The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Director:

Val Guest

Writers:

Nigel Kneale (story)
Nigel Kneale (screenplay)

Release Date:

October 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

See It With Someone Brave! -- A Timeless Terror to Freeze You to Your Seats!

Plot:

A kindly English botanist and a gruff American scientist lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.

Plot Keywords:

Yeti | Himalayas | Expedition | Snow | Botanist

Cast

Forrest Tucker	...	Tom Friend
Peter Cushing	...	Dr. Rollason
Maureen Connell	...	Helen Rollason
Richard Wattis	...	Peter Fox
Robert Brown	...	Ed. Shelley
Michael Brill	...	McNee
Wolfe Morris	...	Kusang
Arnold Marlé	...	Lhama (as Arnold Marle)
Anthony Chinn	...	Majordomo (as Anthony Chin)

Also Known As:

The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas

Runtime:

91 min | USA:85 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #18535) | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | UK:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Clarion Films

Trivia:

Like the "Quatermass" films produced by Hammer, this was also based on one of Nigel Kneale's television serials (mini-series) originally titled "The Creature".

Goofs:

Continuity: It’s day in the long shots, but then back to night in the close-ups of Forest Tucker.

Quotes:

Dr. John Rollason: I'm wondering... wondering how old that face is. It's seen a long life.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Perfect Scary Movie (2005) (TV)

Hammer In the Himalayas

Nicely crafted little early Hammer film from the late fifties, surprisingly low-key for this studio, not to mention thoughtful, it was shot in black and white, also unusual for Hammer, and overall there are only two Hammer-esquire aspects to it, star Peter Cushing, and the supernatural elements in the story. Directed by Val Guest and written by Nigel Kneale, it is the tale of two men, one good, an Englishman, (naturally) and one bad, an American, (perhaps also naturally, given his greedy disposition), and their quest for the Yeti, popularly known as the 'abominable snowman' in the high Himalayas. Filmed on a tight budget, the picture is well-written, deliberately paced, and has relatively little action. The tone is pleasingly British in being civilized and polite, aside from obnoxious American Forrest Tucker, and there is about this film the hint that with more time and money a larger, better movie might have resulted. Here and there one gets a Michael Powell feeling, in the exotic lamasery setting and the outrageous plot; while at other times, in some excellent dialog, there are suggestions of a more intelligent film, a sort of thinking man's Lost Horizon, that might have been done had to producers not been so compelled to stick to the bottom line of fantasy and adventure, as opposed to the psychology and philosophy that periodically emerge as the story unfolds. All these matters aside, the movie stands up quite well on its own terms, managing to be both intelligent and eerie, not an easy thing to do. Rather than appearing to 'fight' their modest budget, the studio wisely emphasized the film's necessary minimalism, right down to the haunting, spare musical score, and the result is a gem of a picture that pulls the viewer agreeably along to its satisfactory conclusion.