The Steel Claw is a 1961 wartime drama set in the Philippines during World War II.

It is an action-adventure film about a handicapped former Marine on a mission to rescue an officer in the early days of the Japanese invasion.

John Larsen, a Marine, stationed in the Philippines, loses a hand in an accident and is discharged from the Corps.

An American general is held captive by Filipino guerrillas behind Japanese lines and Larsen is later re-enlisted to rescue him.

He fastens a steel prosthetic hook, the "steel claw" of the title, and embarks on the mission to rescue the general which leads him and his team, (his pal Santana and a band of guerillas), deep into the Philippines where love and death await them.