Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Michael Gough, Bernard Kay, Kim Braden, David Griffin
Release Year: 1970
Country: UK
Run Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Anthropologist Dr. Brockton (Joan Crawford) believes she has discovered the missing link in this flat science fiction drama. The creature is found in a cave and brought to her laboratory to undergo tests for her research. The hairy beast with the face of a monkey loves classical music and hates rock & roll. When one of the slack-jawed yokels opens his cage, he escapes and goes on a killing rampage as he tries to return to his cave. In a gentle moment with a little girl, the beast shows a tender side that recalls a scene from Frankenstein. Soon troops are called in, despite Brockton's protest to entomb the creature by dynamiting the entrance to the cave. This was the last film for Joan Crawford, an inglorious way to end a legendary film career. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Joe Cornelius - Trog; John Hamill - Cliff; Thorley Walters - The Magistrate; Jack May - Dr. Selbourne; Geoffrey Case - Bill; Robert Hutton - Dr. Richard Warren; Simon Lack - Col. Vickers; David Warbeck - Alan Davis; Maurice Good - First Reporter; Golda Casimir - Butcher; Chloe Franks - Little Girl; Bartlett Mullins - Butcher; John Baker - Anaesthetist; Paul Hansard - Dr. Kurtlimer; Robert Crewdson - Dr. Pierre Duval; Brian Grellis - John Dennis; Cleo Sylvestre - Nurse
Credit
Geoffrey Tozer - Art Director, Douglas Hermes - First Assistant Director, Freddie Francis - Director, Oswald Hafenrichter - Editor, John Scott - Composer (Music Score), John Scott - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jimmy Evans - Makeup, Desmond Dickinson - Cinematographer, Herman Cohen - Producer, Helen Thomas - Set Designer, Tony Dawe - Sound/Sound Designer, Maurice Askew - Sound/Sound Designer, Peter Bryan - Screen Story, John Gilling - Screen Story, Aben Kandel - Screenwriter
When a primitive creature (Joe Cornelius) is discovered in a cave, anthropologist Dr. Brockton (Crawford) believes it is a Troglodyte - a prehistoric cave dweller - and wants to make a study of "Trog". The local townsfolk, led by religious zealot Sam Murdock (Michael Gough), oppose the plan and demand the creature be destroyed. Brockton removes Trog to her lab and begins an orientation and basic skills program with the help of her daughter Anne (Kim Braden). Though Brockton makes some progress, Murdock is determined to prove that the creature is an abomination and breaks into the lab at night, trashing the equipment and setting Trog free in order to frame the creature as a violent menace. He is killed by the angered Trog, who then goes on a misunderstood rampage (mostly acting in self-defence to people attacking or frightening him) and abducts a little girl (Chloe Franks). The authorities are now determined to kill him. Brockton saves the child but the police kill Trog in a hail of gunfire. When Brockton is offered an opportunity to comment on TV, she refuses. With a look of contempt and sadness, she walks away from the camera and into the distance.
Trog was the second of two movies that Crawford starred in for her friend, producer Herman Cohen. The first was Berserk! (1968). The stock footage dinosaur sequence in Trog was from the Warner Bros. movie Animal World (1956).
Reception
At the time of Trog's release, The New York Times panned the film but commented, "There is, however, a rudimentary virtue in "Trog"...in that it proves that Joan Crawford is grimly working at her craft. Unfortunately, the determined lady, who is fetching in a variety of chic pants suits and dresses, has little else going for her." [1]
Ned Daigle later commented, "Trog is truly ungodly. The performances are rotten, the Trog makeup is so bad it looks, at times, like it will slide right of the actor's face, and everything proceeds at a snail's pace to idiotic situations. It's really sad to see such a huge star [Crawford] be consigned to the Z-grade abyss of films like this. But, hey, a girl's gotta eat."[2]
