Yet Another Yeti

 (wikipedia)

YETI: GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY-1977-Prof. Wasserman (John Stacy) discovers a giant Yeti in Canada on an expedition funded by big mouth Morgan Hunnicutt (Eddy Faye). Along with his assistant Cliff (Tony Kendall, nee Luciano Stella) and Hunicutt's grand-kids Jane and Herbie, he brings the monster back and revives it. The creature immediately escapes and causes havoc, capturing the kids. They eventually bond with the big hairy dude (Mimmo Crao) over some fish. Canada goes media crazy for The Yeti but when the big galoot is brought before its adoring fans, flash bulbs upset it. It wrecks an elevator Jane is on but saves her and the two hide out in upstate NY. Crowd reaction panic looks are funny. The Yeti seems to be dying but Wasserman saves it. Unfortunately when two of Morgan's thugs kill Wasserman and make it look like Yeti did it the big guy escapes with revenge on its mind. In the end Jane pleas for the poor creature to go away work (hey, the Yeti didn't ask to come to the modern world) and it returns to the frozen north.... presumably to get refrozen? Herbie's dog turns up alive. 

Donald O'Brien (DR. BUTCHER MD) is head of the police in the climax. This Italian production, filmed in Canada was directed by Gianfranco Parolini who also directed the “Kommissar X” series starring Kendall.

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The Yeti

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS-1957-Dr. John Rawlinson (Peter Cushing) a botanist doing research in the the Himalayas joins up with a boisterous American climber Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) to find the legendary Yeti. Friend wants to capture one alive and show it on US TV. Rawlinson just wants to prove it exists. There's a lot of climbing and soul searching and Friend turns out to be a cutthroat swindler. After a little Yeti they capture escapes (actually rescued) the group finds some large footprints. Later a big clawed hand appears sticking in their tent. Their guide goes mad when he sees one and runs away (but somehow makes it back to the village) and the head Lama there acts very mysterious. The Yetis seem to have some kind of mental power over the group who hear voices and do crazy things. After Friend is killed in an avalanche Rawlinson meets the snowmen and we get our only view of them too. Rawlinson's wife leads her own expedition and finds hubby nearly frozen to death. Nursed back to health the doctor now admits he was wrong. There is no Yeti waiting for man to die off.

When I was a kid my friends and I were always disappointed by the brief glimpse of the Yeti but today THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN holds up well despite this. The acting is great. Director Val Guest probably took a big chance in not showing too much of the creature in the monster laden age of the late '50's but he still does a good job of story telling. He also made ENEMY FROM SPACE the same year which was also penned by SNOWMAN's screenwriter Nigel Kneale. 

This Hammer production is based on a BBC TV drama entitled THE CREATURE (also written by Kneale).

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