TROG (1970) *1/2 Even at the end Joan Crawford could yell scary enough to terrify a troglodyte. It isn't really a fitting end to her brilliant career but it's the only one we've got. There's some solace in thinking that maybe she didn't really want to do the film so much as bed the director anyway. There are, of course, many aspects to the movie business. There's some good enough dicta about the imbecility of patriarchal society and especially the military, the gentility of the savage beast, the absurdity of sexual discrimination, and some fairly funny scenes of trog striding through a peaceful little British town. Queen Joan's character is too sympathetic for her to ever get to be truly bitchy but she does emote quite a bit of feeling without words even if it doesn't always quite fit the script. The death of trog is sad primarily because we know that it's really the end of the line for Joan. Offered an opportunity for one last line by the tv man, she instead leaves us with a final look of sadness and contempt.
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