NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (August 2021): Arrow have also transferred Fred F. Sears' The Giant Claw to Blu-ray. It is part of their Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman which includes Creature with the Atom Brain, The Werewolf, Zombies of Mora Tau and The Giant Claw. All four films were on a 2007 DVD set from Sony (reviewed HERE.) They have a reputation for their meager quality... perhaps the primary reason, along with the genre itself, why I love them so much. The i-catcher Media (Sidonis) Blu-ray of The Giant Claw from 2017 is, predictably, a notch below. The German 1080P isn't bad but is single-layered showing a few compression artifacts while the Arrow has better grains support and a slightly tighter image. The Arrow is cleaner - they even removed marks from the stock footage - see below. 

NOTE: We have added 46 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Arrow use a DTS-HD Master mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Giant Claw has some cheesy audio effects that come through authentically flat as does the dramatic score by Mischa Bakaleinikoff (The Crooked Web, Cell 2455 Death Row, Comanche Station, It Came from Beneath the Sea, New Orleans Uncensored, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The 27th Day, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Lady for a Day.) sounding clean with consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. The Region 'B' i-catcher Blu-ray has optional German subtitles and a German DUB - while Arrow offers optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The i-catcher offers two German commentaries (unfortunately neither English-friendly.) The Arrow Blu-ray offers a new commentary by critics Emma Westwood and Cerise Howard. Emma is the author of The Fly (Devils Advocates.)  They have a lot of fun with this title while also exporting some keen information about Katzman, the low budget and more. There is also a new 12-minute introduction by critic Kim Newman where he discusses Katzman's roots as a 13-year old prop boy and working with with Producer Charles H. Schneer and special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. I enjoyed the new 13-minute visual essay by critic Mike White, entitled "Family Endangered" examining the theme of Cold War paranoia in Sam Katzman monster movies. Like the i-catcher the Arrow includes a condensed Super 8mm version of The Giant Claw, produced for home cinema viewing and running 6.5-minutes. There is also a theatrical trailer and image gallery on the Arrow and it's 4 Blu-ray Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman package sports reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork for each film by Matt Griffin, a fully illustrated 60-page collector’s book featuring extensive new writing by Laura Drazin Boyes, Neil Mitchell, Barry Forshaw, Jon Towlson and Jackson Cooper, an 80-page collector’s art book featuring reproduction stills and artwork from each film and new writing by historian and critic Stephen R. Bissette and 2 double-sided posters featuring newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin.   

The Giant Claw is incorrectly identified as the 'worst' creature-feature - but instead, is simply the cheesiest. The liberal use of weak stock footage, minimal on-screen time of the creature plenty of shadows), visibility of wires and the awkward 'puppet' visuals - support this, low-budget, claim. It has the iconic Jeff Morrow ( a favorite - This Island Earth) and appealing Mara Corday (The Quiet Gun, Tarantula, Man Without a Star). The Blu-ray from Arrow has a commentary, intro by Kim Newman, visual essay and the package has booklets. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the film especially with its charismatic flaws. One of the great creature-feature throwaways of the era. No collection is complete without it on Blu-ray.

Gary Tooze