History Film / TheGiantClaw

It got an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-V-aJnYZJM&list=PLAAD8216852572F34&index=1 episode]] on a ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fan series. Creator/JamesRolfe, however, [[http://cinemassacre.com/2009/10/13/13-giant-claw-1957/ gives a fine insight on it.]]

* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Mitch sneaks a full-blown kiss on Sally while she's asleep on a plane (after leaving the crash site and Pierre's home). She never finds out he did it.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: The climax involves the giant buzzard being faced off with the plane into which the anti-anti-matter weapon has been installed: an old Flying Fortress.

* AliensAndMonsters: The Giant Claw came from outer space.

What monster, out of the innumerable [[BMovie B]] science-fiction/horror films from the 50s and 60s, can possibly hope to compete with Ro-Man -- the man in a gorilla suit wearing a toy plastic space helmet -- from ''Film/RobotMonster''?

It got an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-V-aJnYZJM&list=PLAAD8216852572F34&index=1 episode]] on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Creator/JamesRolfe, however, [[http://cinemassacre.com/2009/10/13/13-giant-claw-1957/ gives a fine insight on it.]]

It never got an episode on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', which, quite frankly, is a crime (though there is hope, with the Netflix revival). Creator/JamesRolfe, however, [[http://cinemassacre.com/2009/10/13/13-giant-claw-1957/ gives a fine insight on it.]]

Because... perhaps most priceless of all is the fact that all scenes with the actors were filmed first -- and ''then'' the scenes with the puppet were spliced in. None of the cast actually saw what they were supposed to be terrified of until they attended the film's premiere. Reportedly, Morrow, upon hearing the ''audience's'' reaction, left the theater with a red face hidden beneath a turned-up collar.

It never got an episode on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', which, quite frankly, is a crime (though there is hope, with the revival of [=MST3K=] coming in 2017). Creator/JamesRolfe, however, [[http://cinemassacre.com/2009/10/13/13-giant-claw-1957/ gives a fine insight on it.]]

* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Out monster for this tale is repeatedly compared in size to a battleship, and anything the U.S. government tosses at it is automatically playing DavidVersusGoliath... until the antimatter is dissipated, at least.

* {{Antimatter}}: Well, Hollywood antimatter, anyway, which makes the gigantic space buzzard NighInvulnerable and invisible to radar. It's also proof that the buzzard comes from space. When someone points out that a being ''completely'' made of antimatter would explode if it ever hit something, a HandWave is provided that it's ajust a being that has the natural capacity to somehow create [[SomeKindOfForceField an antimatter "barrier"]] that it can drop at will to manipulate (or attack) stuff.

-->'''Mitch''': It's one of those cock-eyed concepts that you down out of Cloud Eight somewhere in sheer desperation!

* DeadpanSnarker: Sally drops a pretty good snarking line about how dumb the idea of "La Carcagne" (and thus Mitch's "bird as big as a battleship") is while they are flying back after crashing, to the point Mitch has to ask her to cut it off and some poor passenger has to tell them that he's trying to sleep.

* DirtyCoward: Pierre gets a massive panic attack when he, Mitch and Sally finally find the buzzard's giant nest in the third act, refusing to shoot and running away from ''La Carcagne''. The buzzard finds him and eats him

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Poor Pierre constantly compares the buzzard to ''La Carcagne'', a supposed legend of a GiantFlyer that is a harbinger of doom for anybody who watches it, from the moment he does (because the thing landed near his home). Guess who's the only fella to get killed when the heroes go hunting for the buzzard's eggs?

* IHaveBrothers: Sally's HandWave for why all of a sudden she can pick up a bolt-action high-caliber rifle and place a bullet right in the middle of a giant space buzzard egg? "I grew up in Montana!"

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Poor Pierre constantly compares the buzzard to ''La Carcagne'', a supposed legend of a GiantFlyer that is a harbinger of doom for anybody who watches it. Guess who's the only fells to get killed when the heroes go hunting for the buzzard's eggs?

* IGotBrothers: Sally's HandWave for why all of a sudden she can pick up a bolt-action high-caliber rifle and place a bullet right in the middle of a giant space buzzard egg? "I grew up in Montana!"

* NightInvulnerable: The giant buzzard, thanks to its antimatter screen, is immune to bombs, rockets, bullets and (used off-screen but lamented by General Buskirk in a radio message soon after) nuclear weapons.

* MonsterIsAMommy: Sally eventually figures out the monster's attack pattern is meant to be to get food for its future young and they go in search of its nest, and they blow away the egg within with [[{{BFG}} elephant guns.]]

* {{Antimatter}}: Well, Hollywood antimatter, anyway.
%%* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever
%%* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever
%%* BMovie

%%* FeatheredFiend: You bet!
%%* GiantFlyer

* PhraseCatcher: The monster is compared to a battleship.
%%* ReversePolarity

%%* TechnoBabble

It never got an episode on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', which, quite frankly, is a crime (though there is hope, with the revival of [=MST3K=] coming in 2017). Creator/JamesRolfe, however, [[http://cinemassacre.com/2009/10/13/13-giant-claw-1957/ gives a fine insight on it]].

* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever
* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever
* BMovie

* FeatheredFiend: You bet!
* GiantFlyer

* ReversePolarity

* TechnoBabble

[[quoteright:344:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giantclawtitle.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:344: Can you spot the difference? (Hint: The poster doesn't show the monster's head...)]]

This movie is simply priceless. It's got everything that a B science-fiction/horror movie from the 50s should have; a completely ridiculous monster, laughable dialogue delivered with total sincerity, copious use of mismatched stock footage, gobs and gobs of pseudo-scientific TechnoBabble... you name it. All that's missing is the FauxlosophicNarration. Although the actors' ruminations on their careers upon seeing the monster for the first time might've been entertaining.

By the way, it was released by Columbia Pictures -- also responsible for ''LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts''. This is the one that tends not to be mentioned in the studio-anniversary clip shows.