Man Beast (1956) Online

This was the unequaled Jerry Warren's first production. He didn't write it so it's not as goofy as, say, "The Wild World of Batwoman" or "Frankenstein Island". For a low-budget B-movie it does alright for itself. There are probably too many shots of people hiking in the mountains, but the dialogue seems realistic in most scenes and the story does build nicely to an unexpected climax. In fact, Varga's revelation is kind of creepy. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to find it, but if it came across my path I'd check it out.

This wasn't that bad, you only have to sit through this film for only 67 minutes, its sort of a quick story about the growing popularity of Yetis, Abdominale Snowmen, the Sasquatch, etc... in the 1950s, which grew its highest in the 70s. "Man Beast" is a fun movie too watch if you're not feeling critical about movies at the time. ... Plus, there's not as much talk in this as there is in other bad 50s b-sci fi films.

Got the video of this in a lot of horror films that we bought, and was surprised at how well done this little low-budget film was. It definitely stands as one of the better Yeti films of the period, most of them are fairly sluggish and without any real terror. This one is just over an hour, and has a nice pace with a concise story. Good acting by all except the female lead, good locations that are mostly realistic (except for some shrubs sticking out of the snow in an area where no shrubs would exist), fairly scary Yeti creatures. Some may not like the idea presented here that the Yeti are dangerous to humans, and perhaps prefer to think of them as kind and peaceful, how some other films portray Yeti, but let's remember that Yeti have not been proved to exist and are most likely imaginary creatures. Sorry to pop the politically-correct balloon regarding Yeti.

******SPOILERS****** Much better then you would expect movie about the Yeti of the Himalayans despite the movies low-budget qualities.

"Man Beast" even though it's a bargain-basement production has a very interesting story that you won't see in any of the movies made over the years about the elusive Yeti. Connie Hayward, Asa Maynor, and her friend Trevor Hudson, Llyod Nelson, get to the base of the Himalayan Mountain range just after an expedition by Dr. Eric Ericson left to find Connie's brother James. Connie's brother got lost up in the mountains cold snowy ridges and passes about ten days earlier.

Finding local mountain climber Steve Cameron, Tom Maruzzi, to lead them to the Ericson group they link up with Ericson a few days later and together go on to find Connie's brother and the members of his expedition. Reaching James' camp they find it deserted and fear the worst.

Dr. Ericson has a native guide with him who knows the mountains better then anyone else alive Varga, George Skaff. Varga is the only person that the local natives would feel safe with in that desolate environment. That's why the persons in the expedition feel confident with Varga being with them. But what they don't know is that Varga has other ideas to why he's there and it isn't to help them it's to help himself and the Yeti's.

Interesting film with a very unique take on the subject matter, the Yeti, with some surprising angles to it. Varga turns out to be a collage educated and civilized hybrid-type Yeti who can easily pass for a human being. Varga plans to have the members of the expedition killed by him and his fellow Yeti's to prevent them from infringing on their territory and was also responsible for the death of Connie's brother James and the members of his group.

There's something disturbing about the movie that I noticed right away. Even though Varga was the villain and got a villains reward at the end of the film it was really the members of the expedition who should have been the heavies in the movie. They encroached and invaded the Yeti's home not visa versa and nothing would have happened to them if they just left the Yeti's alone. The Yeti's were only defending their homes not invading the homes of others.

Even though "Man Beast" was a very low-budget film it did very well with what it had and the stock footage of the Mighty Himalayans was skillfully spliced into the movie. Even the Yeti's in the movie were scary though all that they did was pop up and wave their arms threateningly sometimes holding clubs but doing very little with them to the members of the expedition.

George Skaff as the secretly disguised and deranged Yeti was by far the best actor in the movie. Once he came on the scene Skaff was just too much of a hard act to follow by anyone in the cast.

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 ...)***

Made in the wake of the crummy "Snow Creature" and the insipid "Half Human," this fright flick rates as a substantial step up in quality in the 50's yeti movie cycle. What makes the sound quality of this one so remarkable is the fact that Jerry Warren, the notorious Grade Z schlockmeister responsible for such dreck as "Teenage Zombies," "The Incredible Petrified World," and "Frankenstein's Island," both produced and directed it, showing a most atypical adroitness and sense of consistent focus that's not evident in his other pictures.

