The Abominable Snowman [1957]

The picture quality is stunning for such an old film. And to know that many of the outdoor and indoor Himalayan sets were put together in England is astounding. The sound is crips and clean. And the picture is animorphic Widescreen for those lucky enough to have a Widescreen TV.

If you don't know the story, briefly, Dr. John Rollason (Cushing) is a gentle, humane scientist working in the Himalayas with his wife and friend/co-worker, supposedly catalouging rare plantlife in a hostile region. We discover shortly that American explorer and exploiter, Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) and his partner (Played by Robert Brown) are hooking up with Rollason for an expedition to find the one, true Yeti. Both men are driven, one by the purity of science and humanity, the other by his greed and hunger for fame. They are pushed to the limits in an hostile world that can kill at anytime. And when they come face-to-face with the Yeti, the clash of personalities no longer matters, because each man must now face his own fears alone with the only true weapons that will work; their strengths, and their weaknesses.

This was a pretty giant production for Hammer. And they handled it wonderfully, giving us B-Horror hungry fans something a giant step above flesh-eating monsters and alien invaders; they gave us an intellegent, thinking-man's adventure story.


Hunting for the Yeti ... at Bray Studios.   December 2, 2003
S. Hapgood
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

You never lose sight for one moment that this film was shot entirely in a studio, but having said that it still does manage to attain some of the atmosphere of what is supposed to be a remote Tibetan monastery, and the library footage of real mountaineering expeditions I thought was cut in fairly well. Peter Cushing, Richard Wattis and Maureen Connell are holed up at the monastery awaiting the arrival of brash Forrest Tucker and his American team, all intent on tracking down the Yeti.

Cushing gradually becomes convinced that the creature isn't some gruesome monster to be snared, but instead may be simply another race of human who (somewhat wisely) choose to live out of the access of other humans. Nigel Kneale's scripts are always thoughtful and intelligent, but this is one very rare occasion where I feel his thoughtfulness lets down the film. Just when you WANT hairy, predatory B-movie monsters, for a bit of light entertainment, you get some kind of politically-correct lecture about what snivelling greedy wretches we humans are instead! Inevitably then, when we do finally get to see the monster, he looks simply like a rather bewildered-looking distant relation to Father Christmas!

That said, this is still an entertaining watch for vintage horror buffs. Cushing gives his customary committed performance, (I don't think he ever gave less than a 100%), and Richard Wattis is fun as the man who looks like he'd be more at home behind a desk at the local bank, than up a mountain in the Himalayas. Forrest Tucker shouts and crashes around as the cartoon American (in the 1950s a British film wasn't considered saleable unless it had an American actor in it). Arnold Warle is rather disappointing and lacklustre as the Dalai Lama. The film is strong on atmosphere, and is particularly effective when the team begin to suffer hallucinations and altitude sickness, a certain eerieness is achieved then. My VHS tape had poor images at times, as in the monastery scenes where the actors looked as though they had been put on a rack and stretched an extra foot, so I don't know what the DVD version is like.


Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker take on the fabled Yeti   March 31, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

"The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas" finds botanist John Rollason (Peter Cushing) encounters American Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) at a monastery and joins a sortie led by Friend to find the legendary Yeti. The crass American wants to bring the Abominable Snowman back as a carnival exhibit. However accidents, Friend's recklessness and the Yeti methodically reduce the membership of the expedition. Finally, only Friend and Rollason are left to face the Yeti. This 1957 film was one of the earliest Hammer pictures, made just before "The Curse of Frankenstein" put the studio on the map and created its signature style. The script by Nigel Kneale is actually adapted from "The Creature," a one-act teleplay broadcast in 1955 that also starred Cushing. As the creator of the Quartermass series, Kneale's scripts for "The Quartermass Experiment" (a.k.a. "The Creeping Unknown") and "The Enemy from Space" (a.k.a "Quartermass II") had laid the foundation for Hammer's future success. Again director Val Guest was brought in to work behind the camera. Kneale's script is first rate and suffers only at the end when the confrontation with the Yeti fails to meet our heightened expectations. Guest's direction is limited because the set for the Himalayan mountainside was on the studio's back lot, intercut with stock footage of mountaineering that fails to convey any sense of reality. Cushing's performance is solid, as you would expect, and he works well off the blustery Tucker, who gets to ham it up as the high-handed American. This DVD includes audio commentary by Guest and Kneale, the original theatrical trailer, and the Peter Cushing segment from "World of Hammer."


What if we are the savages?   June 17, 2005
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing who played Winston Smith in "1984") leaves his lovely devoted wife Helen (Maureen Connell) behind to become part of an expedition that includes Dr. Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) and others; each has their own agenda. The local Lama (Arnold Marlẻ) knows what they seek and that that each person in the expedition may find what he seeks.

The encounter turns out a tad different than you would suspect. We find we are up against survivors with more ability than planed on.

Will they survive?
If anyone should survive will he/she have learned something?
What about you?

One year later Forrest Tucker one again chances the cold Alps to find "The Crawling Eye" (1958)


AN EARLY HAMMER HORROR FILM   August 8, 2007
stuart (MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The Abominable Snowman treats its subject matter with the kind of respect usually reserved for something far more serious than a low-budget film about the mythical Yeti. It would have been easy to allow the whole production to sink to the level of exploitation, but it never does. The horror is subdued and really only surfaces in the final act. The movie is not without its creepy moments as the men fear for their lives in an alien landscape of ice and mountains. The remainder of the intelligent script focuses on the relationship between the scientist and the showman and asks the question "Who is the real monster?"

The Abominable Snowman is an unusually subdued movie from The Studio that Dripped Blood. Released the same year as The Curse of Frankenstein and a year before Horror of Dracula, The Abominable Snowman lacks the garish colors and the bright red blood that helped to make Hammer so famous. It may lack what I call the Hammer Color, but it's one of the best looking Hammer films I've seen. It was filmed in beautiful black and white and the cinematography is stunning. The stage-bound sets are some of the best I've seen. When combined, these elements create the perfect, frigid look and setting for The Abominable Snowman.

Director Val Guest made the wise decision to keep the Yeti off-screen as much as possible with only a glimpse or two in the shadows. It would have been difficult, given the budgetary constraints, to create realistic looking Yeti that could have withstood too much on-screen scrutiny. Anymore screen-time and the Yeti would have probably come off as cheesy as the title character in Hammer's The Gorgon.

And I can't say enough about the acting. Everyone involved is excellent. You can always count on Peter Cushing to deliver the goods and he's at the top of his game in this film. It's a shame that his genius isn't more well known outside of horror circles. Forrest Tucker makes a great foil for Cushing. The two men make the perfect "Odd Couple". The rest of the cast is equally believable and more than up to the challenge.