The Giant Claw - Quality and Storytelling Part1 (B-Movie)

The Giant Claw

 B-Movies are typically described as low budget monster movies of the 1940/50's with poor special effects and sometimes regarded as badly written. There are some modern B-Movies of a higher quality, however, generally speaking B-Movie are unsuccessful. The 1957movie 'The Giant Claw' is a good example of a B-Movie. The special effects are awful (even for it's time) and the monster looks horrendous, almost like a deformed chicken. The idea is that there is a giant object which is believed to be a UFO. It turns out that the object is actually an extra-terrestrial bird made of anti-matter which leaves a trail of death and destruction in it's wake. 

Five Redeeming Qualities 

• The acting is of a high standard. The actors has to imagine this creature and their imagination was evidently more creative than the props team. The actors, specifically the female lead, Sally diverts the attention from the 'extra-terrestrial bird'.
• The storytelling works in some ways. You can see what the writer's were trying to achieve and the base work for a good monster movie is evident however the execution did not hit the mark. 
• The cinematography works well. The people in charge of how the film was shot clearly knew what they were doing and had some experience with shooting black and white film as all of the shots were lit right and everything contrasted nicely. 
• The plot is entertaining. Whether it's intention was to be scary or thriller does not matter as, at the end of the day, cinema is a form of entertainment and it was definitely entertaining.