THE GIANT CLAW (1957)

THE GIANT CLAW (1957)

Tagline: Winged Monster from 17,000,000 B.C.! Big as a Battleship! Flies 4 Times the Speed of Sound! Atomic Weapons Can't Hurt It!

(Horror, Sci-Fi, Cracked Out Big Bird) [PG]

Note: The MPAA never gave this movie a rating. I am saying it would be a PG just due to one scene where a guy is bleeding, and a few others are eaten. 

That bird is extra-terrestrial, it comes from outer space for some God-forsaken galaxy millions and millions of miles from earth. 

In this one, a seemingly invincible giant winged monster is attacking cities coast to coast. Will Sally and test pilot Mitch as well as the nation’s armed forces overcome this menace?

First off, this movie is probably most famous for the crazy-looking bird monster in it, but the acting is actually pretty fantastic. Apparently, no one in the cast had seen what the creature would look like so they all acted their hearts out. Jeff Morrow (who plays Mitch MacAfee) is probably best known for the TV show Perry Mason, and he just killed it. We also get a great performance from Mara Corday who was also in the movie TARANTULA. Even some of the secondary actors like Louis Merrill who played Pierre are pretty decent. 

One weird part of this movie is that Mitch barely knows Sally and just decides to randomly kiss her on a plane. He is a civilian, but I think unless she already liked him quite a bit, that would have gotten him punched in the tenders. She takes a very forgiving approach to the incident, but even for a 50’s flick, it feels odd. I will say the chemistry between these two in the film is solid. 

The effects overall are pretty rough. I have seen this movie twice now and every time I see the bird monster I almost start rolling on the floor laughing. So it’s probably a great thing that no one in the cast saw it before the movie came out. There is one crazy scene in here where they show a picture of the creature and it’s basically a 1957 style selfie. It’s freakin hilarious. There are shots in here that look pretty decent, but when you start digging into it, most of those are stock footage from other movies. What is strong is the script which is almost perfect and has lots of really clever lines. The score is also decent. 

It must have been a fascinating time to live at the dawn of the atomic age and not having even been to the moon yet. There was still just a ton of mystery around all this stuff, and you had no idea if radiation was going to cause your cat to be grown into a crazed feline menace 500 feet tall or if you’d start growing arms out of your backs or any of that. All of that comes across in the dialog of this movie and even with how incredibly goofy this thing is, I love this movie. I think it’s amazingly entertaining and I really liked the energetic sense of wonder the cast brought to the sets. I also liked the narration in this movie, it really added a DESTROY ALL MONSTERS kind of flare to this. 

I have to give this one a 5 out of 7 if I am measuring the film we actually got taking into accounts the questionable editing and design choices rather than my enjoyment of it. Having said that, if anyone ever says, “do you want to watch THE GIANT CLAW” you freakin say "YES"… every single time. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SAGA STUDIO AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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