Distributors Corporation of America released The Crawling Eye in the US on 31 December 1958. Eros Films released it somewhat earlier in the UK but I don’t have details. Tempean Films originally called it The Trollenberg Terror (which is awful).
Most people know this film because of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was the first film featured when the show moved to Comedy Central. As a result, it isn’t ruined. That season, the guys allowed viewers to enjoy the film and the riffing. Starting with the second season, the show was so riff-heavy that it was almost impossible to enjoy the film.
But I still think I have to clean up every film that was ever featured on the show. I discussed this in Who Mourns for Arch Hall? People just assume that any film the show used must be bad. It’s just not true. I encourage people to go over to RiffTrax. Roughly a third of the films they’ve done are “blockbusters.” You will see that films most people considered great are there.
Helpful tip: it isn’t hard to nitpick any and every film ever. For example, they did Casablanca. I don’t have much respect for the guys. But what they do doesn’t say anything about the quality of the film.
The Crawling Eye is a surprisingly good film. As usual with MST3K, the print they used is terrible. So it is hard to like the film even if they weren’t interrupting.
Luckily, I’ve found a solid print of it. It is similar in quality to the classic The Thing from Another World. Yes, the special effects are kind of weak. But the story is great. And the acting and directing are first-rate. You owe it to yourself to watch it — especially if you’ve only seen the MST3K treatment!
The Crawling Eye (1958) via IMDb under Fair Use.