The Vulture

Another one I hadn't seen before. I went in knowing that it didn't have a great reputation, and I wasn't disappointed.

Remember the story (stories)? A woman's hair turns white with fright when she's walking across the graveyard. A big feathery thing floats above her head. In the hospital they ask her if she's sure it wasn't just somebody coming out of a grave. Later they ask her if the thing had talons, and if the talons were carrying a box of old coins and she says yes it's possible. The vicar says that 200 years ago, Spanish-German pirates had buried their booty along with a vulture experimenting with teletransportation. Robert Hutton is on holiday, and he's a nuclear scientist, so he knows that the coins that are in the graveyard and on the beach have fallen from the sky, because there's a feather near them. Broderick Crawford tells him that the feather must be from some kind of bird. There's also a dead sheep on the beach, and Hutton knows that it must have lived in the cave up the road. When he goes there, the cave has got some feathers in it, and more old coins. He also knows that in order to do these experiments there must be a power station nearby. Because he's a nuclear scientist he finds it, manned by a skeleton at the controls. But a lot has happened before that. Akim Tamiroff also knows something, but he's keeping it under his cloak. The Easter Island curse, that's what. The pirates, the booty, the vulture, the curse, the teletransportation. That's why Broderick Crawford must not go onto the balcony. He does though, and suddenly there are big talons on his shoulders and he screams as he's lifted into the air. Then Broderick Crawford's brother appears again. Akim Tamiroff later reveals himself to be the Vulture, but before he can really reveal much more than a feathery shoulder, they shoot him and he dies. The Easter Island transportation bird booty secret curse revenge has ended.

Quite staggeringly complex plot. I got lost more than once. I don't know if this is one of the best films ever made, or the worst. THE worst. It predates THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR by a year or so, and is about 300 trillion times worse than that. Robert Hutton doesn't even have a moustache as a prop to work with. The sexual tension between him and his wife (Diane Clare) is at abslolute zero. He's terrible, she's terrible. They should just have hired two bookcases and pointed them at each other. Broderick Crawford is fucking terrible too. He can't say more than one line without the camera having to cut away. I can't go on. There's too much to say about this film. My head's totally done in.

Is it true that these dialogues are in the film? I remember them from last night, but I might be exaggerating or just making them up.

"What you saw could be one of only two things. Imagination or the result of a scientific experiment."

"One thing's for sure. Your uncle's either stupid or stubborn."

"Oh he isn't stupid."

Then he's stubborn."

"Your life is in danger. You must sleep with the windows closed or not live to regret it."

I'm amazed at THE VULTURE. I'm going to watch it again this afternoon.