The Vulture

I haven't seen this since I was a kid, but I remember:

The leading man played a scientist who pronounced "nuclear" and "nuke-you-lar" through the whole film.

It was about some giant mutant vulture but they were too cheap to get a whole bird (fake or real), there was just this pair of big rubber bird feet that landed on the shoulders of bit actors and supposedly carried them off.

The whole thing was so dreadfully low-budget that I think the people at Mystery Science Theater 3000 should have a good look.

The Vulture is a rather tedious movie for the most part, with lots of talk and very little action, but the basic premise is so supremely daft that it results in one or two priceless moments of unintentional hilarity that no fan of bad horror movies will be able to resist.

The film opens in Cornwall, as teacher Ellen West (Annette Carell) takes a late night walk home through a reputedly haunted churchyard; her stroll is interrupted by something monstrous emerging from a grave and flying away, leaving the teacher in a state of severe shock. After hearing about the incident, and doing some investigative work, American nuclear scientist Eric Lutens (Robert Hutton) concocts a crazy theory involving a centuries old Spaniard, a box of treasure, a bird of prey, and an experiment involving 'nuclear transmutation' which he believes has resulted in a half-man/half-vulture creature. The police aren't convinced, but it turns out he's on the money, and the vulture is intent on revenge, targeting the family of Eric's wife Trudy (Diane Clare).

After the well-executed opening scene in the churchyard, The Vulture settles into monotony for quite some time, as writer/director Lawrence Huntington fleshes out his silly story, providing exposition about his creature and the reason for its grudge, as well as introducing an obvious red herring in the form of Melcher (Edward Caddick), a crazy albino sexton. It should be blatantly obvious who the real culprit is: antiquarian Prof. Hans Koniglich (Akim Tamiroff), who is the only other option once Melchor has been discounted -- he walks with the help of two canes, wears a large cape (perfect for concealing wings and feathers), and he's German!

No doubt due to budgetary limitations, there is very little of the actual vulture in the film, but what we do get is pure comedy gold, as a large pair of ridiculous looking talons drop into frame, grabbing hold of its victims shoulders to carry them away to its lair. Also rather amusing is the fact that the film would have us believe that Windsor is on the doorstep of Cornwall, Eric and Trudy repeatedly making the five hour journey in a matter of minutes.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

One night several years ago I programmed my VCR to tape "Rodan" in the middle of the night and the thing didn't shut off. This movie was on afterwards, so I accidentally had it on tape, too. There is nothing about this movie to recommend it. Akim Tamiroff was a good character actor in a number of good films. This is not one of them. I used to have the dialogue from this movie on my answering machine, because it was so goofy. Someone called one day and thought it was from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" so that should give you some idea of the caliber of film we are talking about here. The acting is bad, the music is bad, the special effects are, well, not very special. Unless your VCR accidentally tapes this movie or you are a hopeless insomniac, should you find that this movie is on late one night... go to bed. You'll be much happier in the morning.

In the 1960's their was a low priced movie theater in downtown Oakland that showed a triple bill of releases that came out mostly in the 1950's.Pre-noon admission was .35 cents.It was at that place that I saw this movie on a triple bill.Today I was surprised to learn that the release date was 1967.My overall feeling was that this movie was from the 1950's because it was black and white,the theaters history and on the same bill was "curse of the demon"(night of the demon ?)which came out in 1957.That being the situation it seems that on release this film went directly to the cheap seat theaters.That should give an indication of how good the movie is.In a 1950's comic book a half human/half vulture character had scared me so this plot was not of real interest to me.The little that can be recollected is that the mad scientist's every word is dripping with an accent.Even if the viewer knows no German they probably will doubt that his accent is a German one.Seeing the big clawed feet lift up people resemble the special effects of the Three Stooges films but the Stooges effects might be a notch better.Seeing this film again is one of my goals.

I saw this movie at a drive-in theater back in the late 60's, back when I was eight to ten years old. It was part of a double-feature, with the other movie being, "The Deadly Bees." Now of course, I recognize both as lame, however, back then, when I was young, "The Vulture" scared the crap out of me. My brother, whom I shared a room with, delighted in "tapping" on our bedroom window, after we went to bed for weeks following seeing the movie and I had countless nightmares. That same brother was always thought of as "Mr. Innocent." Little did anyone else know! In any case, I now love the movie, mainly as a memory, but also for the stills that were taken promoting it. The image of those giant talons on the shoulders of a female victim are so stupendously phony looking, they're hilarious. They look like something made out of Styrofoam and fiberglass, immovable and unable to grasp anything. I'm sure the movie-makers and participants intended better, but this movie is not horrifying, just horrible. Still, if you ever find it being shown somewhere, invite a young child you're not particularly fond of to watch it, then tap on his/her bedroom window after he/she goes to bed!