Trog makes me sad. Beyond the fact that it feels a lot like King Kong or Son of Kong - a doomed monster from our past just can't survive in today's horrible modern world - it's also depressing at times to watch Joan Crawford act her heart out in a film where no one else can come close to her power.That's not to say this is a bad film. It's perfectly enjoyable and well directed by genre vet Freddie Francis (Tales from the Crypt and plenty of other wonderful Amicus portmanteau films). And it's a quick moving, interesting film.But it's still sad.A troglodyte (TROG!) is found alive in the caves of England. Dr. Brockton (Crawford) has some success commmunicating with him and sees him as the missing link. However, her neighbors are not fans of her having a monster in her house, particularly after it kills a dog when it steals his ball.Local businessman Sam Murdock (Michael Gough, who appeared in plenty of Hammer films, as well as Alfred in the 80's and 90's Batman films) worries that the creature will negatively impact local business. But really, he has an issue with a woman being in charge.Meanwhile, Trog goes through multiple surgeries which enable him to learn how to communicate and there's a trippy sequence where we see into his mind, which is filled with memories of the Ice Age and dinosaurs.The court upholds Dr. Brockton's goal of teaching Trog, so Murdock sneaks in and lets him loose. He kills several people, including the businessman, before taking a little girl and retreating to his cave. Dr. Brockton is able to communicate with Trog and the girl goes free. Meanwhile, soldiers open fire on our titular caveperson and he falls to his death, impaled on a stalagmite.As Dr. Brockton leaves in tears, a reporter tries to interview her. She has no comment as she wander away.See? Depressing.Due to the films low budget, Crawford used her own clothes. And it shows. She's a beacon of fashion in a grimy town. She stands out like no one else. And speaking of suits, the one for Trog was left over from 2001: A Space Odyssey!This was Crawford's final film, but don't believe the TV show Feud: Bettte and Joan. She'd continue to act afterward, appearing in an epsiode of TV's The Sixth Sense called Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death. If you've ever listened to My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, that's where the sample on the song "A Daisy Chain for Satan Comes From." I'm glad I watched Trog. But the sad ending - and thinking of Joan changing in her car during the breaks in filming - make me a little misty eyed. That said, it's one of John Waters' favorite films, so there's that.

This movie was Joan Crawford's last screen appearance. She was effectively banished to this ultra-cheap British indie flick after bailing out of the filming of Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. It is a dreadful pity that her career should end on this very sour note.SPOILER: This is a horror movie in which the real horror is that you parted with money to see it. The only suspense is how much more bad dialogue and moronic plot you'll be willing to sit through. Simply put, the title character, Trog, is a troglodyte - a CroMagnon man frozen for a million years and defrosted and revived by scientist Joan Crawford. Her work with this missing link is opposed and sabotaged by Michael Gough, as an Anti-evolution crank so small minded that he could also be a flat earther. Crawford, who seems to have an enormous range of skills, does surgery on Trog that enables him to speak. It turns out that Trog has the hots for Crawford's teenage daughter, which leads to a sort of brief abduction, followed by miserable end for Trog.In short, this movie is as if someone had approached me and offered me money (not a lot) and said, "Write up a sophomoric blend of Frankenstein and King Kong -- And don't make it good!"This is a lousy movie. It was notorious for being done on a low budget, and evidently so low budget that bad takes were kept and not refilmed. Worst of all, it was Joan Crawford's swan song. It's clear that she did her best, even with this wretched material.

This 1970 British flick mingles elements of "Planet of the Apes," "Frankenstein" and various Sasquatch tales. The scenes where Joan studies Trog are like an inversion of the scenes in "Planet of the Apes" where the female doctor chimp (Zira) analyzes Charlton Heston. "Frankenstein" comes to mind because of the fairly sympathetic portrayal of the half-man/half-ape and his gentle treatment of a little girl. Being a low-budget English film directed by Freddie Francis it has a decidedly Hammer-esque look and vibe. Some have mocked the film as "campy" but this simply isn't true; the story is played completely straight. Nothing about it is consciously artificial, exaggerated or self-parodying, like, say, Alan Rickman's performance in 1991's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." THAT's campy.The ape make-up is similar to that of "Planet of the Apes," albeit with a more protruding maw. In fact, it looks like someone dug the ape mask out of the trash from the set of 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (which they probably did!) This was Joan Crawford's final film and has been heavily panned. I don't understand this because it's not really THAT bad. As a matter of fact, the material is taken serious by all involved as the story tackles the question: What would it be like if the so-called missing link was actually discovered ALIVE? Of course, you have to take into account that the perspective of the movie is 1969, when it was shot. Given the period and the low budget, the movie has its limitations, which can be witnessed in two glaring ways: (1.) The overlong dinosaur sequence of stock stop-motion footage that I assume are images from Trog's memory; and (2.) the appearance of Trog himself. In regards to the latter, the head and facial features of the ape-man look quite good for 1969, it's the rest that leaves much to be desired. Basically, Trog is just a small-ish white dude walking around in a loin cloth and fur "tennis shoes" with what looks like a short fur cape. This is the extent of the Trog costume and it looks lame, which is probably why people mock the film -- the "monster" is more laughable than fearsome. What makes "Trog" an essential purchase, besides being Crawford's last film, is the stunning Kim Braden, who plays Joan's daughter/assistant, Anne. Kim is fully clothed at all times, usually wearing cute short-skirt/dress outfits, proving that attractiveness is more than a matter of showing skin. What a cutie! Interestingly, Kim went on to play Captain Picard's wife in the Nexus in the outstanding 1994 film "Star Trek: Generations."The film runs 93 minutes and was shot in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, England.GRADE: C+

***SPOILERS*** The grad-Z movie "Trog" got far more coverage and attention then it deserved just by film legend Crawford staring in it. In fact it was to be Mrs. Crawford's last movie appearance. In it Joan plays British anthropologist Dr. Brockton who takes a shine to this unearthed, from a local cave, half man half ape Trogodyte whom she christened or named "Trog" played by Joe Cornelius. With Trog getting all the attention by the scientific community one of the town elders Sam Murdock, Michael Gough, tries to frame the ape-man in a staged break-out of Dr, Brockton laboratory that resulted in a number of killings in town that unwittingly included Sam Murdock himself. The monkey man got loose due to Murdock and ended up killing the very man who made that possible! A case of poetic justice if there ever was one.With what seem like the rehabilitated , by Dr. Brockton, monkey man "Trog" on on a killing spree it's up to Dr. Brockton to talk him, in monkey talk, into giving himself up before he's gunned down by the police and units of the British Army. With his fate sealed in not bothering to give himself up voluntarily and on top of everything else kidnapping a little girl, Chole Franks, out of a local school playground Trog has no where to go but into the cold and slimy caves where he first came from.****SPOILERS*** And it's there where he'll meet his end with an icicle ending up rammed through his heart, much like a stake in the case of a vampire, and a barrage of bullets courtesy of the British military. You have to say that Joan Crawford gave one of her best performance acting wise as the kindly and feeling British anthropologist Dr. Brockton who found a way into Trog's heart when no one else could. Her feelings for the ape-man seems as genuine and convincing acting wise as her Academy Award performance towards her spoiled rotten daughter in the 1945 classic "Mildered Pierce". Still "Trog" turned out to be the low point in Mrs. Crawford's film career which couldn't go any lower in that she never made another film that could have eclipsed it in the final seven years of her life after the film "Trog" was released.