Review: The Abominable Snowman

American adventurer Forrest Tucker joins scientist Peter Cushing on an expedition in the Himalayas to find the Abominable Snowman, AKA Yeti. The American sees dollar signs in capturing the creature and putting it on show for the curious, paying customer. They need to survive first, and capture it second. Maureen Connell is Cushing’s main squeeze, with Brit actor Robert Brown playing Tucker’s fellow American, and Richard Wattis playing Cushing’s learned colleague.

 

Released the same year as the profitable “The Curse of Frankenstein”, this 1957 film from director Val Guest (“Hell is a City”, “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”, “Killer Force”) and writer Nigel Kneale (“Quatermass and the Pit”), was one of Hammer Studios’ earliest genre pictures. More “King Kong”-style adventure/expedition flick than horror film, it’s not one of Hammer’s more well-known films. It might seem a bit more American B-movie than Hammer film at times, but it’s nonetheless a perfectly solid, enjoyable film. In fact, it’d be even better without all the cutaways to Maureen Connell’s rather melodramatic token female character. As good as veteran Brit character actor Richard Wattis is alongside her, those scenes are clearly unnecessary padding.

 

Rugged American actor Forrest Tucker is a good choice as the John Wayne-esque man-of-action, though he’s also got a bit of an enterprising capitalist quality in what is a rather “King Kong”-esque plot development. Also good here is the dependable Peter Cushing (who also played the role in the original BBC version of Kneale’s story) as his less American, less rugged counterpart. The B&W cinematography by Hammer regular Arthur Grant (“Hell is a City”, “The Devil Rides Out”, “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”) is damn good, though the budget shows a bit when you get to the very fake studio-lensed mountain shots. Still, it’s a Hammer film from the 1950s about a Yeti, not a David Lean epic.

 

Seemingly more of an American-style B-picture than the kind of Gothic horror Hammer Studios found their stock in trade in. So I can understand it not being one of their more popular efforts. However, this is an enjoyable film nonetheless, and has an important place in Hammer history as one of their earliest genre efforts. Good fun.

 

Rating: B-  

 

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