The story once again centers on an ill-advised expedition that encounters a tribe of vicious yetis while poking around the treacherous Himilayan mountains. But this time the admittedly trite premise is compensated for by a tight execution. B. Arthur Kennedy's efficiently compact and straightforward script adds a few tasty twisted twists to the proceedings; having one of the expedition members turn out to be the mutant spawn of the Abominable Snowman and having the yetis abduct young ladies for vile breeding purposes are terrifically perverse touches. Moreover, the reasonable complicated characters are realistically drawn and believable. The performances are solid and spirited, with especially commendable turns by Rock Madison as the duplicitous half-man, half-yeti hybrid dude and Virginia Maynor as the endearingly spunky heroine. Victor Fisher's able, moody, starkly lit nighttime photography imbues the rocky landscape with a splendidly creepy gloom-doom atmosphere. The yeti monsters are fantastic: they're mean, skull-faced, broad-shouldered beastmen who possess a genuinely fearsome and intimidating presence. The attack scenes are presented with real snap and vigor. Much like its high altitude setting, "Man Beast" transcends the cruddy yeti movie norm and stands tall as a superior 50's creature feature.

Man Beast is one of several Yeti movies made in the 1950's. Though not brilliant, I quite enjoyed this one.

An expedition heads for the Himalayas to search for one of the party's brother, who has gone missing while on another trek. When they reach the higher regions, they encounter Yeti's and are put in more danger when it is revealed that one of the party is a mad scientist who has been cross breeding Yeti's with humans and is half Yeti himself. At the end, just two pf the party survive while the others are killed off in various ways. There is also an avalanche.

Man Beast contains some good scenery, even though it wasn't filmed on location in the Himalayas.

I've heard of nobody in the cast and their acting isn't brilliant either. You can clearly tell this movie was made on a low budget. Despite this, certainly worth a look.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

**Possible Spoilers Ahead**

In the annals of Yeti Cinema, Hammer's ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS was a masterpiece. Then there's this turkey, made by the future director of FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND and THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN. A group of goofballs, including one Sherpa guide who doesn't look the least bit Asian, go to the Himalayas in search of the Abominable Snowman. They spend about as much time bitching at each other and doing pratfalls as they do looking for the monster. The cold climate is mentioned but the adventurers wear light jackets and stupid-looking hats with no ear-flaps. They don't wear gloves. The snowman effects are abominable, in keeping with the production values, the acting, the writing... For one scene involving the exterior of a temple, Warren jumped a fence onto another set and began shooting. Most people who've seen MAN BEAST wish the whole crew had jumped the fence and kept on going.

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.

It is almost impossible to discuss the 1956 yeti movie "Man Beast" without making comparisons to the British film "The Abominable Snowman," which came out the following year. While the latter film features the stars Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker, "Man Beast" boasts the "talents" of Virginia Maynor (who acts atrociously and doesn't even provide the requisite eye candy) and action lead Tom Maruzzi. And while the Brit film boasts a literate script and interesting characters...well, let's just say that the American film again comes off second best. But perhaps the most telling difference of all is that whereas "Snowman" only teases us with occasional glimpses of the yetis, seemingly adhering to Val Lewton's unspoken credo that the viewer's imagination can supply far more terror than anything shown on a screen, "Man Beast" shoves the yetis in our faces again and again. Fortunately, for red-blooded monster fans, this is not altogether a bad thing. The snowmen do look pretty scary here, especially in the film's finest scene, in which the yetis attack our heroes for the first time, in a dark cave. This scene is filmed largely in silence, and in somewhat slow motion, and is pretty darn nightmarish. As reported in the fine book "Sleaze Creatures," stock footage and filming in the hills of Bishop, CA do a decent job of simulating the Himalayan locale. Still, at least half of the film's compact 63-minute running time consists of scenic shots of our band plodding through the snow. Bottom line: This is a fun hour at the movies, inferior to the Brit version as it may be. Oh--the DVD here is nice and clean looking, but scratchy in spots, and with no extras to speak of.

