Man Beast (1956)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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.

Jerry Warren's take on the abominable snowman is most likely his finest work as well as an exciting adventure starring George Skaff and cute Virginia 'Asa' Maynor.Virginia travels up to the Himalayas to search for her missing brother. Along the way, she and her party encounter the big yeti and get an unexpected surprise. Jerry Warren did a good job of directing; this film was probably the second yeti movie ever made after W. Lee Wilder's 'The Snow Creature' (1954).Recommended as a companion piece to Wilder's film or next to one of Warren's other movies, such as 'The Incredible Petrified World' (1958).

When I found out that the next movie on my groups list was a film directed by Jerry ("Wild Wild World Of Batwoman") Warren, I was resigned to the prospect of consuming the cinema equivalent of a sh*t sandwich. My consolation: "Batwoman" was one of those bad films that is SO bad that it's perversely fun to watch...so I was hoping for the same kind of entertainment value from "Man Beast".To my surprise, "Man Beast" was halfway decent. It wasn't a good film by any means: The leading lady and her first suitor are as wooden and clunky as you'd expect.The logic of the screen play falls apart in several places. Some of the dialog is pretty risible. And the cast spends most of its time in the "Himalayas" wearing clothing more suited to a walk in the woods in autumn. But still, there were moments in this film where I didn't want to wash my face with broken glass to distract myself from the proceedings.A couple things save this film from the usual dismal fate of JW productions: for once, his use of stock footage is reasonably well integrated with the rest of the stuff he actually shot himself. There's some decent bits of stage business and a couple of good "reveals" that pump some energy into some scenes. A couple of his actors are decent - the dashing he man guide who eventually usurps the girl's affections can deliver his lines, the actor who plays the professor manages a low key, believable performance. And "Varga" is an interesting character - both his makeup and costume "design" and the motivations of his character (and the revelation of his big secret) add some chewiness to the movie.But in the end, it's still a Jerry Warren film....Jerry Warren, a director who insists on undoing any good impression he might have made in the first part of the movie with a "Yeti attack" scene that is disconnected and impossible to follow, and who ends the movie with a 'huh?' moment (the surviving couple escape when Varga, a character who is part Yeti and who has lived in the mountains all his life, proves incompetent at pounding in a crampon and falls to his death as he tries to rappel after them.) I wouldn't seek this one out, but if you are trapped into watching it, at least you won't need to gnaw your leg off to escape.

When I was a kid, "Man-Beast" was one of my favorite Saturday morning TV low-budget "shockers" - at 67 minutes, it's not hard on one's attention span, and there's a fair amount of footage of the eponymous monsters. I also liked the exotic Himalayan locales (brought to cinematic life via loads of stock footage - probably half of the film is stock footage, in fact - and a somewhat ridiculous looking "village" in the first scene).when view by an adult, "Man-Beast" is still fun for those reasons, even if one looks at it with more of a jaundiced eye. The acting ranges from laughable (the heroine) to surprisingly good (the villainous Varga), and the Yeti costume, while not exactly state-of-the-art, still delivers the requisite monster action. The stock footage of Alpine hikers is fairly seamlessly incorporated into the remainder of the film - it's no worse than the stock footage found in, say, "Lost Horizon", and better than the African safari stock footage of "Monster from Green Hell".*SPOILER* The climactic scene in which Varga reveals the nature of his parentage to the professor is likewise more effectively scary than one might expect, although I didn't quite know what to make of his "half-Yeti" costume - it looked like his torso was wrapped in cellophane. (But then, goofy moments like these are one of the reasons that "Man-Beast" and its ilk are still legitimate entertainment after all these years ...)***