, Trog reacting violently to jazz music if you can believe it!!!!! And so on and so forth....it campy and unintentionally funny to see Joan play "catch" with TROG!!!! If you want a good laugh watch this movie, but if you want to remember Joan Crawford as "Mildred Pierce" avoid this movie like the plague.

I thought this was going to be one of those " So bad that it`s good " type movies , an optimism that was built on the DOCTOR WHO standard of cave sets ( To be honest the cave sets from DOCTOR WHO are far better ) not to mention Trog`s make up or his method of killing people by throwing paper maiche boulders at them . Unfortunately much of TROG descends into a morality play with a political subtext :ie Trog is an allegorical criminal with Doctor Brockton being the voice of progressive compassion while Sam Murdock is the reactionary flog them and hang them type . This might actually be coincidence because the last third of the film goes against the logic of being a morality play , mind you there`s little logic to the script in the first place , for example why would jazz make Trog angry and classical music soothe the angry beast ? I`d have thought he`d be unable to notice differing musical styles . How would surgery be able to make him speak ? Language volcalbury and communication isn`t only down to vocal ability , oh and there`s no way Trog would have been able to recognise dinosaurs as they would have died out millions of years before he existed.

TROG is a very patchy Brit B movie . It is enjoyable in places ( For all the wrong reasons ) but you have to sit through a lot of talky scenes for them to arrive

Crawford wasnt the first star or the last star to make a bad film. How many other bad films do the critics watch over 50yrs after its release over and over? She was under a two picture contract which she being a professional, fulfilled. She provided her own wardrobe, marketed Pepsi, would cook breakfast for the entire crew, kept a well supplied buffet, provided free Pepsi, showed up on time and knew her lines. In a career that spanned from 1925-1972, she managed to keep star billing in the majority of her 90 odd films. She was as always trying to stay up with the current tastes of the paying audience. She couldn't have stayed in the business that long if she were stupid, a drunk, or crazy. She makes the film because she was in it. This is not my favorite film of hers but it baffles me that people on one hand criticize both her and film and on the other hand watch this over and over again. Crawford was asked what she thought about bad press. She replied back with "what if they didn't talk about me at all?" She would be ecstatic if she knew 43 years after her death people were still talking about her.

Three amateur cave explorers are attacked by a primitive being. One is killed and another is terribly wounded. Anthropologist Dr. Brockton (Joan Crawford) is interested. A police search finds a troglodyte which is brought out into the sunlight.

With only their word, the police should suspect the survivors having killed their friend in the cave. The fact that the police never considers it means that there is bad writing here. It's not surprising that a B-movie is filled with bad writing. As expected, there is plenty of camp in the troglodyte. It's a caveman mask in a fur vest. It's classic B-movie. One would have thought the actor be hairier. Joan Crawford is obviously doing it for the money but she shows up and takes it seriously. That's a pro. It's her last theatrical film. She's really the only truly interesting thing in the movie. The trog mask has some mouth movements which is better than nothing. It shows that this had some serious efforts but lacked the ability to do good work. This owes a lot to the 50's and 60's British sci-fi B-movies. Sadly, it's not one of the few which exceeds its genre. The story is basically Frankenstein. In that sense, having Joan Crawford as the doctor is the best that could be hoped for.

You wonder many times during the watching of the movie if it was deliberately funny or not. I don't think so after all. But it is never boring. The classic and usual scheme of the "evil" beast which nearly every character of the movie is feared of, and who eventually will provoke empathy from the audience. You had many features like this one; I saw KONGA not long ago and I felt the same thing as here. Poor Joan Crawford does her best to play in this anthropologist character trying to domesticate the beast, with predictable results. You won't wep at the end, but maybe feel some kind of ash taste in the mouth; this despite the corny side of this story.

Okay, here's another one of those films I'll have to list in my "underrated" category. I'd call it a "guilty pleasure" if I didn't think that term is ridiculous in general; for I enjoy this always-maligned monster-on-the-loose movie, and I don't feel in the least ashamed of that. It's customary to tear it to shreds, though, and I believe that's mainly because people cannot fathom the idea of Hollywood Legend Joan Crawford "lowering" herself to star in what most would consider to be "such stupid trash". Besides which, TROG was her last movie.

How seriously can you take a movie about a prehistoric missing link that pops up in the 20th Century and has Mommie Dearest caring for it? Well, Crawford is actually quite good and takes her part seriously; if there was any regret in her mind doing this type of movie, it doesn't show on the screen. She plays a doctor who takes an interest in the primitive half-ape, half-man (she names him Trog, short for troglodyte) who is prone to savagery when provoked, but who can be tamed with love and care. Michael Gough, England's always over-ripe bad guy, is deliciously sinister as a selfish Realtor who wants to destroy the misplaced creature, and he's got some good villainous dialogue at times (for example, when Crawford says she wants to study Trog, he rants: "Kill it first... THEN study its hide!!").