No illusions from me here. This movie is bad. Real bad. In fact, it's a stinker. A woman and a guy named "Hud"(wants to be her boyfriend I think) hire he-man/guide into the Himalayas Steve Cameron to find her brother. Turns out her brother is part of an expedition to find the famed yeti creatures. Well, along the journey we meet up with the lead professor of the mission and his native guide named Varga. Are there yeti creatures? Big surprise. Are they made up fairly interestingly? Not real bad. What is real bad is the acting. It is bad and everyone in the movie is bad. The woman playing Connie looks off to the side trying to feign interest while wearing enough make-up in the Himalayas to be mistaken for a hooker! The guy playing Steve is even worse. Catch the scene where he and Connie are talking at the fire near the beginning. He actually looks like he is looking directly into the camera lens with virtually no shame. The gentleman playing the rounded, bald professor fairs just a tinge better, and the best performance of all these bad ones goes to the guy playing Varga. He at least can ham it up a bit. The story makes no sense when you hear the resolution. It is in its favor a very short film and is mildly entertaining for all of its faults and flaws.

The film begins with a small group going on an expedition to the Himalayas. A professor is looking for evidence that the Abominable Snowman exists and a young lady is looking for her brother who disappeared during a previous expedition. Although they do seem to have SOME evidence that the Yeti exists during this trek, their guide, Varga, insists that it's all nonsense. However, eventually they learn that Varga has a secret--and you'll need to see the film to learn what it is.

While I am pretty sure "Man Beast" would never win any awards, it is sure a lot better than its IMDb score of 2.9 would indicate. 2.9 would seem to indicate that the film is awful--really, really awful. However, despite having a low budget, I didn't think the film was bad at all and makes for a decent time-passer. Now I am NOT saying it's a great film--it IS cheap and there is a very extensive use of stock footage. There also is a really bad cliché near the end, as the woman just stands back as the hero fights the villain. Think about it--if the villain wins, horrible things will happen to the lady and yet she just stands there...doing NOTHING. But, on the other hand, the Yeti costume is pretty good for such a low budget film, the writing, directing and acting are all competent and the film DID keep my interest. Worth a look and a decent example of a movie that is better than it's budget would usually indicate.

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.

The search for the mysterious Yeti takes a group of scientists into an expedition they fear that they might not survive and an adventure that if they do, they'll never forget. Stranded in the middle of a freezing wilderness, a group of explorers are rescued by scientists searching for a link between pre-historic and modern man. Frozen in time, the Yeti suddenly appear out of nowhere. Are they friendly links to a long ago past or monsters? This gives the audience the chance to figure this out for themselves and see the humans both as monster and civilized man, while surprising revelations come out that among the science fiction nonsense might get the audience thinking. This is probably the best of the Jerry Warren no budget thrillers, certainly as far from a masterpiece as one can be, but at least with a minimum of imagination put into it. There's really hardly any acting involved; In fact, the cast are among the lousiest non reactors that I have ever seen. What makes this even more curious is the fact that even in the midst of this frigid cold, the men all wear hats with feathers in them as if they were climbing the Alps to yodel. When the Yeti does appear, you never really get to feel anything but sorry for them, because it is their space which is (once again) being invaded by "civilized" man. There are some truly horrific sequences where a few members of the traveling party fall what seems indefinitely off of the jagged, rocky cliffs. I guess since the other two on the DVD collection are either just pathetically bad or sleep-inducing boring that this one gets marks for simply becoming tolerable.

Man Beast (1956)

** (out of 4)

One of many "Yeti" movies to be made during the 1950s, this one here from Jerry Warren who is best known for being one of the worst director's in the history of movies. Just check out Teenage Zombies or Frankenstein Island for more proof. This film here falls into the "so bad it's good" range because while it contains some dumbness it remains entertaining. A group of scientists head into the mountains where there have been countless reports of people running into the Yeti. Once on the mountain the Yeti certainly attacks but the scientists have a plan of their own. If you're a fan of bad movies and can laugh at them then this one here should keep you entertained because some of the performances are among the worst I've ever seen. They're bad enough to where you should be laughing even when the scene is trying to be dramatic. The attack sequenced are even better as apparently Yeti's like to beat people over the head with sticks. Seeing this might leave tears in your eyes so be sure to have something nearby to wipe your eyes.