Man Beast

It is almost impossible to discuss the 1956 yeti movie "Man Beast" without making comparisons to the British film "The Abominable Snowman," which came out the following year. While the latter film features the stars Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker, "Man Beast" boasts the "talents" of Virginia Maynor (who acts atrociously and doesn't even provide the requisite eye candy) and action lead Tom Maruzzi. And while the Brit film boasts a literate script and interesting characters...well, let's just say that the American film again comes off second best. But perhaps the most telling difference of all is that whereas "Snowman" only teases us with occasional glimpses of the yetis, seemingly adhering to Val Lewton's unspoken credo that the viewer's imagination can supply far more terror than anything shown on a screen, "Man Beast" shoves the yetis in our faces again and again. Fortunately, for red-blooded monster fans, this is not altogether a bad thing. The snowmen do look pretty scary here, especially in the film's finest scene, in which the yetis attack our heroes for the first time, in a dark cave. This scene is filmed largely in silence, and in somewhat slow motion, and is pretty darn nightmarish. As reported in the fine book "Sleaze Creatures," stock footage and filming in the hills of Bishop, CA do a decent job of simulating the Himalayan locale. Still, at least half of the film's compact 63-minute running time consists of scenic shots of our band plodding through the snow. Bottom line: This is a fun hour at the movies, inferior to the Brit version as it may be. Oh--the DVD here is nice and clean looking, but scratchy in spots, and with no extras to speak of.

In Director Jerry Warren's MAN BEAST, a trio of climbers sets out on an expedition in the Himalayan mountains, in search of Dr. Eric Erickson. Once they find him, it's still quite a slog up the mountains in search of the brother of the only woman in the group (Asa Maynor).

Soon, sheer horror ensues. Well, sort of. When the titular terror finally makes its appearance, it's a bit underwhelming to say the least. However, though inept in every way, this film gets credit for being an early entry in the Bigfoot / Yeti / Abominable Snowman movie subgenre.

In spite of this, be prepared for soul-squeezing dullness beyond description. This is a Jerry Warren movie after all, setting the tone for all of his future brain hammers...

No illusions from me here. This movie is bad. Real bad. In fact, it's a stinker. A woman and a guy named "Hud"(wants to be her boyfriend I think) hire he-man/guide into the Himalayas Steve Cameron to find her brother. Turns out her brother is part of an expedition to find the famed yeti creatures. Well, along the journey we meet up with the lead professor of the mission and his native guide named Varga. Are there yeti creatures? Big surprise. Are they made up fairly interestingly? Not real bad. What is real bad is the acting. It is bad and everyone in the movie is bad. The woman playing Connie looks off to the side trying to feign interest while wearing enough make-up in the Himalayas to be mistaken for a hooker! The guy playing Steve is even worse. Catch the scene where he and Connie are talking at the fire near the beginning. He actually looks like he is looking directly into the camera lens with virtually no shame. The gentleman playing the rounded, bald professor fairs just a tinge better, and the best performance of all these bad ones goes to the guy playing Varga. He at least can ham it up a bit. The story makes no sense when you hear the resolution. It is in its favor a very short film and is mildly entertaining for all of its faults and flaws.

Got the video of this in a lot of horror films that we bought, and was surprised at how well done this little low-budget film was. It definitely stands as one of the better Yeti films of the period, most of them are fairly sluggish and without any real terror. This one is just over an hour, and has a nice pace with a concise story. Good acting by all except the female lead, good locations that are mostly realistic (except for some shrubs sticking out of the snow in an area where no shrubs would exist), fairly scary Yeti creatures. Some may not like the idea presented here that the Yeti are dangerous to humans, and perhaps prefer to think of them as kind and peaceful, how some other films portray Yeti, but let's remember that Yeti have not been proved to exist and are most likely imaginary creatures. Sorry to pop the politically-correct balloon regarding Yeti.

Which is surprising, given the nature of schlock purveyor Jerry Warrens' subsequent output. This entry in the yeti genre of the 1950s may be silly at times and not 100% convincing, but it's also pretty atmospheric, even spooky. Granted, the appearances of the monster were laugh inducing for this viewer, but the effects certainly could have been worse. The acting isn't as abominable as one might expect, and the protagonists aren't unlikable people. In addition, there's a delicious revelation from our primary antagonist.

Working from a screenplay by B. Arthur Cassidy, Warren tells the tale of young and headstrong Connie Hayward (Asa Maynor), who launches an expedition into the Himalayas in search of her missing brother Jim, in the company of worrywart friend Trevor Hudson (Lloyd Nelson). They meet up with others in the area including Steve Cameron (Tom Maruzzi) and Dr. Erickson (George Wells Lewis), and come to learn that local stories about beast-men aren't as crazy as they might think. What's more, their guide, Varga (George Skaff), seems to have a hidden agenda.

This viewer admits that he had a pretty good time with this one, although it helps if one is partial to monster movies and horror features set in mountainous or snowy environments. Another good thing is that Warren ensured that the running time remained very brief; there are versions running both 63 minutes and 67 minutes. Only the resolution really fell short of being satisfying.

Incidentally, Maruzzi is actually billed twice, once under his own name and once under the phony matinée idol pseudonym Rock Madison given to him by Warren. The pretty Maynor can also be seen in "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", and co-stars Skaff and Nelson had pretty extensive careers afterwards; Skaff did other genre films such as "Frogs", "Exorcist II: The Heretic", and John Carpenters' 'Someone's Watching Me!', and Nelson became a frequent script supervisor and bit player in Clint Eastwood vehicles.

A decent watch overall.

Seven out of 10.