The Abominable Snowman Of The Himalayas!

I don't remember when it was exactly during my boyhood, but some Halloween or other during one of those luscious all-night film fests they used to have I stayed up, clinging to wakefulness and watched this Hammer movie through. It scared the bejeezus out of me then, and still unsettles me a little today. It plays neatly against expectations, setting up a somewhat chatty and somber story about the usual gaggle of Western types (a hunter, a huckster, a scientist, a sensitive) and throws them up on a mountain to find the elusive myth. Whether they will find anything at all is kept at bay for a good long time, and then only in masterfully controlled bits and pieces.

It turns out the Abominable Snowman is real, but he isn't all that "abominable" after all. These are wisemen of the mountains, incredibly long-lived giants with thoughtful eyes and gentle ways who don't harm people directly, but sadly do act as catalysts that cause men to bring harm to themselves. It's that Val Guest chose consciously to hide the creatures, giving only glimpses that makes them such powerful images in my mind. I've seen scuds of bigfoot and yeti movies, but none are so moving or memorable as this one which shows us almost nothing. Guest knew quite well that my mind could conjure a creature far more awesome than anything possible by special effects of the time. He was right.

 

There is a curious commentary on the DVD, offering up both the comments of both Val Guest the director and Nigel Kneale the writer. It seems that these two have squabbled a bit about this movie in the past, or at least done interviews expressing contrary views. The two are interviewed separately but the interviews are run concurrently. This creates some duplication in information, but does offer up some interesting counterpoints as well. Both men seem to respect one another's talent, or express that anyway, but clearly they differed on how this movie should've worked. Guest defends his decision to keep the creatures off camera and Kneale clearly thinks though it was a brave decision it undermines the final effect. Kneale seems in particular to want to say nicer things about the movie than he has perhaps in the past, and is in the unique position to contrast the film version with the BBC TV version first done. He ultimately says that changes in the film version help the story.

One thing I did learn is that the Himalayas shown in the movie are actually the Pyrenees and finally getting to see the movie in widescreen, it's possible to really enjoy the setting completely. Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker star in this B&W Hammer movie, and they form a neat contrast. Cushing offers a quiet if nimble screen presence while Tucker is bombast personified. The other actors, typical of Hammer films, are solid pros and the movie though a bit stagey in places nonetheless delivers a pointed morality tale of man looking for the unknown, and as most often is the case, finding only the truth about himself.

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Eye On The Trollenberg Terror!

The Crawling Eye, which is the name under which I first encountered this above-average sci-fi monster flick has some merit, despite its infamy as one of the victims of  Mystery Science Theater 3000. First and foremost it has Forrest Tucker, a tough as nails leading man with a booming voice and commanding presence who doesn't allow any movie to disappear him. That said, Tucker has his hands full in the finale of this memorable mountaineering spectacle.

Originally titled The Trollenberg Terror (much more intriguing title I think), this tale began as a British television serial, much like the very evocative Quatermass yarns. That said, the Brits have a neat trick of infusing what is actually a supernatural story with a smidge of science fiction and the blend samples very nicely. That works here also, to a degree.

Mild spoilers beginneth. 

The story begins at the top of the Trollenberg, a mountain in somewhere-Switzerland in which we find three climbers dealing with the tragic death of one of their number which not loses him his life but also his head. Cut to the train and our hero Alan Brooks (Tucker) and two beautiful sisters Sarah and Anne Pilgrim, played by Jennifer Jane and Janet Munro respectively. The latter is a telepath and it comes clear quickly she's connected to whatever is the matter at the top of the Trollenberg.  They stop in the village at the bottom and soon we find ourselves at an observatory tucked partway up the mountain which is tracking cosmic rays and a mysterious unmoving cloud on the Trollenberg slope. Quickly we meet Professor Crevett who knows Brooks from another mystery mountain, that one in the Andes. They are coy about what happened but eventually we learn they were dealing with possible alien invaders. They suspect the same here, but before they can investigate more hideous murders begin and frosty reanmimated murderers lurk around many a corner. Eventually we get a glimpse of the aliens, but they're pretty unimpressive, giant bulbous heads with single eyes and singularly puny tentacles. There's some thrashing about but eventually mankind once again staves off the threat...for now.

Spoilers endeth.

What have here is a pretty handy mystery with some proper dastardly and vicious murderers and some top-notch suspense before the final ten minutes gives us something else again. Tucker does the best he can with the part he's given which descends into some real stupidity by the finale, though he does okay before then.

Whatever the Brits bring to sci-fi is present here, a style which I really react to, but truth told the revelation of the neatly anticipated threat is somewhat of a letdown. But getting there was a whole lot of fun.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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The Trollenberg Terror!

