The Giant Claw (1957)

As far as totally inept monster movies go, this has to be one of the best - or, indeed, worst, depending on your taste. Packed with wooden actors, actresses who have little to do apart from scream, and more false science than you can shake a stick at, THE GIANT CLAW will go down in history as one of the best "bad" movies ever made. And it's all down to one thing - the monster itself.To get an idea of how rubbish the monster in this film is, you have to realise that even audiences IN THE '50S laughed it off screen when it appeared. It's supposed to be a giant bird, complete with nasty-looking teeth (?), but in fact it's a gigantic, stiff-moving PUPPET, held up with obvious strings. The bird has a ridiculously rubbery long neck which bobbles about all over the place and makes laughable squawks when it tries to be threatening. Beady eyes roll back and forth in the creature's eye sockets as it jerks through the sky and some wise guy also gave it a tuft of hair to make it look even more stupid.When the big bird isn't going after plastic model aeroplanes in the sky, it's wrecking cities, achieved with copious usage of stock footage. Think that music sounds familiar? It is. Luckily for us, slick hero Jeff Morrow is on the case and thankfully thinks up a solution to destroy the indestructible menace - bombard the creature with atomic rays which will destroy its anti-matter force field and thus allow the army to shoot it from the sky! Pretty Mara Corday is the female assistant who doesn't really do much but it gives the sleazy Morrow somebody to romance. Also popping up are some stuffy military generals (like you couldn't have guessed), some obnoxious teenagers who taunt our hero with cries of "daddy-o!" (!) and even a comedy Frenchman.Thankfully, clocking in at 72 minutes, it's only a short film, any longer and I don't think I'd have been able to cope. Want to see a giant turkey - far worse than any of those Japanese rubber creations - destroy a few model cars/trains/planes? Want to see a boring climax which is all build-up and about two minutes of action? Want to see something just so BAD that somehow it becomes good, in a way? Then see THE GIANT CLAW!

The movie is called " The Giant Claw " and it was originally written by Samuel Newman. In 1957 I and my boyhood friends were 11 and twelve year olds. At that very young age we attended in a group the weekend Monster theater at which time the above film was featured. Having never seen the movie, we of course were taken completely by surprised by the flying monster, each time it appeared. I and the rest of our group exploded with frightful wails of terror, screams of fright and piercing cries of horror. This noise was echoed and multiplied in volume many times when they joined the cacophony of noises throughout the rest of the theater. Truth was, the management was tickled pink by our childish fears and antics. The movie itself proved nonsensical, poorly made, Juvenal, Shylock, half baked and phony in every respects. Still for 1957 it was the stuff of frighting childhood dreams and we were of that age. As an adult, I am amused at what I considered frightening and snicker at sci-fi scenes from B-Picture actor like Jeff Morrow, Dabbs Greer and what the character's called a nightmare chicken. Yet in retrospect, they were the heroes of my youth and the foundation of what today are considered Classic Monsters of my childhood. Enjoy the novelty, youth doesn't last long.

Fred F. Sears directed this science fiction/horror picture that stars Jeff Morrow as pilot Mitch MacAfee, who one day reports seeing a huge UFO flying overhead. He is not believed, but is later proved right when the "UFO" is identified as...a giant outer-space bird with big bulging eyes and a Mohawk which is composed of anti-matter, and proceeds to decimate the world! Oh Boy... Astonishingly(even staggeringly!) inept film has the most jaw-dropping, god-awful model F/X ever seen in a motion picture. Truly laughable and cringe-inducing at the same time. Actors were reportedly embarrassed by the big turkey when they saw the finished film, and who can blame them. Ludicrous plot and cheap production only makes this all-time worst film candidate even worse.

I'm a huge science fiction fan, constantly on the lookout for any film with a futuristic theme – everything from "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe", to "Forbidden Planet", to "Pacific Rim". As a classic film buff as well, I know that, from film's earliest days, up until George Lucas redefined the box office potential with the megahit "Star Wars", science fiction movies were usually relegate to "B" status and assigned budgets accordingly. What is really amazing is just how much the special effects wizards (in the time before ILM) were able to accomplish on such skimpy budgets. Sometimes though, the budgets were so skimpy there was no possible way to make a believable monster – which brings me to "The Giant Claw". Before I ever saw the movie I had a negative impression because it seemed to top all the "worst movie ever" lists (e.g. The Golden Turkey Awards). However, when I finally got the opportunity to see the movie for myself, I was surprised how much better the script and acting were than what I had expected. I ended up enjoying "The Giant Claw" as much as more highly regarded '50s Sci-Fi such as "Them", "The Giant Mantis", or "It Came From Beneath the Sea". If "The Giant Claw" had substance as good as those movies though, where it fell flat was style. You can have the best acting, directing, cinematography, and sound; but, as the old saying goes – at some point the monster has to jump out and say "boo"; and that's where "The Giant Claw" falls flat. I mean, as one reviewed noted, the best way to describe the monster is looking like a half plucked Christmas turkey that escaped a Safeway freezer - 50 years ago. One could speculate how much better it would have seemed - even then - if an effects wizard such as Ray Harryhausen could have had the time and budget to make a more believable monster. However, it is what it is and "The Giant Claw" is great fun to watch; sometimes adding a bit of cheese make the best tasting popcorn.