It's Short For Troglodyte!

One of my guilty cinema pleasures is Trog. This delightfully offbeat 1970 flick is the story of a lonely cave dweller (a "Troglodyte") who after thousands of years trapped in suspended animation in a glacier comes back to life stranded in a cave only to be discovered by some hapless spelunkers one of whom he promptly kills. It is the heart-wrenching tale of a creature thrust into the modern world against his will and who seeks only some connection with another intelligent being so appease his aching loneliness.

Sounds like a pretty good movie, and it is a lot of fun, but most folks would not categorize Trog as a "good movie". If so then only in the so-bad-it's-good zone. What weighs down this movie almost from the beginning is a lack of funds, though I for one am impressed at the quality of what does get onto the screen. There was apparently little money for special effects, so the make-up on Joe Cornelius, the actor who portrays the forlorn caveman, is pretty wretched when seen from certain angles. But then I think it's pretty decent when seen from others.

The movie is also famous as the last leading part for Silver Screen legend Joan Crawford, who is a mighty trooper in this flick. I always admire actors who act, in whatever capacity and in whatever vehicle, and I try not to hold the quality of a movie against them when it's clear they had little control over anything other than their own part. Crawford here ruggedly pushes through the story, but due to limited funds was forced to use her own wardrobe for the part which creates some distracting color combos in some delicate scenes.

But let me say more about what goes on in this one. I divide Trog into three parts: the Discovery, the Domestication, and the Destruction. Follow me please as we work our way through this epic tale of love and war across the millennium.

The DISCOVERY: This is perhaps my favorite part of the movie. Freddie Francis, the director does a wonderful job as we follow three hale and hearty cave explorers as they find and plumb the depths of a new opening they chance upon. It takes stout hearts to squeeze their way down into the first chamber and even then they must strip and enter dark and freezing water to find the isolated chamber which holds a deadly secret. Two of the three brave the depths, crossing over into an "undiscovered country" which sadly results in one of them ending up dead and the other mad. They find Trog, a caveman who has apparently just awakened after eons of pleasant suspended animated slumber. Enter Dr. Brockton  (Joan Crawford), a local primate specialist who immediately wishes to see the creature for herself and convinces the lone healthy survivor of the original trio to show her the way. How she got into the cave is anyone's guess, but the movie conveniently skips that indignity. Brockton snaps a photo of Trog which unleashes an avalanche of publicity and raw fear. The townspeople converge on the dark maw into the Earth's underworld and set up police cordons and TV cameras to simultaneously limit and probe the mystery. Men are sent down but there is more death and the TV crews beat a hasty retreat as Trog emerges into the sun for the first time in ages only to fall victim himself to Brockton's tranquilizer gun.

The DOMESTICATION: Trog is then shunted into a cage and is chained to the floor as Brockton attempts to communicate and apparently train him in the ways of the modern world. This is some of the most hilarious stuff in the flick as the  tests they put poor Trog through seem downright weird and lack any sense of scientific rigor that I can detect. Brockton's daughter Ann is front and center in this training as is Malcolm, the handsome survivor of the original trio of spelunkers. Anne, a lovely blonde seems to be of particular interest to Trog, following a long cinematic tradition begun with the mighty Kong no less. Trog is confronted with a nest of modern toys and they even try to teach him his colors at one point. He doesn't seem to know blue, likes green, and but gets violent when he sees red. They teach him literally to fetch, but that brings him into conflict with a local dog which sadly he kills. All the time that this is going on a local townsman named Sam Murdock (Michael Gough at his scene-chewing best) is simultaneously fearful and hateful of Trog and wants him destroyed. Murdock seems a thoroughly awful man and aside from some assumed self-loathing it's a bit hard to determine what motivates him save perhaps for a fear of science and the modern world. Also on hand is a Dr.Selbourne who works for Brockton but out of jealousy turns against her at a hearing and gets canned. A bunch of learned folk descend on the Brockton Institute to observe Trog and promptly operate on him inserting all sorts of gear, some of which allows him to speak briefly. It's during this phase that the single stupidest thing in the movie occurs, the "scientists" show Trog skeletons of dinosaurs which they assume will trigger his memory. Even a reasonably intelligent schoolboy knows this is now proper prehistory, but nonetheless they proceed. This does oddly trigger a "memory" in Trog which we get to see, and it's really some stop-motion dinosaurs battling it out by way of another movie by Irwin Allen titled The Animal World.