The Crawling Eye, which is the name under which I first encountered this above-average sci-fi monster flick has some merit, despite its infamy as one of the victims of  Mystery Science Theater 3000. First and foremost it has Forrest Tucker, a tough as nails leading man with a booming voice and commanding presence who doesn't allow any movie to disappear him. That said, Tucker has his hands full in the finale of this memorable mountaineering spectacle.

Originally titled The Trollenberg Terror (much more intriguing title I think), this tale began as a British television serial, much like the very evocative Quatermass yarns. That said, the Brits have a neat trick of infusing what is actually a supernatural story with a smidge of science fiction and the blend samples very nicely. That works here also, to a degree.

Mild spoilers beginneth. 

The story begins at the top of the Trollenberg, a mountain in somewhere-Switzerland in which we find three climbers dealing with the tragic death of one of their number which not loses him his life but also his head. Cut to the train and our hero Alan Brooks (Tucker) and two beautiful sisters Sarah and Anne Pilgrim, played by Jennifer Jane and Janet Munro respectively. The latter is a telepath and it comes clear quickly she's connected to whatever is the matter at the top of the Trollenberg.  They stop in the village at the bottom and soon we find ourselves at an observatory tucked partway up the mountain which is tracking cosmic rays and a mysterious unmoving cloud on the Trollenberg slope. Quickly we meet Professor Crevett who knows Brooks from another mystery mountain, that one in the Andes. They are coy about what happened but eventually we learn they were dealing with possible alien invaders. They suspect the same here, but before they can investigate more hideous murders begin and frosty reanmimated murderers lurk around many a corner. Eventually we get a glimpse of the aliens, but they're pretty unimpressive, giant bulbous heads with single eyes and singularly puny tentacles. There's some thrashing about but eventually mankind once again staves off the threat...for now.

Spoilers endeth.

What have here is a pretty handy mystery with some proper dastardly and vicious murderers and some top-notch suspense before the final ten minutes gives us something else again. Tucker does the best he can with the part he's given which descends into some real stupidity by the finale, though he does okay before then.

Whatever the Brits bring to sci-fi is present here, a style which I really react to, but truth told the revelation of the neatly anticipated threat is somewhat of a letdown. But getting there was a whole lot of fun.

Rip Off

The Abominable Snowman!

I've at long last gotten a copy of this Hammer classic. And with all the snow we've gotten in the last few days, I can't imagine a more ironic time for it to arrive.

I don't remember when it was exactly during my boyhood, but some Halloween or other during one of those luscious all-night film fests they used to have I stayed up, clinging to wakefulness and watched this Hammer movie through. It scared the bejeezus out of me then, and still unsettles me a little today. It plays neatly against expectations, setting up a somewhat chatty and somber story about the usual gaggle of Western types (a hunter, a huckster, a scientist, a sensitive) and throws them up on a mountain to find the elusive myth. Whether they will find anything at all is kept at bay for a good long time, and then only in masterfully controlled bits and pieces.

It turns out the Abominable Snowman is real, but isn't all that "abominable" at all. These are wisemen of the mountains, incredibly long-lived giants with thoughtful eyes and gentle ways who don't harm people directly, but sadly do act as catalysts that cause men to bring harm to themselves. It's that Val Guest chose consciously to hide the creatures, giving only glimpses that makes them such powerful images in my mind. I've seen scuds of bigfoot and yeti movies, but none are so moving or memorable as this one which shows us almost nothing. Guest knew quite well that my mind could conjure a creature far more awesome than anything possible by special effects of the time. He was right.

There is a curious commentary on the dvd I got, offering up the comments of both Val Guest the director and Nigel Kneale the writer. It seems that these two have squabble a bit about this movie in the past, or at least done interviews expressing contrary views. The two are interviewed separately but the interviews are run concurrently. This creates some duplication in information, but does offer up some interesting counterpoint. Both men seem to respect one another's talent, or express that anyway, but clearly they differed on how this movie should've worked. Guest defends his decision to keep the creatures off camera and Kneale clearly thinks though it was a brave decision it undermines the final effect. Kneale seems in particular to want to say nicer things about the movie than he has perhaps in the past, and is in the unique position to contrast the film version with the BBC TV version first done. He ultimately says that changes in the film version help the story.

One thing I did learn is that the Himalayas shown in the movie are actually the Pyrenees and finally getting to see the movie in widescreen, it's possible to really enjoy the setting completely.

Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker star in this B&W Hammer movie, and they form a neat contrast. Cushing offers a quiet if nimble screen presence while Tucker is bombast personified. The other actors, typical of Hammer films, are solid pros and the movie though a bit stagey in places nonetheless delivers a pointed morality tale of man looking for the unknown, and as most often is the case, finding only the truth about himself.

Rip Off