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As another user mentioned, I also caught this film by accident on my VCR -- and in b&w. I've since picked up a color DVD-R. In B&W it has more of the feel of a Mexican monster picture from the 50s-60s. By his presence, Akim Tamiroff elevates the picture to a slot above similar mid-sleaze trash. Even hobbling around on 2 canes (I imagine he thought a walker would look silly), he sparks up the interest every time he appears on screen (not often). Broderick Crawford doesn't, and Robert Hutton performs with the same level of "excellence" he always demonstrates. Watch it for Akim, and for being the only picture to equal the hilarious sfx of "The Giant Claw."

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.

Set in Cornwall but actually produced in Canada, THE VULTURE is a somewhat offbeat sci-fi thriller filmed in the mid-1960s. The cat is a surprising mix of genre regulars and newcomers to the field, but the film has an odd feel to it. It's got more of a feeling of depth and many of the lower-budget sci-fi films hammered out by second string producers during the big '50s Sci-Fi Boom, but it falls short of the better know genre efforts.

American atomic researcher Eric Lutens (Robert Hutton) arrives in Cornwall for a rest. He plans to visit several members of his wife Trudy's (Diane Clair) family and just get away from it all. However, strange things have been happening in the area. A school teacher taking a shortcut through a graveyard during a night-time storm has had a shock that has turned her hair white. Livestock has also been vanishing without a trace.

The discovery of a gold coin, and of an opened grave, brings to light a peculiar local legend. Centuries before, one Francis Real had been suspected of witchcraft. He had been seized and buried alive with his pet -- a strange vulture-like bird -- and a casket of gold coins. Legend had it that he had sworn to destroy the descendents of the local squire who had overseen the burial. This disturbs Eric, as the cursed man had been an ancestor of Trudy's.

A gamekeeper hears "a very large bird" over the estate owned by Trudy's older surviving relative, Brian Stroud (Broderick Crawford) and, investigating, a large black feature is found on the grounds. Eric send it to a noted expert on local birds, hoping he can identify what kind of bird to which it might have belonged.

We now meet the other central characters. Prof. Koniglich (Akim Tamiroff in a wonderful little performance) is a local antiquarian with whom Brian has had a number of dealings over the years. We also meet Brian's brother Edward (Gordon Sterne), who lives in a nearby town.

Koniglich takes the tale seriously when Eric visits him. The professor gets about with difficulty, using canes -- the result of an accident. He also makes a telltale comment about always having been fascinated by science, though he never really developed the interest.

Eric, taking advantage of his scientific background (evidently they do a lot of strange atomic mutation research at the plant where he works), decides someone has conducted a scientific experiment, creating this creature. He reasons this would involve a lot of electricity, and contacts the local utilities to find out who's used a lot of power lately.

Evidence mounts that there may indeed be some terrible creature lurking nearby. A missing sheep is found torn to bits, in a cliffside cave. Shortly thereafter, both Stroud brothers are carried off and killed by something.

Eric, in London, is contacted by the power company. The only odd thing they can find in their probe is that the Professor has stopped using electricity from their lines entirely. He'd installed his own generators some time prior. Eric realizes that Trudy is the final victim. He races back to the Cornish town, even as she's snatched from an isolated road near the Professor's home, by something with claws that swoops down from above.

Eric arrives as the Professor's home, where he finds a nuclear-powered laboratory in the basement. A skeleton sits at a control panel, and a small broken casket of gold coins lies on a nearby counter. It seems the Professor, speculating on whether or not he might have been related to the entombed man, and looking for the gold, had used his equipment to momentarily exchange himself for the contents of the buried coffin.

Not such a good idea. The swap hadn't reversed itself, and his atoms had mixed with the remains of the bird. The composite creature had then broken out of the grave.

Going to the cave in the cliffside, Eric confronts and shoots the Professor, who is revealed to have had a gigantic bird's body underneath the cloaked coat he'd always worn. Stumbling at Eric, the creature falls to its death on the beach below. Eric and Trudy bury the body at sea and decide it's best that nobody knows what had happened.

An interesting cast. Robert Hutton had started playing juvenile leads, then went on to a string of largely minor genre flicks (MAN WITHOUT A BODY, INVISIBLE INVADERS, THE SLIME PEOPLE, COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, TROG).

Broderick Crawford had visibly slummed following his role in BORN YESTERDAY, making a few genre TV movies, and was best remembered for the television series HIGHWAY PATROL.

A veteran of over 120 feature films, Akim Tamiroff had also appeared in Godard's ALPHAVILLE.

Diane Clair appeared in THE HAUNTING and Hammer's PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES.

