Island Claws (1980)

What's Happening: Mutant crabs attack residents at Florida island
Famous For: Co-written by Ricou Browning
Swimming underwater as the Creature (from the Black Lagoon), Browning played the most famous uncredited role mentioned in this book. But he later co-created the Flipper TV series and co-wrote this mildly entertaining and mildly campy giant crab picture. Alongside Browning, the other notable presence is Robert Lansing, who fought giant ants in Empire of the Ants. Here Lansing plays a local Irishman who distrusts a nuclear plant magnate with a blonde daughter. Island Crabs (Claws) is lively enough, an apparently sincere effort all around. But it's too obviously derivative, never surprising. I admired the absence of cardboard greedy bad guy characters, but I missed any interesting characters to take their place. The crabs - biological experiments accidentally tainted by nuclear waste - are normal-sized at first. Their lethargic "attacks" are pretty funny. A giant crab appears for the final 18 minutes, realized by a decent truck-sized puppet. Its roar reminded me of the gargon from Teenagers from Outer Space.

Goldweber, David Elroy (2012-06-14). Claws & Saucers: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film: A Complete Guide: 1902-1982 (Kindle Locations 39970-39983). David E. Goldweber. Kindle Edition.

As one can see in the above still, the normal sized crabs don't seem too dangerous and I'm unclear as to how another female victim got her arm mutilated by these (nothing is shown). Lansing's dog also gets it. Another weird local, Lansing's pianist, who lives in a small bus gets burned up and something turns the bus over. The other known actor is Barry Nelson, as the local head researcher; I think his growth hormones cause the eventual creation of larger crabs (but we don't see these either, except the one big one in the final act). Nelson also appeared in Kubrick's The Shining the same year. Nita Talbot co-stars as Lansing's woman who helps him run his bar. Lansing's Irish accent fades in and out. The subplot about the blonde's magnate father mentioned above doesn't really exist; he appears in one scene and nothing more is shown of him. There's also a subplot about a small group of Haitians who sneak onto the island for food and are briefly blamed for the deaths thanks to a local moron with kneejerk attitudes. Most of this reminded me of Frogs (72) - the same easygoing pace - while the climax was more of Food of the Gods (76). Some of the night scenes are too dark - maybe for a reason.  BoG's Score: 4 out of 10

Star Trek TOS actor alert: Lansing is still best known for playing Gary-7 in the episode Assignment:Earth, pilot for a non-starter show