The Giant Claw

I'm really getting tired of people "dissing" this film by apparently taking the attitude that all films have to mimic "Citizen Kane" in order to be worthy of enjoying! Sure, the "science" in the film is decidedly unscientific, and the monster DOES look like Beaky Buzzard from a Warner Brothers' cartoon, but, so what? The film is enjoyable for what it IS: just a fun-to-watch, schlocky "sci-fi" film of the fifties--with acting that is NOT "amateurish" (as another reviewer noted)--with the additional benefit (to us guys, at least) of having one heck of a sexy-looking heroine (Mara Corday).

Lighten up, and ENJOY.

What a hoot!!!! This film tops them all......and the 50's had some real "winners" in the genre. And like all that went before and after, this will win your heart. Knowing that computer generated effects and advanced use of the blue screen were things yet to come, we usually have to bite the bullet and figure they did the best they could with what they had. BUT, in this case, they really hit bottom with the monster bird. It has to be the worst of all.....it's a damn wooden puppet on strings that bobs around like Big Bird on a binge......pretty pitiful. Jeff Morrow probably wanted to commit suicide or die of terminal embarrasment after seeing this film in its finished state. And the lovely Mara Corday, who was always stuck in the lower echelon of film making, had to count this as a low point in her career. She deserved better. And of course Morris Ankrum never learned....he just kept plugging away in "B" films and became on of the most famous faces seen in supporting roles. Now, after saying all those negative things, I can honestly say that I love this movie....it is so outrageous that you are just sucked in, forever becoming a fanatic of low budget, 50's horror/science fiction films. Yes, it is really bad, really bad.....but somehow you can't quit watching. Have fun with it!!!!!

"The Giant Claw" is an adorably horrible monster movie featuring a silly plot, inept script, pedestrian acting, and the most endearingly ridiculous monster ever to threaten mankind. Stories abound about disappearing budgets, Mexican puppet makers, Jeff Morrow slinking out of the theatre when he first saw his feathered antagonist, etc., all of which elevate the movie to the rarified status of one of the "Worst Movies Ever". This is, of course, nonsense, as most people would not bother to finish the "Worst Movie Ever"; whereas, people watch "The Giant Claw" (and its ilk) over and over again. I'd bet in 50 years people will still be snickering over the anti-matter space buzzard when, for example, "Star Trek: Beyond" doesn't even make it into trivia contests. How do you rate a movie that is awful by any measure but yet makes the world a better, or at least a more whimsical, place simply by existing? Metaphorically, HAL would give it a 0, Dave would give it a 10, so I'll split the difference and give it a 5.

One of the finest and campiest science fiction films of the Fifties was The Giant Claw. For once a monster's existence is not based on atomic radiation.

I have a soft spot for The Giant Claw, the claw in fact belonged to a space buzzard. Now how this big bird (and he looked something like Big Bird from Sesame Street) flew through airless space to nest here on earth is not explained, but it has arrived and the bird's here to lay some eggs. It picks a spot up in the Canadian northwest to do so.

But flying at supersonic speeds the whole planet is a feeding ground for it. And mankind can't get at it because it has an invisible anti-matter shield. Anything we shoot at it just bounces off and doesn't touch it. Of course the bird drops it shield long enough to ingest its meal which could be as much as a whole airplane in one gulp. The space buzzard's got the appetite of a buzzard and the feedings habits of same.

It's up to scientists Jeff Morrow and Mara Corday to bring the big guy down and of course they do since we're all still here. But it's how they do it that's the story.

This particular monster is one of the funniest ever put on the big screen. Anyone over the age of seven will laugh themselves silly looking at Big Bird. But that's the film's charm.

A nice remembrance from childhood watching this one Saturday evening at my cousins place in Brooklyn. Probably a WOR channel 9 creature feature, but definitely one of the schlockiest of their stock. Still, what really sets these old 50s monster B and C flicks apart from today's low-rent stuff is the great seriousness of the characters and their delivery done with earnest. This style is standard fare from low-budget Corman through the cheapo AIP and Columbia stuff, and this is what makes these lesser efforts with poor quality effects rise to a level that makes them as enjoyable as the grade A Universal-International and 20th Century Fox sci-fi stuff.