Not a bad watch, though more for Tamiroff's eccentric performance than for Hutton's rather bland heroics.

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!

One night several years ago I programmed my VCR to tape "Rodan" in the middle of the night and the thing didn't shut off. This movie was on afterwards, so I accidentally had it on tape, too. There is nothing about this movie to recommend it. Akim Tamiroff was a good character actor in a number of good films. This is not one of them. I used to have the dialogue from this movie on my answering machine, because it was so goofy. Someone called one day and thought it was from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" so that should give you some idea of the caliber of film we are talking about here. The acting is bad, the music is bad, the special effects are, well, not very special. Unless your VCR accidentally tapes this movie or you are a hopeless insomniac, should you find that this movie is on late one night... go to bed. You'll be much happier in the morning.

The Vulture is a rather tedious movie for the most part, with lots of talk and very little action, but the basic premise is so supremely daft that it results in one or two priceless moments of unintentional hilarity that no fan of bad horror movies will be able to resist.

The film opens in Cornwall, as teacher Ellen West (Annette Carell) takes a late night walk home through a reputedly haunted churchyard; her stroll is interrupted by something monstrous emerging from a grave and flying away, leaving the teacher in a state of severe shock. After hearing about the incident, and doing some investigative work, American nuclear scientist Eric Lutens (Robert Hutton) concocts a crazy theory involving a centuries old Spaniard, a box of treasure, a bird of prey, and an experiment involving 'nuclear transmutation' which he believes has resulted in a half-man/half-vulture creature. The police aren't convinced, but it turns out he's on the money, and the vulture is intent on revenge, targeting the family of Eric's wife Trudy (Diane Clare).

After the well-executed opening scene in the churchyard, The Vulture settles into monotony for quite some time, as writer/director Lawrence Huntington fleshes out his silly story, providing exposition about his creature and the reason for its grudge, as well as introducing an obvious red herring in the form of Melcher (Edward Caddick), a crazy albino sexton. It should be blatantly obvious who the real culprit is: antiquarian Prof. Hans Koniglich (Akim Tamiroff), who is the only other option once Melchor has been discounted -- he walks with the help of two canes, wears a large cape (perfect for concealing wings and feathers), and he's German!

No doubt due to budgetary limitations, there is very little of the actual vulture in the film, but what we do get is pure comedy gold, as a large pair of ridiculous looking talons drop into frame, grabbing hold of its victims shoulders to carry them away to its lair. Also rather amusing is the fact that the film would have us believe that Windsor is on the doorstep of Cornwall, Eric and Trudy repeatedly making the five hour journey in a matter of minutes.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

What a waste of the great Akim Tamiroff this movie is. He is the one redeeming feature in a film containing some of the most desperately wooden performances ever inflicted on a paying audience. The bint playing the female lead is particularly awful but at least there is some entertainment value in admiring her ghastliness. Broderick Crawford is dispensed of all too soon by the big bird of the title. Check those feathery talons as they swoop down and carry him away to freedom from the surrounding turgidness.Oh Akim! It may have seemed a good idea on paper, and you are genuinely creepy and genuinely scene stealingly watchable as ever, but this tosh was completely unworthy of your presence.Admire the great man in Topkapi,The Way of all Flesh etc. instead.

The first thing I would say about this film is that it contains much THE AVENGERS series DNA. Mystery in the English countryside with many creepy and totally crazy scenes. OK, this is not a masterpiece, but don't watch it as if it was, don't expect anything great, then you won't be deceived. Typically british and far enough for my taste.

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.

While "The Vulture" looks like the actors are trying hard to make it realistic, the plot is so utterly absurd that you can't possibly take the movie seriously!

The film begins with a woman supposedly seeing a half-man, half-bird creature pop out of a grave! Many, many, many years ago, the guy in the grave vowed vengeance on the family of the folks who did him wrong and it appears as if maybe this is why the giant bird-thingie has appeared. However, folks don't take this very seriously until the creature (actually all you see are giant talons) swoop down and carry off a guy. It' supposed to be scary...I thought it was hilarious instead! Dr. Lutens (Robert Hutton) thinks there's a rational and scientific answer to all this. So, what's next? See the film...or not!

This film not only is dumb but rather dull. It will make you laugh now and again but not often enough to make it a bad film buff pic...and certainly no one else would want to see it! It could have used more scenes with the ridiculous bird thingie!!

By the way, how were the filmmakers able to get Broderick Crawford (an Oscar winner) AND Akim Tamiroff (nominated for two Oscars) for this dreadful picture? I can only assume they were holding their family members hostage....that's all that would explain their taking parts in an obvious turkey!

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.

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...