Anthropologist Dr. Brockton unearths a primitive troglodyte -- an Ice Age "missing link": half-caveman, half-ape -- in a local cave. Through medical experimentation, she manages to communicate with him and domesticate him before he's let loose by an irate land developer and goes on a rampage, terrorizing the local citizenry.
Trog - Das Ungeheuer, L'abominable homme des cavernes, Il terrore di Londra, Das Ungeheuer, A majomember, 类人猿, La caverna del terror, Trog: A Caverna do Homem Monstro, 트로그
UK
Germany12
Ireland15
Germany
Ireland
UK
monkey mondays #40
trog is one of those characters you feel like you’ve known your whole life
The journey into the distant past through Trog's memories may look corny and goofy to you, but it's everything I want in a t. rex/stegosaur fight.
It’s campy. It’s serious. It’s Joan Crawfords last performance on film. It’s about a half-man, half-ape hybrid who’s discovery will advance the study of anthropology- no- science, forever! It’s unassumingly helmed by Freddie Francis (DoP on The Innocents, Lynch’s Dune)... you’d never know. It’s cribbage of other iconic monster flicks will have you shaking your head. It’s all but halted half-way through for a 10-mins. claymation sequence on the evolution of dinos??? It’s actually quite cute... I want one. It’s either a feminist classic in disguise or the least believable attempt at a creature feature I’ve ever seen (that costume!!). It’s proving hairy to talk about in any great detail. What else can I say? It’s Trog.
Just went on a relentless 3-day work trip and decided to reward myself with something fun, so I watched Trog.
In all seriousness, the 2.4 rating it has doesn't do the movie justice. I mean, come on! Where else could you see a film so bold, so unabashedly committed to its campy narrative? It’s not the best or worst thing humanity has produced, but it knows exactly what it is. The whole thing makes as much sense as climbing a fruitless coconut tree, and that's completely okay. It's earnest, brazen, absurd, and naturally enjoyable. If I were Joan Crawford, I too would have wanted Trog as my swan song. This is the most unserious "serious" movie I've seen in a long while, and I adore it for that.
Big thanks to Nicha for shining a spotlight on this. Such a great schlock gem. I can see why it's one of your favorites, haha.
pulls a few elements from Planet of the Apes and hammer horror but not enough of them to cover up how lazily it's hitting its derivative beats from way better scientist/monster movies. largely boring and the fx look very cheap but it's also got joan crawford and a scene where it does its own variation on the dinosaur segment from Tree of Life.
"That's wonderful Trog.... that's wonderful." - Dr. Brockton,
TROG!!!!!!
A team of scientists find the missing link, take care of him and domesticate him, and then because of some asshole things go ape shit. This is a classic low budget monster flick with fun themes regarding the dangers of science, human dominion over animals, etc. but it also has a dude in an ill fitting mask grunting... so it's pretty great. Joan Crawford is fantastic as always in the scientist role and the film has a nice pace to it... I was never really bored.
Could be better but fun for people that like low budget monster movies.
Joan Crawford's final big screen appearance is in Trog, in which she plays an anthropologist studying a newly discovered troglodyte found living in a cave in the U.K.
One must, at first, adjust oneself to seeing a classic screen actress, such as Joan Crawford, in color, in a variety of colorful outfits, in a British film, spouting scientific jargon. After that, you can enjoy it for what it is: junk food for the brain. It lies somewhere between campy and good. The trog costume was notoriously "borrowed" from 2001: A Space Odyssey and doesn't try to hide it. The whole thing is played straight up, it's us the viewer who recognize the mockability factor now, years later.
I love Joan Crawford and feel badly that she was embarrassed by her last film, but maybe she'd be happy to know that audiences are still enjoying it all these years later.
Joan Crawford loves and cares for a prehistoric man in the 1970 instructional film, "How NOT to be a Scientist."
"Now what can you really say about a movie where Joan Crawford, dressed in an immaculate beige pantsuit, hunts through a cave shouting: 'Trog! Here, Trog!' to her pet troglodyte? A scene like that surpasses absurdity, and so does this movie." - Roger Ebert
I watched Trog exactly as director Freddie Francis surely intended: eyes half glazed over from Thanksgiving tryptophan, uncertain why anything was happening onscreen. As terrible as it all seems, I still can't in good conscience give the film a lower score than, say, Close to My Heart or The Gore Gore Girls. Even a prehistoric missing link could see that the worst parts of Joan Crawford's swan song are hilarious (Joan performing brain surgery on Trog…
A compelling character study that stands the test of time. Tackles many themes, either explicitly or implicitly. From misogyny in the scientific community to accepting your sexuality. Director Freddie Frances does a wonderful job bringing all these themes together, without it feeling crowded or forced. A true forgotten epic!
How is this not the movie Joan Crawford is most known for?
An infamous monster movie/camp classic that I'd heard about for years, it floats on the inherently humorous nature of the word "Trog" (repeated ad infinitum throughout the film almost always as if it were a normal name) and Joan Crawford's bizarre presence, really picking up speed when she breaks out the voice she used to use on Christina in order to scold the monster. But hey, by the standards of this dubious form of entertainment you could do much worse, and I was delighted to see reverse echoes of everything from ET to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Trog and Leatherface have similar theories regarding the ideal use of hanging meat hooks), as well as a fun performance from Michael Gough as the story's resident grouchy conservative type who wants to see Trog destroyed on general principle. I bet this absolutely kills with a crowd.