The DESTRUCTION: After all this Murdock fears that Trog will be allowed to live, so he goes to institute, attacks a policeman, and frees Trog who promptly and quite properly kill him. On the loose now, Trog seem to find an alternately alarmed and tranquil village where he encounters a grocer and a butcher. He dispatches both, the butcher in an especially hideous manner. He encounters a car which he attacks and turns over and which then inexplicably blows up. He stumbles onto the playground (like I said, the alarm seems to not have spread to the whole town despite the many klaxons blaring from time to time) and kidnaps a lovely blonde girl who I think might actually be the daughter of the awful Murdock. He takes her back to his cave. The TV cameras and townspeople return to the cave, this time with the military to boot. They are plotting ways to get to Trog to kill him, but Brockton against orders descends and rescues the girl, appealing to Trog's gentler nature. Sadly when she returns topside, the army descends in mass and Trog is killed in a brutal wave of gunfire, which causes the caveman to fall impaling himself on a pointy stalagmite. Brockton walks away in utter sadness.

So as you can see there is quite a lot going on in this notorious movie. It's a film put together by and featuring professionals. The editing is crisp if obvious (track Crawford's pantsuits and you can almost figure out the shooting schedule) and the acting is broad, but done with proper conviction. There is not hint by those involved that they are in an embarrassing movie. There is only diligent attention to detail and craft, the mark of any worthy effort. For that I admire Trog; for all its weaknesses as a film, it does what it's supposed to do, entertain. It properly transports the viewer to another world and time, not unlike its hapless star Trog himself. The fact that the movie is unintentionally goofy is not what is primarily important. The movie and the participants take themselves seriously and that's sufficient even though we as audience far removed from that time can find all manner of fun with the production.

Find and watch Trog, enjoy it. Don't hate it for what it is not. Let us not make the same mistake with this delightful flick that the hateful Murdock did with Trog, let's appreciate this wild and brazen creation for what it is.

Here's a cover for For Monsters Only by Jeff Jones featuring the one and only Trog. Alas, there's more atmosphere in this cover art than in the entire movie. Sigh. 

(Dick Giordano)

And before I leave the topic, I've mentioned before how in my estimation the Atlas-Seaboard comic The Brute draws a great deal of inspiration from Trog. The Brute might be bigger and stronger and is clearly meant in the long run to be a parallel to The Hulk from Marvel, but the way in which he is discovered underground in the first issue is incredibly similar to the plot of the movie. 

This is a revised Dojo classic re-post.  

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Schlock!

Schlock is not really a good movie except in places here and there. It's a wannabe comedy send up of monster flicks (especially the movie Trog) but it's done on a micro-budget over a long stretch of time. The director is John Landis who would eventually find fame with Animal House and American Werewolf in London among other films, but this is his first. The costume of the "Schlockthropus" is the main reason this little lowest-budget flick has a standing. Designed and constructed by Rick Baker who'd go on to work on many a feature including the 70's remake of King Kong. 

I want to say nice things about this movie and I've been curious about it for years. But seeing it, I was charmed by the gumption it took to make some of the scenes happen, but the cast is almost all amateur and the pacing of the gags is just plain too slow almost all of the time. Some of that is that while made in 1971 the movie was not released until a few years later when Jack C. Harris saw Landis on The Tonight Show with a few clips and saw a chance to make a few bucks on what seemed to be a nifty critter or something like that. A few new scenes were added for length and that's the core problem. There's not enough here, as this is essentially a ten-minute gag routine expanded into a feature.

It's worth your time for sure, especially anyone who is a fan of this genre, but adjust your settings down for sure. Some wold argue that Trog could not be parodied, but I'm a fan of Trog for all its silliness and this movie is treading a bit on holy ground for me.

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Trog!

One of my guilty cinema pleasures is Trog.  I've referenced it a few times here and here, but never properly reviewed it. After just seeing again on TCM, I'm filled with This delightfully offbeat 1970 flick is the story of a lonely cave dweller (a "Troglogdyte") who after thousands of years trapped in suspended animation in a glacier comes back to life stranded in a cave only to be discovered by some hapless spelunkers one of whom he promptly kills. It is the heart-wrenching tale of a creature thrust into the modern world against his will and who seeks only some connection with another intelligent being so appease his aching loneliness.

Sounds like a pretty good movie, and it is a lot of fun, but most folks would not categorize Trog as a "good movie". If so then only in the so-bad-it's-good zone. What weighs down this movie almost from the beginning is a lack of funds, though I for one am impressed at the quality of what does get onto the screen. There was apparently little money for special effects, so the make-up on Joe Cornelius, the actor who portrays the forlorn caveman, is pretty wretched when seen from certain angles. But then I think it's pretty decent when seen from others.

The movie is also famous as the last leading part for Silver Screen legend Joan Crawford, who is a mighty trooper in this flick. I always admire actors who act, in whatever capacity and in whatever vehicle, and I try not to hold the quality of a movie against them when it's clear they had little control over anything other than their own part. Crawford here ruggedly pushes through the story, but due to limited funds was forced to use her own wardrobe for the part which creates some distracting color combos in some delicate scenes.

But let me say more about what goes on in this one. I divide Trog into three parts: the Discovery, the Domestication, and the Destruction. Follow me please as we work our way through this epic tale of love and war across the millennium.

