The LA Beat

“The Giant Claw” (1957, Arrow Video) Jeff Morrow and a host of fellow ’50s sci-fi stalwarts (Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum) battle an enormous extraterrestrial bird that lays waste to the U.S.-Canadian border (played by Griffith Park) and later, the New York City skyline. Columbia Pictures release from prolific low-budget producer Sam Katzman has earned its place in the halls of movie infamy for its creature, a poorly constructed marionette with an accordion neck and google-eyed visage that strains even the furthest boundaries of “bad” monster FX. The movie itself doesn’t deserve the same degree of brickbats: as directed by former actor Fred F. Sears, who worked himself into an early grave with a constant stream of poverty row movies like these, “The Giant Claw” is no worse than any other independent sci-fi/horror title from this time period. You won’t mistake it for “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” but it’s also not on par with Ed Wood. Arrow’s Blu-ray is part of its enjoyable “Cold War Creatures” set, which bundles “Giant Claw” with three other Sam Katzman sci-fi films: “Creature with the Atom Brain” (the source for Roky Erickson’s song), “Zombies of Mora Tau,” and the Fred Sears-directed “Werewolf.” The “Claw” disc features commentary by critics Emma Westwood and Cerise Howard, a video essay on Cold War paranoia in Katzman’s monster movies, an introduction by the great Kim Newman, and a condensed presentation of “Claw” in 8mm, which essentially served as your grandparents’ version of Netflix and chill six decades ago.

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