There are actually some pretty graphic "kill" scenes for this type of film (the butcher shop scene comes to mind, long before there was a certain CHAIN SAW MASSACRE flick), and Trog himself is capable of being not only fearsome, but also a pitiable victim at times. His simian face is enhanced by an electronic muzzle that manages to move and twitch much like an actual ape's, and that's something not even the exceptional PLANET OF THE APES makeups did during this same period. I also like the visual look of the movie, as directed by Freddie Francis (himself often underrated in this genre), and this includes one really cool "jump shock" sequence featuring Gough's nightly encounter with the beast ... but I won't spoil it. High cinematic art? No, of course not -- but a fun way to enjoy a campy monster film one night when you're in the mood for one. That is all this movie needs to be. ^^1/2 out of ****

People sure do make a big deal out of Joan Crawford being drunk, especially in dreck like this. I guess it would be surprising to learn that she was completely smashed during the filming of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane," but let's forget that. It was a decent movie. My point here is that most of these reviews slam the star for being tipsy. If you were making "Trog" you'd want to be as incoherent as possible! Second, Joan doesn't mangle her lines. They come out oddly, but they aren't mangled. It wasn't like Joan Crawford to mess up, at least not in public. The main problem with the lines is their utter idiocy.

My first big problem with the movie wasn't the horrible sets. It wasn't even Trog, who couldn't even get makeup from the waist down. Brockton Research Centre is run by Dr. Brockton, who just happens to be Joan Crawford. Here's my big problem. Of all the actresses (drunken or not) in all the world, why in the heck would someone pick Joan Crawford to play an anthropologist? Does she even know what one is? Hearing her discuss Neanderthals makes me shudder. I don't know anything about Neanderthals, and I don't think Joan can teach me a darn thing about them either. "Conceivably, Trog was frozen solid" etc. etc. etc. What?!? I simply cannot believe Joan would waste her breath talking about cavemen. It's wrong. Even more incredible, she has earned a research center with her name all over it! What did she do to get that? Paint the sign herself? I'm slamming Joan myself now, but still. This is weird casting.

As for the acting in the movie (this is a movie, not a film), Joan did better than the movie deserved. That was something she had a gift for. Giving more than she got. She didn't get anything with this one, but she still gave it her all. That causes people to snicker and laugh, saying "Joan must be stupid to think this movie merits all this." No, the movie doesn't, but Joan's mind needed the knowledge that she always did (and looked her best). We may laugh when she gets overly attached to what looks like a wrestler being attacked by a monkey, but we should give her some credit for trying. That's why I think that one moment at the end of the film is quite good. She refuses a newsman's microphone, and you can almost forget how awful this movie is when you see the weariness on her face.

In response to those who were wondering about the dinosaur sequence, it is from a 1956 Warner Brothers film called the Animal World. The animation was done by Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, and was originally 10 minutes long. Those who wish to see the entire sequence can buy or rent the Black Scorpion on DVD. The 10 minute segment is included as an extra. The animation took two weeks. Unfortunately, it was the last time that Ray Harryhausen worked with Willis O'Brien. In the 60's, the ViewMaster Company issued a three-reel set from the movie with the dinosaur sequence in 3-D. Otherwise, sitting through Trog just to see this sequence, which is pretty much the only thing worthwhile about the film, requires extreme patience.

Trog, for those who don't know, is short for troglodyte. Trog is also a guy wearing a monkey mask who eats rubber lizards and dreams about dinosaur stock footage. Notorious for being Joan Crawford's final film, as well as for being one of the all-time great "so bad it's good" movies. Every scene with Trog will have you in stitches.

Joan takes her role seriously, which must have been hard. For all of her character's talk about how Trog is more human than animal, she treats him like a dog ("Good boy, Trog"). Michael Gough plays to the rafters as the guy with a hard-on for killing poor Trog. It's an obsession with him. When we first meet him, he's yelling Trog is a hoax. When Trog's existence is proved, he immediately starts yelling to kill it. I can't remember the last time I saw such a cardboard antagonist as this. He exists solely to be a thorn in the side of Crawford and Trog. Surprisingly, this was directed by Freddie Francis, a director who made a lot of movies for Hammer and Amicus. Most of them pretty good. He also won two Oscars as a cinematographer.

It's a bad movie on technical and artistic levels, to be sure. But it is also entertaining, which should be the ultimate goal of any movie of this type. I've seen far, far worse movies than this. If you enjoy cheesy Z-grade flicks you'll get a kick out of Trog.