The DISCOVERY: This is perhaps my favorite part of the movie. Freddie Francis, the director does a wonderful job as we follow three hale and hearty cave explorers as they find and plumb the depths of a new opening they chance upon. It takes stout hearts to squeeze their way down into the first chamber and even then they must strip and enter dark and freezing water to find the isolated chamber which holds a deadly secret. Two of the three brave the depths, crossing over into an "undiscovered country" which sadly results in one of them ending up dead and the other mad. They find Trog, a caveman who has apparently just awakened after eons of pleasant suspended animated slumber. Enter Dr. Brockton  (Joan Crawford), a local primate specialist who immediately wishes to see the creature for herself and convinces the lone healthy survivor of the original trio to show her the way. How she got into the cave is anyone's guess, but the movie conveniently skips that indignity. Brockton snaps a photo of Trog which unleashes an avalanche of publicity and raw fear. The townspeople converge on the dark maw into the Earth's underworld and set up police cordons and TV cameras to simultaneously limit and probe the mystery. Men are sent down but there is more death and the TV crews beat a hasty retreat as Trog emerges into the sun for the first time in ages only to fall victim himself to Brockton's tranquilizer gun.

The DOMESTICATION: Trog is then shunted into a cage and is chained to the floor as Brockton attempts to communicate and apparently train him in the ways of the modern world. This is some of the most hilarious stuff in the flick as the  tests they put poor Trog through seem downright weird and lack any sense of scientific rigor that I can detect. Brockton's daughter Ann is front and center in this training as is Malcolm, the handsome survivor of the original trio of spelunkers. Anne, a lovely blonde seems to be of particular interest to Trog, following a long cinematic tradition begun with the mighty Kong no less. Trog is confronted with a nest of modern toys and they even try to teach him his colors at one point. He doesn't seem to know blue, likes green, and but gets violent when he sees red. They teach him literally to fetch, but that brings him into conflict with a local dog which sadly he kills. All the time that this is going on a local townsman named Sam Murdock (Michael Gough at his scene-chewing best) is simultaneously fearful and hateful of Trog and wants him destroyed. Murdock seems a thoroughly awful man and aside from some assumed self-loathing it's a bit hard to determine what motivates him save perhaps for a fear of science and the modern world. Also on hand is a Dr.Selbourne who works for Brockton but out of jealousy turns against her at a hearing and gets canned. A bunch of learned folk descend on the Brockton Institute to observe Trog and promptly operate on him inserting all sorts of gear, some of which allows him to speak briefly. It's during this phase that the single stupidest thing in the movie occurs, the "scientists" show Trog skeletons of dinosaurs which they assume will trigger his memory. Even a reasonably intelligent schoolboy knows this is now proper prehistory, but nonetheless they proceed. This does oddly trigger a "memory" in Trog which we get to see, and it's really some stop-motion dinosaurs battling it out by way of another movie by Irwin Allen titled The Animal World.

The DESTRUCTION: After all this Murdock fears that Trog will be allowed to live, so he goes to institute, attacks a policeman, and frees Trog who promptly and quite properly kill him. On the loose now, Trog seem to find an alternately alarmed and tranquil village where he encounters a grocer and a butcher. He dispatches both, the butcher in an especially hideous manner. He encounters a car which he attacks and turns over and which then inexplicably blows up. He stumbles onto the playground (like I said, the alarm seems to not have spread to the whole town despite the many klaxons blaring from time to time) and kidnaps a lovely blonde girl who I think might actually be the daughter of the awful Murdock. He takes her back to his cave. The TV cameras and townspeople return to the cave, this time with the military to boot. They are plotting ways to get to Trog to kill him, but Brockton against orders descends and rescues the girl, appealing to Trog's gentler nature. Sadly when she returns topside, the army descends in mass and Trog is killed in a brutal wave of gunfire, which causes the caveman to fall impaling himself on a pointy stalagmite. Brockton walks away in utter sadness.

So as you can see there is quite a lot going on in this notorious movie. It's a film put together by and featuring professionals. The editing is crisp if obvious (track Crawford's pantsuits and you can almost figure out the shooting schedule) and the acting is broad, but done with proper conviction. There is not hint by those involved that they are in an embarrassing movie. There is only diligent attention to detail and craft, the mark of any worthy effort. For that I admire Trog; for all its weaknesses as a film, it does what it's supposed to do, entertain. It properly transports the viewer to another world and time, not unlike its hapless star Trog himself. The fact that the movie is unintentionally goofy is not what is primarily important. The movie and the participants take themselves seriously and that's sufficient even though we as audience far removed from that time can find all manner of fun with the production.

Find and watch Trog, enjoy it. Don't hate it for what it is not. Lets' not make the same mistake with this delightful flick that the hateful Murdock did with Trog, let's appreciate this wild and brazen creation for what it is.

