Abominable Advent Calendar Day 4: Fiend without a Face (1958) and the Giant Claw (1957)
Crapsterpiece Category: B-Movie Badness
Filmmakers of the 1950s were both haunted and inspired by nuclear testing and the horrors of the atomic bombings of Hirshima and Nagasaki. Perhaps the most famous cinematic creature born from the awe of nuclear power was Godzilla, but it also spawned dozens of others, in films ranging from wonderful to terrible, featuring mutants and giant ants, tarantulas, gila monsters, men, women, and octopuses, plus lots of weird and unique monsters. Behind Abominable Advent Calendar Day 4, we have a double feature of cheesy b-movie badness.
Fiend without a Face
One of the atomic monster b-movies on the fun-but-craptacular end of the spectrum is the rather hyperbolically titled Fiend without a Face. Canadian locals living near an American long-range radio installation where nuclear research is happening begin dying in strange ways. The bodies are found with brains and spinal cords missing, and the civilians think there’s a radiation leak from the radar installation. But in fact a local professor has been doing telekinesis experiments, and his thought patterns, enhanced by radiation, have created a new, invisible, and hostile form of life.
Up until this discovery, the film is fairly conventional and even a little dull, but once the little beasties become visible, it gets a lot more fun. They take the form of the missing brains and spinal cords of their victims, growing eye stalks and propelling themselves along the ground like inchworms, climbing trees, and even leaping through the air. They’d actually be adorable if they weren’t killing people. When they’re shot, there’s a very satisfying splat, and they squirt what looks like jam. It makes you wonder what kind of fever dream make someone think this up.
The Giant Claw
A jet fighter aircraft is lost going after a UFO over the North Pole, and soon other (obviously model) aircraft are disappearing. The military is perplexed and skeptical of anyone who says the disappearances are because of a UFO, but after more sightings they’re forced to come to terms with the fact that a giant bird—yes, a bird—from an antimatter galaxy with an impenetrable shield is destroying planes. (Although they are invariably full of scientists, science is not a strong point in b-movies.) They comment innumerable times that the bird is the size of a battleship.
The bird wreaks havoc in New York City, attacking the United Nations Building and Empire State Building (as monsters are wont to do) until the heroes figure out how to spray it with muonic atoms (again, it’s best to just go with the dodgy science), break down its shield, and then blast it into the Atlantic Ocean with missiles.
So why is this one so much fun? Because the terrifying antimatter bird from another galaxy, with its Muppet eyes, shock of troll hair, and teeth (teeth?) looks like one of those marionettes you buy by the side of the road outside of Tijuana. It is quite possibly the goofiest monster ever meant to be taken seriously in a film. Between the way it looks and the way it sounds, as you watch this movie, you’ll be laughing whenever you’re not saying, “Hey, science doesn’t work that way.” You’ll also be wondering why they bothered with all that nuclear stuff when they could have just cut its strings.
