Man Beast

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.

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.

This was the unequaled Jerry Warren's first production. He didn't write it so it's not as goofy as, say, "The Wild World of Batwoman" or "Frankenstein Island". For a low-budget B-movie it does alright for itself. There are probably too many shots of people hiking in the mountains, but the dialogue seems realistic in most scenes and the story does build nicely to an unexpected climax. In fact, Varga's revelation is kind of creepy. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to find it, but if it came across my path I'd check it out.

"SEE YETI. DIE".

...says the guide to the Himalayan expedition group, and subsequently disappears shortly thereafter. I'd like to say die laughing, but it's really just a bleached recycled gorilla suit a la King Kong 1933, but with a modified headdress. Is that a spoiler? I felt like I almost died of boredom the first 2/3 of this spare, slim, exact hour of a cheapie, but that first 40 minutes already feels like over an hour of constant tedious discussion of Yetilore, lotsa stock footage of mountain trekking till things actually start to happen, and I have to admit the climax wasn't as lame as I would have expected. But totally devoid of any style or flair, the sorry script not helped by stagy acting and perfunctory, static camera work.

This wasn't that bad, you only have to sit through this film for only 67 minutes, its sort of a quick story about the growing popularity of Yetis, Abdominale Snowmen, the Sasquatch, etc... in the 1950s, which grew its highest in the 70s. "Man Beast" is a fun movie too watch if you're not feeling critical about movies at the time. ... Plus, there's not as much talk in this as there is in other bad 50s b-sci fi films.