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 Berserk! 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 troglodyte--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 amok--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 embarrassment 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

TROG is a legendary poorly-made, silly film about an anthropologist who finds a troglodyte and takes it to her laboratory, where she seeks to domesticate it. The title of the film derives from the name given to the creature by the scientist.

There is some underlying social commentary about the rights of the creature to a life. This is mainly played out in the form of a court hearing. It isn't well-handled, though.

For reasons unknown the film has garnered something of a cult following, with some seeing it as a "so bad it's good" type of film. Trouble is that the film is very boring indeed and is really only livened up a bit by Michael Gough's performance as the man who wants the creature to be killed due to it being, in his view, a threat to the local populace. Some other interesting things happen towards the end, which I can't really discuss without giving anything away, suffice to say it doesn't last very long.

I guess there is some unintentional humour to be derived from the inclusion of footage of dinosaurs fighting (taken from some other film). But I didn't laugh; I was just bored and bewildered.

It is sad that Joan Crawford plays out her last big screen performance in this lousy film because she gives a good performance, as one would expect.

Overall, TROG is lousy. The presence of Joan Crawford and Michael Gough led me to suspect that it might have been better than people say. But it isn't. The people who say this film is bad are right.

Ya, it's a pretty bad movie. But as far as really bad movies go, this one is great fun to watch!

Joan Crawford out-acts everyone else in the film to the point that she seems to be parodying herself, especially during the pseudo-philosophical scenes where she speculates about what makes us human. And Michael Gough is outstanding in his complex role as "the guy who wants Trog dead".

But Trog himself is the funniest part of the movie. Whether he's swaying to classical music, over-turning cars, walloping someone with his hairy forearms, or just dreaming about the good old days, Trog will have you in stitches. And if you don't find it funny, at least you'll be completely bewildered that someone actually made this movie.

I have been watching Joan Crawford movies all month and I have finally come to TROG. This is not my first time at the rodeo, but I sure had a different perspective on it this time around. The same happened with Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. I found the characters quite tragic. Most of Joan's movies, starting with her Warner years don't really end on a happy note, and this movie sure fits the bill with poor Trog. It very much has a Planet of the Apes and Escape From TPOTA feel to the story with Trog trying to fit in with society. News flash-it doesn't work out to well. As for Joan Crawford, she played the star to the end as she walks off into the sunset. Imo I don't really think this movie is camp. It's quite bad but it's also quite good. If you are not looking for an Oscar-worthy movie but want to have a good time, watch Trog and watch some old Joan Crawford movies. Recommended.

I love that they didn't even bother to paint Trog's body skin to match his face. He just plogs along with his fuzzy houseshoes and sleeveless tunic. Make sure you stay around for the end. Trog Goes to Town is not to be missed. Really the script is not half bad, and Joan Crawford's performance is surprisingly understated. She portrays an intelligent, successful doctor who, predictably, is ridiculed by the politicians and military. Michael Gough is at his most caustic and obnoxious, but of course, he gets his just deserts.

Poor Trog... King Kong had the whole of New York to trash and The Empire State to climb. Godzilla has Tokyo to flatten. Even Gorgo and Konga got smash little bits out of old London town. The creature from The Quatermass Experiment traveled from London Zoo to Westminster church leaving a slimy trail, but what about poor Trog, what has he got? Well... I will tell you. Two shops in a boring sleepy village in the English country side. Look, here he is in the local fruit and veg shop, I wouldn't say he's tearing the place apart but he is definitely breaking a small number of boxes both wooden and cardboard, he is also bruising an awful lot of the shop's produce as well. Next he takes an intense dislike to the butchers next door, but now he has run out of shops to violate because his village doesn't even have a little corner shop or a post office. What would have happened if he had arrived on a Wednesday afternoon or between the the hours of 12:30 and 1:00 O'Clock, would we find Trog in line with a variety of bored housewives and aged pensioners waiting a bit of furtive retail action, I fear so, poor Trog.

Trog is short for Troglodyte, so named by the film's star Joan Crawford. Trog is a murderous hundred thousand year old Neanderthal man with the mind of a small child, recently defrosted from the ice age, Trog lives in a deep underground cave existing on melt water and cold fish heads which come to think of it, is probably why he took a funny turn in front of all those meat carcases hanging in the local butcher's shop, poor old Trog.

You must understand that Trog's attack on the village is like Kong's visit to NY and Godzilla's arrival in Tokyo, this the film's exciting climax. Up till now Tog has spent the entire time of the film either down a pot hole, in a cage or in the local park playing ball with Joan Crawford and a friend. At this point you must be wondering if I am starting to make things up and I can only promise you I have never been more serious. Joan is trying to domesticate Trog to develop his latent intelligence and prove that he a missing link between apes and monkeys, on one side and you and me on the other.

