Man Beast (1956)

For purposes of the plot pretty Connie travels to the Himalayas to find her brother, Jim. She brings along her wet blanket boyfriend. It seems Jim is on an expedition to capture an abominable snowman, what the natives call the Yeti. They team up with a random hunky guy and start searching. They first meet up with Jim’s associate Dr. Erickson, then the mysterious Varga, who served as Jim’s guide. And, apparently, the only survivor of his expedition. Sorry, Jim.

Here is the lowest of low budget films and the directorial debut of schlockmeister Jerry Warren. I will not ding it for the obvious flaws. The long shots don’t match the close-ups, there is no snow on Everest much of the time, and continuity errors galore. But give him credit, this is his first go with no budget, sets, or even experienced actors, and he got a watchable film into the can. And make no mistake, it is watchable. Borderline enjoyable.

This was pretty Asa Maynor’s first screen appearance, so therefore they got her name wrong. She was once married to Vince Fontaine. Kookie. They also got hunky Lloyd Nelson’s name wrong in the credits. This was also Rock Madison’s film debut and they DID get his name right. Didn’t matter, though, because he doesn’t exist.

The Amazon Prime copy is several minutes shorter than what IMDb lists, and I suspect that explains the two abrupt jump cuts. One came at a particularly critical moment. I wonder if there were more I didn’t notice.

I don’t normally make these accommodations but I feel it’s warranted here. The budget is plain to see on every frame. I’ve seen worse. Man Beast was short and managed to hold my interest, plus had a little mystery to it. I’m curious to watch Warren’s other films. I understand they are terrible. AMRU 2.5.