Tag Archives: Jeff Morrow

Movie Review: The Giant Claw

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(1957)
Directed by Fred F. Sears
Starring Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum, Louis Merrill, Robert Shayne, Edgar Barrier

When I worked at a movie theater, we played It Came from Hollywood (1982), which featured hundreds of movie clips with popular comedians making fun of them, cracking jokes, pointing out flaws, all in the name of entertainment. Mind you, this was years before Mystery Science Theater 3000 made a career out of it. It was during that initial screening that I caught my first glimpse of the epic The Giant Claw (1957). though it would be some time before I actually knew what movie it was. Sure, it was silly and laughable at that time, with the creature looking more like some sort of sickly marionette turkey, but in those scenes where it is swooping down and chomping on parachuting passengers from the plane it just attacked, kind of creeped me out.

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Horror History: Jeff Morrow

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Jeff MorrowJeff Morrow
Born Jan. 13th, 1907 – Died Dec. 26th, 1996

Mr. Morrow is another one of these actors that had a pretty active career, is really known for a few films, for better or for worse. Granted, to be remembered at all, well… isn’t that the most important part?

Morrow started working on the stage by the time he was 20 years old, and didn’t make his movie debut until 1953 in the biblical epic Robe. But it is appearances in the Sci-Fi and horror genre in the ’50s that we are going to remember him. From the Sci-Fi epic This Island Earth (1955), to The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), Kronos (1957), and of course, The Giant Claw (1957). In the ’70s, while working as a commercial illustrator, he occasionally appeared in different projects, including a few low budget horror films like Will to Die and Octaman (both 1971). He also appeared in a lot of different TV series throughout his career.

The real beauty of Morrow was that he could play both sides of the coin, from the hero in The Giant Claw or the bad guy in Creature Walks Among Us, and he was always entertaining on both sides. While he may not have liked the fact that some of us still (fondly) remember him from the giant bird movie from outer space, saying he had never been “so embarrassed in my whole life”, I still get a kick out of watching it, and his performance.