Movie Review – The Giant Claw

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1957 – Spoiler alerts Fans of the Sharknado movie franchise may think the really rubbish creature feature is a new invention, but they need to see this 1957 what the Hell were they thinking movie too. It features the most laughable and pathetic monster ever foisted on an audience – a giant bird from outer space that looks like it belongs in a Muppets rejects bin. A few bad films are described as turkeys but this movie takes it rather literally. Jeff Morrow plays a US mechanic who is also a top class test pilot and a physicist – the ultimate all-knowing, all doing American hero. He reports a UFO after a test flight but he isn’t believed until the creature starts chewing planes and then swooping on the cities of the World. It proves to be protected by a shield of anti-matter so even nukes fail to phase it. Never mind though, because our hero personally turns out an anti-matter disruption ray enabling the air force to shoot the critter out of the sky. Morrow’s convenient ability to just happen to turn up in all the right locations to see the bird’s latest antics is uncanny. He and his ever-doting girlfriend shoot its eggs to spare us dying of laughter at sequels. Even in the 50’s the monster was seen as too ridiculous for audiences especially as the spirited cast treat the whole story utterly seriously and the film was a resounding failure. It is a great film to watch with a convention audience and the laughter if recorded would serve for sit com canned laughter for generations. I have added a Youtube clip of the monster in all its glory – prepare to not be the slightest bit afraid. Arthur Chappell