The Giant Claw (1957)

Directed by Fred F. Sears, and written by Paul Gangelin and Samuel Newman, The Giant Claw is an abject lesson in bad movie making. Never mind the fact that the creature putting the fear of god into everyone looks like a heroin-addicted cousin of Gonzo from The Muppets, nothing in this movie works at all. If you watch it in the right mood, and probably with the right company, you should be able to wring some laughs from how bad it is but even that is a struggle. It's too easy, which makes mocking it feel like tripping up a floppy-eared puppy.

Jeff Morrow stars as Mitch MacAfee, a man who upsets everyone when he starts insisting that he has seen a UFO during a flight. Nobody believes him until more flights are affected. Then they start to, reluctantly, consider the possibility that he might be telling the truth. When it comes to light that the UFO is actually some giant creature that seems pretty indestructible there's only one man that the world turns to for a solution. Mitch. He, along with the pretty and intelligent Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday), sets out to find a way to kill the deadly beast.

Apparently, leading man Morrow didn't see the creature until the film's premiere in his home town. When he saw, and heard, how laughable it was he cringed for a while and then left early so that nobody would recognise him. That's understandable but what's harder to understand is how he thought the rest of it would be any good.

It feels like almost a third of the movie is narrated. At least the opening narration accompanies relevant footage. The narration explaining the terror caused by the giant bird has nothing alongside it really showing you any terror.

Director Sears can get most of the blame but I can't imagine anything that would have lifted such a poor script. Full of pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo, characters that it's hard to care about and unmemorable dialogue, it's an embarrassment from start to finish. The acting from all involved isn't that great either but as that's the least of the onscreen problems it's an easier fault to overlook.

If you're a connoisseur of bad cinema then this is one that you need to check out. Everyone else should avoid it like the plague. I give it 2 points for making me chuckle but even that is being generous.

2/10

http://www.amazon.com/Icons-Horror-Collection-Creature-Werewolf/dp/B000UAFDR0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352764457&sr=8-1&keywords=the+giant+claw

The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

In case you weren't aware of it, I LOVE Creature From The Black Lagoon. Love it. As for the sequel, Revenge Of The Creature, I enjoy that one quite a bit. It was inferior to the original movie by some way but it was still just above average. So I came to view The Creature Walks Among Us with a slight air of trepidation, the third outing was unlikely to be a charm (I thought) but my OCD meant that I had to complete the series.

Frankly, this third outing is better than the second movie because it takes the main, basic premise - gillman in tropical waterways is hunted for by humans who want to poke and prod him - and throws a few very interesting ideas in there.

Perhaps the praise can go to director John Sherwood, who does well with the material, but I'm more tempted (and, I think, rightly so) to save most of my complimentary comments for writer Arthur A. Ross. Ross also wrote the screenplay for the first movie and it's clear that he somehow managed to buck the odds and bring everything together just perfectly for his treatment of basic ideas that could have easily been hokey and laughable.

The cast this time around are a mixed bag but they all do well with the characters that they have to portray - Jeff Morrow isn't the nicest man ever while Leigh Snowden is his poor wife. Rex Reason (what a great name) is very likeable as Dr. Thomas Morgan while Gregg Palmer, Maurice Manson, James Rawley and David McMahon are all fine, as are the other folks onscreen. And let's not forget to mention both Ricou Browning and Don Megowan, the two men responsible for portraying the creature in and out of the water.

Once again, there's some muddying of the waters (no pun intended) but no real doubt as to where our sympathies lie. The creature is what it is, though change may not be out of the question, while the humans involved show a wide selection of negative traits as they capture the poor thing and try to change him into whatever suits their needs.

An excellent end to a consistently enjoyable trilogy, I recommend all three films to those who enjoy classic monster fare.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Creature-From-Black-Lagoon-Collection/dp/B0002NRRRY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346791090&sr=8-1&keywords=the+creature+walks+among+us