Trog (1970)

Director:

Freddie Francis

Writers:

Peter Bryan (story)
John Gilling (story)
(more)

Release Date:

24 October 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Horror

Tagline:

From a million years back...Horror explodes into today!

Plot:

A sympathetic anthropologists uses drugs and surgery to try to communicate with a primitive troglodyte who is found living in a local cave.

Plot Keywords:

Rampage | Troglodyte | Ape Man | Dinosaur | Meat Hook

Cast

Joan Crawford	...	Dr. Brockton
Michael Gough	...	Sam Murdock
Bernard Kay	...	Inspector Greenham
Kim Braden	...	Anne Brockton
David Griffin	...	Malcolm Travers
John Hamill	...	Cliff
Thorley Walters	...	Magistrate
Jack May	...	Dr. Selbourne
Geoffrey Case	...	Bill
Robert Hutton	...	Dr. Richard Warren
Simon Lack	...	Colonel Vickers
David Warbeck	...	Alan Davis
Chloe Franks	...	Little Girl
Maurice Good	...	Reporter
Joe Cornelius	...	Trog
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Baker	...	Anaesthetist (uncredited)
Golda Casimir	...	Professor (uncredited)
Herman Cohen	...	Bartender (uncredited)
John D. Collins	...	TV crewman watching monitor (uncredited)
Shirley Cooklin	...	Little Girl's Mother (uncredited)
Robert Crewdson	...	Dr. Pierre Duval (uncredited)
Pat Gorman	...	Army Officer (uncredited)
Brian Grellis	...	John Dennis (uncredited)
Paul Hansard	...	Dr. Kurtlimer (uncredited)
Bartlett Mullins	...	Butcher (uncredited)
Rona Newton-John	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Cleo Sylvestre	...	Nurse (uncredited)

Directed by
Freddie Francis

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peter Bryan		story
John Gilling		story
Aben Kandel		writer

Produced by
Herman Cohen	....	producer
Harry Woolveridge	....	associate producer

Original Music by
John Scott

Cinematography by
Desmond Dickinson

Film Editing by
Oswald Hafenrichter

Casting by
Maude Spector

Art Direction by
Geoffrey Tozer

Set Decoration by
Helen Thomas

Makeup Department
Jimmy Evans	....	makeup artist
Pearl Tipaldi	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Edward Dorian	....	production manager (as Eddie Dorian)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Douglas Hermes	....	assistant director

Art Department
Terry Wells	....	stand-by property master (uncredited)

Sound Department
Maurice Askew	....	sound
Tony Dawe	....	sound
Michael P. Redbourn	....	sound editor (as Michael Redbourn)

Camera and Electrical Department
Norman Jones	....	camera operator
Jim Alloway	....	focus puller (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ron Beck	....	wardrober

Music Department
John Scott	....	conductor

Other crew
Brian Brockwell	....	accountant
Leonora Hail	....	continuity
Charles E. Parker	....	monster design

Production Companies

• Herman Cohen Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros. (1970) (UK) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. Pictures (1970) (USA) (theatrical)
• CBS Television (1972) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Warner Home Video (1985) (UK) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Lee Lighting  lighting

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:AA (original rating) | Australia:M | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG

Company:

Herman Cohen Productions

Trivia:

The ratty ape suit is a leftover monkey outfit from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Goofs:

Factual errors: Under sodium pentothal, Trog "remembers" seeing dinosaurs...impossible, since they went extinct 30 million years before the first ape, let alone the first "ape-man", evolved.

Quotes:

Dr. Brockton: Malcolm, get me my hypo-gun - quickly!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "TCM Underground: Berserk!/Trog (#1.23)" (2007)

A movie based on a costume from 2001 that someone found in the garbage

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.