soulexpress
THE GIANT CLAW contains damned near everything that makes bad '50s sci-fi so much fun: a goofy-looking monster; scenes of destruction with Styrofoam buildings, model cars, and HO-gauge trains; made-up science (my Google search of "masic atoms" turned up nothing); scientific equipment slapped together with whatever junk was handy; a female lead with a brilliant mind who nonetheless does all the "girl" things like serving coffee to the men; and the usual dollar-store acting.The story: a killer bird the size of a battleship (and with teeth) flies around the Earth on a swath of destruction. It is impervious to guns, bombs, and fighter jets, nor does it appear on radar screens. Scientific analysis of a discarded feather concludes that the bird emits a protective energy shield that makes it nearly invincible. Also, since the feather contains no elements known on the Earth, the bird must be an extraterrestrial from some anti-matter galaxy millions of light years away. (Don't you dare question it!) As the lady scientist deduces, the bird came here to build a nest and lay an egg. When the film's heroes shoot up the egg with rifles, it seriously pisses off the bird, which sets about trashing a cheap mock-up of New York City. (Did you know that buildings explode when a monster claws off a chunk of its top floors?)I watch films like THE GIANT CLAW for the same reason I listen to records by the Shaggs: they're fundamentally awful, but I can't help loving them.
manisimmati
The Giant Claw – a huge, superfast bird thingamabob terrorizing the earth. They can't kill it with military weapons. But maybe there is hope, because Mitch (Jeff Morrow) and Sally (Mara Corday) work on a way to defeat the bird with the help of (dramatic drum roll) science!"Yet another monster flick", you might think – and you'd be perfectly right. Why should you watch this one? Because of the Giant Claw itself. It is a truly wondrous creature: a hideous puppet with a wrinkled face, off-standing hair and enormous pop eyes. As a movie monster, it's as ludicrous as it gets. Surprisingly enough, the movie itself is pretty okay. Director Fred Sears doesn't make as many catastrophic blunders as you'd expect. This isn't an Ed Wood movie, after all. It's just that the contrast between the fairly serious story and the silly bird is as pungent as it's funny. As a trash movie, it might be a bit underwhelming. Still, you haven't lived until you saw the amazingly ugly Giant Claw.
unbrokenmetal
An unidentified flying object destroys planes while pilots at first just catch a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of their eye of a gigantic bird. It turns out to be an angry chicken with a bad haircut. Fighter pilots don't stand a chance against the unusual enemy, even rockets show no effect, 'like we hit a battleship with a slingshot', one says. Different theories are discussed about the bird's possible origin - they settle for 'it's from an antimatter galaxy millions of light years from the Earth', because it's the most convincing suggestion... Anyway... The bird spreads terror all over the country, people have no chance to survive unless they develop brilliant strategies like hiding under a tree. I just give up at this point. It's not all bad, actually - apart from the creature design, it's a fun trash movie starring Jeff Morrow ('This Island Earth') and Mara Corday ('Tarantula'). If you are in the mood for that kind of thing, worth trying.
thinker1691
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.
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