O Homem Abutre

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!

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.

Though it starts in suitably spooky fashion, this British-Canadian co-production soon flounders on its own ineptitude. A mysteriously open grave in a village on the Cornish coast is linked to an old manuscript which describes the corpse as a 16th-century Spaniard buried with a chest of coin and a pet vulture, vowing vengeance on a local family. Then strange things and deaths start to occur among the modern descendants. The husband of a young women in the family has a far-fetched theory that is so absurd to believe in this context, and the acting and dialogue deteriorate with the story. The vulture-thing flies around cackling, which gives you some idea of what passes for scares in this B-movie.

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.

After an ancient legend / curse seems to have come true, a nuclear scientist (Robert Hutton) does his best to solve the mystery. Scotland Yard are also on the case, but consider the facts to be too fantastic to be believed.

In THE VULTURE, superstition merges with mad science to produce the flying monster of the title. Is it absurd? Yes, but that takes nothing away from its entertainment value. In fact, it only adds to it. This is especially true since everyone plays their roles straight, solemn, and serious. Especially Mr. Hutton, whose character is on a crusade to track down the marauding mutant, right from the start. Broderick Crawford is on hand as the skeptical American zillionaire.

Special Note: Watching Mr. Crawford being lifted off his balcony is one of the rib-tickling reasons to watch this opus!

Extra Points: For the amazing woo woo music!

A mostly-forgotten film from an era when such fare was more commonplace. Worth a watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon...