The Vulture (1967 film)

The Vulture is a 1967 American/Canadian/British horror film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Robert Hutton, Akim Tamiroff, Broderick Crawford, and Diane Clare.

Plot
One stormy night in Cornwall, schoolteacher Ellen West becomes hysterical when she sees a gigantic bird with a human face fly out of the open grave of Francis Real, an 18th-century seaman. Real, buried alive with a huge, murderous bird he had found in the South Pacific, had sworn vengeance on all descendants of Squire Stroud, the man who ordered his interment; nevertheless, Brian Stroud, the present squire, is unconcerned by the prophecy of doom.

American scientist Eric Lutyens, husband of Brian's niece Trudy, is troubled when he finds the mutilated body of a sheep in what appears to be a vulture's nest. He visits Professor Koniglich, a scientist friend of Brian's who believes himself to be a descendant of Real, and correctly surmises that Koniglich had attempted to disintegrate his own body in the grave and reassemble it through nuclear energy; unfortunately, the professor had failed to consider the bird buried there, and a mutation resulted.

Before Eric can warn the Strouds, Brian and his brother Edward are found dead on a cliffside, and Trudy is carried away to the same site by the bird after she is lured to Koniglich's house. At the cliff, Eric finds his wife threatened by the beast with Koniglich's head and screams at her to use the gun he had given her. Trudy shoots the bird and it crashes to its death on the rocks below; Eric then weights it with an anchor, tows it out to sea, and sinks it.

Cast

 * Robert Hutton as Dr. Eric Lutens
 * Akim Tamiroff as Prof. Hans Koniglich/the Vulture
 * Broderick Crawford as Brian F. Stroud
 * Diane Clare as Trudy Lutens
 * Philip Friend as vicar
 * Patrick Holt as Jarvis
 * Annette Carell as Ellen West
 * Edward Caddick as Melcher, the sexton
 * Gordon Sterne as Edward Stroud
 * Keith McConnell as Superintendent Wendell
 * Margaret Robinson as nurse

Production
The script was based on an original story by Huntington which was first known as Manutara. He sold it to producer Jack O. Lamont who managed to get some financing from Paramount provided American names were cast in the leads. The remainder of the £50,000 budget was raised from Britain's Homeric Films and NFFC along with Canada's Ihod Productions. The Vulture was written under the title Minotaur. The film was shot in Cornwall in 1965, on a budget of CAD$200,000.

Release
The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and premiered in Portland, Oregon, on 31 December 1966. The film was shown in black and white in the United States.

Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A pitifully stilted horror film, in which the characters stand around either speculating, scoffing or helpfully disbursing yards of background information, and in which the only moment of splendour comes with the appearance of the monster, seen coyly from the waist down as a pair of vast, knobbly-kneed talons. Akim Tamiroff, hobbling about in flowing black cloak as a sort of reincarnation of Dr. Caligari, does his best with some fatuous dialogue: but the rest is ashes."

TV Guide awarded the film one out of four stars, writing " Ridiculous casting makes this one a laugh riot."