Q: The Winged Serpent

Larry Cohen shoots a monster movie in the middle of a New York cop drama and lets Michael Moriarty walk away with the whole thing. An Aztec god nests in the spire of the Chrysler Building and picks off rooftop sunbathers, while a twitchy small-time crook who knows where it lives tries to leverage the secret. Moriarty's jittery, improvised performance is the real special effect.

Cohen made it fast and guerrilla-style, and the stop-motion creature is charmingly ropey, but the film is really a character study wearing a creature feature. David Carradine and Richard Roundtree play the cops chasing both.

Odd, funny and anchored by a great performance.