THE VULTURE

UK/Canada/US, 1967, 91 minutes, Colour.
Robert Hutton, Akim Tamiroff, Broderick Crawford, Diane Clare, Philip Friend, Patrick Holt.
Directed by Lawrence Huntingdon.

The Vulture is an odd, rather quiet horror science fiction. It is a Canadian/British co-production.

The film deals with the occult and science - memories of an abuse of justice in the 18th century when a man wss buried alive with a vulture. His German descendant returns to England (with an extraordinarv cellar full of contemporary scientific equipment) and fails in his attempts to transform the dead man to life - with the result that the mad scientist ultimatelv finishes up as a combination human vulture. He spends the film terrorising the descendents of the family who buried his ancestor alive.

There are the expected horrors (though not strongly visually presented). There is also the police obtuseness. There is the vicar who has a parchment with the story and who becomes involved in helping to unravel the case.

Akim Tamiroff is the mad scientist who is the vulture – a film at the end of his career. Broderick Crawford is one of the victims. Robert Hutton is a rather craggy nuclear scientist who becomes involved in solving the case.

Routine material, of interest to film buffs of the horror genre - but strong on talk, not so strong on psvchological credibility or even spectacular horror effects.