The Crawling Eye

I am drawn to movies like this. I used to watch them two at a time on Saturday afternoons a long time ago. The formula is simple:

Something mysterious and troubling is caused by a monster that eludes detection by the scientific and military / law enforcement agencies. We see more and more of the monster until it is fully revealed. Only after it breaks into the room where a pretty girl is housed and makes her scream, do the authorities figure out how to whack it.

I was a treat watching this plum today without interruption. I was too afraid to go see it in the theatres in 1958. The thought of a crawling eye didn't set well with me back then. It was kind of creepy at first when I saw it today, so it may have been wise to avoid it 50 years ago.

Although bad science, cheesy special effects, and cornball plots are to be expected from this genre of cinema, I have an unresolved issue with the film that can't even be sloughed off as campy.

The Crawling Eye(s) as it turns out, are not like the eye shown on the poster. No, this is an eye ball alright with tentacles replacing the optic nerve and connective tissue, but the crawling eye is equipped with a relatively normal-sized eye so it can see. The Crawling Eye is not a product of intelligent design. A giant eye that requires an eye to see just ain't right.

Spoiler: A British jet fighter is called into the Bavarian Alps to incinerate the optical menace. I thought BB guns would have worked just as well.