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Konga Weeps!

Michael Gough, the superb character actor has passed away. Here's a link to an overview of the career of the late Mr.Gough. He's stolen so many movies away from so many big actors, it's difficult to remember them all.


I most remember Gough mostly for his delicious turn as the mad scientist in Konga and his later role as the wildly outraged townsman in Trog.


He showed up in many a flick, always with that distinctive voice and always grimacing as if those around him gave him physical pain. He was a delightfully grumpy screen presence.


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The Iceman Seeneth!

I caught the movie Iceman on television the other day. I caught just at the beginning not really knowing what it was, but impressed by the scenario which presented as serious science fiction rooted in a very realistic if peculiar setting. The characters were offbeat and the dialogue seemed serious but still accessible, and gave a real sense of actual science being discussed.


The movie stars John Lone (who I most remember as the great villain Shiwan Khan in the 90's The Shadow movie) as a Neanderthal found frozen and taken to a pretty lavish and exceedingly well-equipped lab complex in the arctic wastes. It turns out he's alive through a means mysterious and one which invites a desire to cut him up to find his secret. An eccentric anthropologist played by Timothy Hutton tries to make contact with the displaced and terrified "Iceman" and that is the core of the story, how these two connect and begin to come to some accommodation about what is the right thing to do for a man disconnected from his world by perhaps forty thousand years.

One of the best things about this smart flick is that there are no "villains". There are competing interests in "Charlie" as they dub the Neanderthal, but none of the characters gets portrayed as venal baddie for the sake of simple melodrama. It's a clever script, and a smart bit of direction that makes the most of a very limited setting. Because no one is allowed to fall into any classic roles, the tension on the story is very high as the outcome is very unpredictable. I never saw it coming I have to say.


The movie that most quickly comes to mind in comparison is the outlandish Trog, a fave of mine. Where the movie Iceman tries to render a serious speculation about a "caveman" uprooted from his world and thrust into a 20th century one, Trog is a raving romp that gives its vibrant cast enough scene-chewing for any ten movies. When you have Joan Crawford and Michael Gough in the same scene it's hard to put enough stuff in it for them to munch on.


I'm convinced Trog was the inspiration for Michael Fliesher when he came up with Atlas-Seaboard's Brute comic book. The origins are exceedingly similar save that the Brute is a giant (of constantly varying proportions) and blue.

But while Trog is a stupid and guilty pleasure of mine, I'll have to add Iceman as a movie that takes the same themes and gives them an honest and compelling spin.

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The Brute That Conquered The World!

One vintage Japanese monster flick that has always eluded me was Frankenstein Conquers the World (one of the great titles in all the history of hyperbole). Its "sequel", War of the Gargantuas (starring Russ Tamblyn of West Side Story fame) was a movie I saw a lot when I was young as it played on TV all the time. I later learned this rather athletic Japanese monster movie was a the follow-up to the earlier "Frankenstein" movie, a movie I'd read about in Famous Monsters of Filmland. But this one never played on TV, or at least never around me. Being a fan of Frankenstein movies and of Godzilla movies, I naturally wanted to see this one, and when I read somewhere that it was originally the brainchild of Willis O'Brien the grandaddy of King Kong, I had to see it.

And I did finally, on TV some years ago.

And again just a few months ago after getting it on DVD. The Japanese title is the far less memorable Frankenstein Vs. Baragon but it is what it is. The DVD I picked up had three versions, the original Japanese version, the American version, and an extended International version (with extra Octopus action at the end that really confuses the plot terribly). I watched the Japanese version first and found it to be a surprisingly somber and nearly serious presentation, downright understated for a Kaiju flick. This one seemed to treat the material, which begins in around Hiroshima with a sober attitude that overcame the more common hijinks these movies had largely descended into by the 60's. This tone was more like the original Godzilla than anything else, and I found it fascinating. By contrast the American version is more quickly paced, drops some of the more somber subplots, and is more a bang-up monster fight flick. I prefer the original.

Now what's this to do with comics?




Well, for a long time I've always assumed that Atlas-Seaboard's comic The Brute by Michael Fleisher, Mike Sekowsky, and Pablo Marcos was based on Trog the 60's movie about a subterranean caveman who gets lose and tears up an English village. It's a hoot of flick itself, and the parallels to Brute are obvious. But one review of Brute suggested that Frankenstein Conquers the World was also an influence. And after watching this movie carefully now, I'd have to concur. The Brute in some scenes is suggested to be a giant (the debut cover no less)and his conflicts with the police are rather like the Frankenstein creature's battles in the movie. Both films have similar themes, monsters who are more than just savages despite their genetics and circumstances, and who are violent to no small extent due to the violence they are confronted with. I might have to read those Brute issues again and see what else might have been lifted from the Japanese classic.

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