THE VULTURE (1967)

Ellen West arrives in Cornwall one rainy night and has her cab driver let her out near a graveyard, wanting to take a short cut through it. The driver says no good can come of being in a graveyard at night but she insists, though she soon regrets it when she sees the headstone of Francis Real, who died in the 1700s, start shaking. His grave erupts and something (that we don't see but that Ellen does) comes flying out and up into the sky. Understandably, this drives Ellen into hysterics. The next day in the hospital, she claims that what came out of the grave was a giant vulture with a human face. We are then introduced to our primary cast of characters: landowner Brian Stroud, his niece Trudy, her American husband Eric, Brian's brother Edward, and Prof. Koniglich, an older man who walks on two crutches due to a recent fall. We also piece together the story of Francis Real. He was apparently buried alive with his dead pet vulture and a box of gold coins. While some believe that it was the resurrection of the vulture that broke open his grave, calmer heads think that someone was trying to find the gold in the grave. However, we also hear that there may be a curse on the Stroud family, as they were responsible for Real's death, and it is suggested that the Strouds avoid the outdoors at night, just in case there is a giant vulture man on the loose. One night, Brian ignores the warning by stepping out onto his balcony, and sure enough, gigantic talons come down from above and take him away; his body is found smashed on the rocks. Edward is the next to die by the same method, which leaves Trudy vulnerable to the curse unless her husband can figure out what's up.

The premise sounds rather ridiculous in summary, though given a bigger budget and the expertise of some studio like Hammer, it might have been pulled off. But the very weak cast, convoluted script, and poor monster effects make this a tedious exercise indeed. Robert Hutton is uninspiring at best as the hero, and Oscar-winner Broderick Crawford clearly would rather be anywhere than in this movie. Diane Clare is drab as milk as Trudy, which leaves Oscar-nominated old pro Akim Tamiroff as the sole bright spot as the mysteriously crippled German doctor. But he can't carry the whole movie on his back (or is that, wings?). The folklore-ish tale of the Strouds is rather silly—there is an attempt to base some of this on an Easter Island bird-god named Manutara, but that goes nowhere. There is an interesting mix of legend (the story of Real and the vulture) and science (nuclear—pronounced by Hutton as "nook-u-ler"—transmutation) in the solution, but the number of scenes of expository dialogue and of people driving from place to place scuttle the storyline. This got shown with some frequency on my local Friday night Chiller Theater show in the 70s, but I never caught it, so I was sort of happy to finally see it, but it’s difficult to recommend. The poster (at right) is spookier than almost any scene in the movie. [YouTube]