Man Beast
Entry updated 6 September 2019. Tagged: Film.
Film (1956). Jerry Warren Productions/Associated Producers Inc. Produced by Ralph Brooke and Jerry Warren. Directed by Warren. Written by B Arthur Cassidy. Cast includes George Wells Lewis, Rock Madison (see below), Asa Manor (credited as Virginia Maynor), Tom Maruzzi and George Skaff. 67 minutes. Black and white.
Connie Hayward (Maynor) plans a rescue expedition to search for her missing brother, who vanished in the Himalayas while on a quest for the legendary Abominable Snowman (see Apes as Human). Her party includes rugged Steve Cameron (Maruzzi) and Scientist Dr Eric Erickson (Lewis). At the man's last reported location deep in the mountain range, they find only a curious Sherpa guide, Varga (Skaff). He agrees to help with the search, but the party is soon attacked by several of the fabled Monsters, who kill two members of the group. It proves that Connie's brother had been slain by them previously, a fact which Varga knew. Events take a bizarre turn when Varga reveals that he is a half-Yeti hybrid who for reasons not explained wishes to breed his species out of existence by mating with humanity. Connie is to play an unpleasant role in this plan, but an avalanche kills Varga and the Yeti. Connie and Cameron are left to enjoy their own implied romance.
The Yeti myth inspired several 1950s Horror in SF films inside and outside the US. This example, though not the worst of Warren's films, is not very well made. "Rock Madison" is a fictional credit added to make the cast seem larger than it actually was. The best 1950s Yeti movie is undoubtedly the Hammer Film Productions/Warner Brothers The Abominable Snowman (1957). [GSt]
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