Two of Columbia Pictures' B-picture producer Sam Katzman's Cold War chillers hit Blu-ray down under in a FRED F. SEARS DOUBLE FEATURE from Umbrella Entertainment.

THE GIANT CLAW: Civilian aeronautics engineer Mitch McAfee (Jeff Morrow, KRONOS) is working with the US government on radar experiments near the North Pole when he encounters an "unidentified flying object." Despite the object not appearing on any of the radar equipment, Mitch insists that he saw it and is accused of playing an irresponsible prank when one of three jet fighters sent to investigate fails to return; the military change their minds however when an entire passenger plane disappears along with a plane carrying a government investigation team. Mitch and mathematician Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday, THE BLACK SCORPION) are called back to New York to testify, but their plane encounters the unidentified flying object and they crash-land in the Adirondacks where they are rescued by reclusive farmer Pierre Broussard (Louis Merrill, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI) who goes into shock when he encounters the flying object which he claims to be the "La Carcagne" a giant birdlike creature of local legend. Upon returning to New York, the pair is called upon by US Air Force generals Considine (Morris Ankrum, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCER) and Van Buskirk (Robert Shayne, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER) as more aircrafts mysteriously vanish or crash into the sea. The object continues to evade radar, finally making itself known as it swoops over major cities in an ever-radiating spiral pattern, feeding on anything from livestock to people, seemingly impervious to everything the military can throw at it. Mitch and Sally work frantically with physicist Dr. Karol Noymann (Edgar Barrier, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) to find the creature's vulnerability.

Produced by Sam Katzman – Columbia Pictures' answer to William Alland (THIS ISLAND EARTH also starring Morrow) – THE GIANT CLAW is modest in its production values, starting with a mix of stock footage before settling down to various interiors slickly shot by Columbia contract vet Benjamin H. Kline (WAGON TRAIN). Despite some quirks of the scripting – including some of the warmest military personnel quick to concede to the scientific experts and easily talked out of their last resort plan to switch from dropping an atom bomb in an unpopulated area to anywhere regardless of populace to destroy the creature – the acting is of a high standard, the plot moves at a good clip, and even the obvious use of stock footage for scenes of screaming, scrambling crowds and mass destruction are acceptable for a film of this period. What is just jarring about THE GIANT CLAW is the creature itself. Of uncredited design and mysterious manufacturing origin – which may have come to light in some recent scholarship – the creature should be terrifying. The flying effects are not bad at all, its movement is relatively convincing; but its turkey neck and Muppet-like face is the most laughable thing ever, inspiring neither terror in the audience for its attacks or pathos when it is revealed to be a mother and meets its watery demise. Morrow and Corday are dependable performers, but their subplot love story is as perfunctory as ever. Columbia B-picture contract director Fred F. Sears wracked up fifty-odd feature credits between in less than ten years, and probably would have moved to episodic television like many studio contract directors and technicians had he died at age forty-four of a sudden heart attack in 1957.

THE WEREWOLF: Just in time for hunting season, the isolated town of Mountaincrest is beset by a series of vicious attacks, starting with local tough Joe (Charles Horvath, VERA CRUZ), the assailant of which is identified by hysterical Ma Everett (Jean Harvey, CITY OF FEAR) as both a man and a monster. Deputy Ben Clovey (Harry Lauter, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN) follows tracks in the snow that turn from human to two-legged animal prints and winds up with a chunk of his arm bitten out in the dark. Sheriff Jack Haines (Don Megowan, THE CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS) is willing to entertain the idea of a werewolf, but his hope that man and monster will hopefully freeze to death in the elements is upset when local doctor Jonas Gilchrist (Ken Christy, NO WAY OUT) and his nurse niece Amy Standish (Joyce Holden, TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000) treat amnesiac Duncan Marsh (WAGON TRAIN's Steve Ritch) who claims that two doctors did something to him when he was treated for injuries from a car crash.

Fearful of the sheriff, shotgun-toting hunters turned into a posse, and even of Gilchrist's attempts to treat him, the man runs off into the mountains. In spite of attempts to keep things quiet, reports swarm the town in search of a story, and word reaches scientists Morgan Chambers (George Lynn, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN) and Emery Forest (S. John Launer, MOMMIE DEAREST) who have been conducting experiments in mutation not only to prove the destructive effects of atomic power but also to immunize themselves and "a select few" to survive and rule the new post-atomic world. When the man's wife (HIGHWAY PATROL's Eleanore Tanin) and young son (Kim Charney) come searching for him, the scientists head up to Mountaincrest ostensibly to assist the sheriff and Gilchrist in their search but actually to silence their experiment before their activities are exposed.

Definitely the lesser of the double feature, THE WEREWOLF may share the distinction with the same year's more entertaining I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF of being among the first science-based lycanthropy films, but it is quite a slog for the viewer. While the afflicted Marsh is as sympathetic as the scientist are odious in their egotism – although here they victimize a family man rather than the vulnerable youths of the likes of BLOOD OF DRACULA, DAUGHTER OF DR JEKYLL, or FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER – Megowan's sheriff is a dull lead and his character's moral conflict is conveyed in the most heavy-handed dialogue. The only elements that hold the viewer's attention are the scientists' misapprehension that they will be more successful in tracking Marsh because the sheriff and his posse will be looking for a man while they believe his animal instincts are dominant, as well as underestimating the intelligence of the locals. The film drags to its conclusion in spite of slick production values – this may be one of the Katzman genre films to use little to no stock footage – and reasonably good time-lapse transformations.