Nuclear transmutation: the changing of atoms of one element into those of another by suitable nuclear reactions.
Ellen West is a school teacher who, passing through a cemetery one night, sees a creature come out of the grave of Francis Real. The creature is a gigantic vulture with the face of a man. The experience turned her hair white and put her into a semi-comatose state.
Francis Real was an 18th century seaman who was buried alive. Buried with him was a large bird that he brought back with him on one of his voyages. Real had sworn vengeance on the descendants of the family of Squire Stroud. He was the man who ordered Real’s burial. The present squire is Brian Stroud (Broderick Crawford). His remaining family members are his brother Edward (Gordon Sterne) and his niece Trudy Lutens (Diane Clare).
Trudy’s husband Eric (Robert Hutton) is an American scientist. When he hears of the story he investigates the tale. He believes that a scientific experiment was done and a nuclear transmutation occurred that went wrong. He believes that whoever created the nuclear transmutation was fused with the body of the bird that was buried with Real. The resulting mutation was part bird part human.
During his investigation Eric visits Professor Hans Koniglich (Akim Tamiroff). He is a friend of Brian’s and a supposedly a descendent of Real. Koniglich is aware of the story and expresses concern about the Stroud family. Even though Koniglich seems worried Eric is suspicious of Koniglich. But there is also a sextant running around who keeps warning people that the Stroud family deserves whatever fate happens to them.
“The Vulture” was released in 1967 and was written directed and produced by Lawrence Huntington. The movie was a Canadian/American/British venture. There is a lot of debate going on concerning this movie. The debate ranges from the opinion that the movie is anywhere from bad to bottom of the barrel horrendous. Wow. That’s an awful lot of bad. I was surprised. Not that it was bad, but the visceral reaction to the badness was what surprised me. Sure, some people hated it, I expect that, different strokes for different folks and the like. But just about everybody hates it. Except me. No, I didn’t love it, nor did like it. I just didn’t hate it, especially with such an abandon as most people. Perhaps I’ve watched too much crap and I’ve become numb. Either way, I will defer opinion of the movie to others since I am in such a minority. In my research I could only find one person who had fond memories of it.
What I did notice was that the movie had a hard time figuring out what it was suppose to be. Horror or Science Fiction. Yes, some movies can be both but this one was an unusual hybrid. Like the monster itself. Body of a vulture, head of a man. A horror movie based on a mythical creature created by science. The combination did not blend well. Toss in a 200 year old curse and everyone gets confused.
The monster itself was a little disappointing too. It sounds cool. A giant vulture with a man’s face flying around and tearing people to shreds sounds real cool. The problem is, for the most part, all you saw were some giant chicken legs and even that was brief. At the end it looked like a guy in a feathered coat. OK. Seen that before. Unfortunately the total vulture monster lasted just a few seconds. I love a monster and I will put up with a lot of stupid or dopey ones, but show me something. Giant chicken legs for a few seconds just ain’t gonna do it.
All in all I was meh. It was an unusual concept and, had they had the budget, it could have been done a lot better. Still it is an obscure movie so sometimes that’s enough to want to see it.