Rather more you then me I would like to think... Anyway Joan has been having a tremendous success with Trog with little more then a kind world, a happy encouraging smile and a bucket load of ice cold fish heads. Encouraged by Trog's progress she takes him down to the local park as you would with a dribbling homicidal murderous Neanderthal with the intelligence of a small child.

"Fetch the ball Trog, fetch!" Joan emotes very loudly.

It all goes horribly wrong when Michael Gough who must have been miffed that his own campy act has been sidelined and outclassed by Joan, decides to brake into the house and release Trog to the world or least to a small village high street in the home counties. Gough is dispatched by Trog in the only startling scene the film possesses and the only reminder that this is horror legend Freddy Francis directing.

The 1960s Renaissance of British film had for the most part been funded by American studio money. Buy the late sixties the American industry was in more then just financial trouble. The problem was actually more cultural and generational, It no longer understood what it's youthful audience wanted to see and so the outward arms of the industry contracted while it tried to work out it's own problems. Actors and directors working working in the UK were starting to realize they had to take what they could to survive. Freddy Fancis' career centered around British Hammer horror productions. But films like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist from 1968 and 73, both from youthful directors of the new age, showed the audience what unsightly horrors existed beyond the cosy world of Hammer's Gothic fairy tales. By 1970 taking what you could get looked increasingly like Herman Cohen's production of Trog.

I think that Trog must be the worst film Crawford stared in, it is the last film she performed in and with the exception of a television production in 1972, the last thing she ever appeared in and I have a feeling these two facts are not unconnected. Joan's career stretches back to the silents and rummer has it that she started with a small role in a erotic short called the Casting Couch. By the thirties she was dancing and staring in stage musical films with Clark Gable with her name above both the title and the male lead. But it is in the late 40s and though most of the fifties that her screen image cemented in the woman's picture. Titles like This Woman is Dangerous and The dammed Don't Cry tell much more about themselves then any plot synopsis. Joan played women who were strong powerful, defiant, they were also blinked, unforgiving and manic in intensity. Her characters were cracked in ways that touched deeply the unspoken needs and fears of her audience and that learned her respect and the admiration of women every where.

But by the sixties, like most actors from the Golden era her career was slipping so fast it was starting to feel like free fall. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Made in 1963, Changed all that,the film was a tremendous success, she was a queen again and Hollywood was her country. It was still perfection even if it was shared equally with the hated Betty Davis. In this two hander Betty was the obvious choice to star against Crawford. There careers and film characters were alike, although Davis was a more intelligent actor and the more diversely talented, her career had slowed down too, they both needed a hit. Never having shared a screen they had long disliked each other from afar. Now they were eyeball to eyeball. There is a 450 page book and a complete television series based on just how much they hated each other and what happened when they worked together that one time. Their contempt for each other was well known in and out of the industry and the film was cast with this in mind. You could have filmed them in a mud fight with equal success because of the way it exploits their status. We look on with horror and delight as they hack away at each other's reputations playing delusional has-beens in this cheep but very well directed, black and white horror film. There are elements of Psycho and Sunset Boulevard swilling though the film, along with the desire shared by all three productions to reap the benefits of appearing to go down market.

But you can only take a slice of your reputation the one time, once torn down it stays d own, specially when it comes to simple spectacle. Audiences arrived to watch their favorite actors speak in the first talkies and then turned away, forever. Universal's monsters appeared with Abbot and Costello to great success but those monsters would not play again. Joan and Betty's career didn't go quite the same way as Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster,they still worked and they were still stars but their domain had shrunken to a kind of Hollywood hell, condemned to repeat the same formula chasing the same audience for the same success. They were chasing down the circles of Hollywoodland.

Betty Davis made Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte this time with Olivia de Havilland, Davis plays identical twin sisters the one murdering and replacing the other in Dead Ringers and effectively repeating her role and replacing Joan's in the picture. She did two films for Hammer in England, playing a child murdering nanny in Black and white and in The Anniversary she is a one eyed and even more foul minded version of Margo from All About Eve, which defiantly feels like a low point when you are confronted by the film on a late night viewing. But she stuck around cinema eventually becoming a formidable character actor and a living legend with a long unforgiving memory.

Joan Crawford turned down Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte but worked for low rent producer William Castle on two films Strait-Jacket, a film that "vividly depicts ax murders" Castle hopefully warns his audience and I Saw What You Did which has her involved with another murder plot. From one trash merchant to another Joan worked in England but not for Hammer but for Herman Cohen who had all ready produced Kongo and The horrors of the Black Museum in England and I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein in America, as if didn't know what she was getting herself into. These last two films are Berserk, where Joan plays a circus owner who lusts after a young muscular wire walker played by an actor disastrously named Ty Hardin, when you see his performance you do wish he could remember his own name and then of course our own dearly beloved Trog.

Poor Trog.