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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Gamma One Returns

SNOW DEVILS-1967-Another crazy art-deco designed Italian science fiction movie directed by Antonio Margherriti (Anthony Dawson in the US prints). 

After a weather station in the Himalayas is destroyed the commander of space station Gamma One Rod Jackson (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart aka Jack Stuart in American prints) is sent to investigate. A woman lieutenant Lisa Neilson (Ombretta Colli aka Amber Collins in American prints) insists on going along because her fiance was a victim of the destruction and she believes he is still alive (“I don't know. Call it woman's intuition, ESP or whatever you want”). Wilbert Bradley is their crazy talking Sherpa guide Sharu. After their “heli-jet” and other equipment are destroyed in a freak accident,the group must go on foot which becomes a 4 person mission when the Sherpa guides (except for Sharu) run away. Seeking shelter in a cave they encounter big bluish hairy “snow devils”. 

They are actually aliens from a dying planet trying to flood Earth and then freeze it so they can live there. For some reason their skin and fur change color in a few scenes. When the group is held captive they somehow escape and drug the aliens. They kill the leader and go back home to find the Earth plagued by storms, floods and polar meltdowns so they must find the hidden alien base before all is lost! 

The buildings, ships and SFX look like Gerry Anderson's FIREBALL XL-5 and the story is similar to one used on TV'S VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA! If it seems a little episodic that's because it's all part of the Italian “Gamma One” space series which also includes the THE WAR OF THE PLANETS and THE WILD WILD PLANET. (last review)

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My First one Here

Ok this is my first post here. I have another movie blog at another site but I decided to switch over here. I'll see how it goes. Anyway this is mostly about the movies I watch. I like all sorts but I particularly lean toward low budget films of the '50's but I watch all kinds. Here's my first movie post. It's kind of long...









THREE BY A WILDER AND CRAZY GUY!


PHANTOM FROM SPACE-U.A.-1953-It’s hard to believe that director W. Lee Wilder was the less talented older brother of Hollywood’s famous Billy Wilder and while Brother Bill was helming STALAG 17 (for which star William Holden won an Oscar) W made this cheap, minimalistic talkfest.



Two cops (Ted Cooper and Harry Landers) investigate the sudden appearance of a mysterious, headless “phantom” in a diver’s suit. The two cops interview witnesses and consult a doctor (Rudolph Anders from SHE DEMONS and FRANKENSTEIN 1970). Eventually Giger counters track down the space suited creature who escapes by shedding his seemingly indestructible suit, because....Ta Da ......he’s invisible! More talking and cigarette smoking ensues as the phantom hitches a ride on the doc’s car. While the doctor, his assistant (Noreen Nash) and an army major (James Sealy, later in the TV series THE SWAMP FOX) test the suit, the invisible alien (Dick Sands) roams the lab opening and closing doors, moving furniture and being terrorized by the doc’s dog. He (?) kidnaps the assistant and communicates by tapping. In the end he turns into a visible, bald headed humanoid who falls to his death and evaporates. The doctor sums it up: “So he came here from where ever from and right before our eyes his body went though the final phrases of life.”. Yup, that’s it!



An odd duo penned PHANTOM. William Raynor later wrote TARGET: EARTH and became a TV writer. Co-scripter Myles Wilder (Lee's son) wrote W’s next effort (and later episodes of GET SMART). Nominal leading man Landers was a TV pitchman in the ‘60’s and appears in the STAR TREK episode “Turnabout Intruder”. The eerie music is by William Lava (who later did the “F-Troop” theme). Not so SFX were by Alex Weldon who after doing his magic on INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957) graduated to better movies like THE LONGEST DAY, KING OF KINGS, CRACK IN THE WORLD and PATTON. Wilder had been a handbag manufacturer before going to Hollywood in 1945 and producing Anthony Mann’s THE GREAT FLAMARION with Erich von Strohiem!









THE SNOW CREATURE-U.A.-1954 -This is it! The very first movie about The Abominable Snowman and of course it was produced and directed by Wilder (Brother Billy was making SABRINA the same year). It’s very crazy.



A botanist (Paul Langton) and photographer (Leslie Denison) in The Himalayas are forced to accompany their Sherpa guide (Teru Shimada, a Japanese actor who had a small role in WAR OF THE WORLDS and was later on US TV shows ) to Yeti country when the guide’s wife is Yeti-napped. After following some footprints the group come upon an abominable lair inhabited by the snowman and his family. Strangely, the minute he (?) sees the group he brings the cave ceiling down on himself killing his family. Not very bright daddy Snowman is merely stunned and somehow the botanist gains control and forces the Sherpas to take them all back to civilization. For a botanist this guy has alot of pull because he manages to have his institute send a special refrigeration unit to keep Snowy in. It looks like a telephone booth! He has trouble with immigration. They’re not sure if he’s man or beast and won’t let him/it into the country! The creature is very tall and kind of funky looking with fur glued on various parts of it’s body suit. You hardly ever see it’s face. Sometimes it looks like he’s wearing a hat! A famous medical examiner (Rudolph Anders in his second Wilder film) is brought in but Snowy escapes and hilarity follows when it (fast motion) clubs a guard. Emerging out of the darkness it kills a woman. When the creature retreats it’s the same scene of him attacking but shown backwards! Another funny scene takes place in a meat packing plant. It all ends in the storm drains under the city.



According to IMDB Lock Martin (Gort The Robot in DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL) portrayed the title monster but I’ve also heard that it may have been someone else. Star Langton was a busy TV actor (he’s in The Twilight Zone premiere episode “Where Is Everybody?”) but was later in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (’57), IT! THE TRRROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (’58) , INVISIBLE INVADERS and COSMIC MAN (both ’59)! What a resume! The Director Of Photography was Floyd Crosby. Also with William Phipps, Robert Bice and Robert Kino.

KILLERS FROM SPACE-U.A.-1954-Wilder also made this, his most famous grade Z thriller the same year as SNOW CREATURE and it seems to be the first alien abduction movie!

Peter Graves stars as Douglas Martin a pilot/doctor working with nuclear scientists who appears unharmed after his plane crashes and burns. Army brass believe he’s a traitor passing A-bomb secrets to the enemy. After he cracks up, he tells the real story while under the influence of a truth drug. Here we meet a group of the most memorable aliens in bad movie history!

Yes, it’s those guys in the skin tight jump suits & zebra belts sporting bushy eye brows and golf ball eyes.! The leader (John Merrick who talks like Paul Burich) fills Dr. Martin in on the fact that he died and was resurrected by the aliens so he can be their spy. They want to eliminate the human race and take over the Earth for their own kind. The future Mr. Phelps tires to escape their underground cave but is stopped by some stock footage lizards and enlarged shots of cockroaches. He eventually blows up the alien base (while dressed in pajamas, robe and slippers; he’s a casual hero) by cutting off their electric power.

The story for KILLERS is credited to the mysterious Myles Wilder and the script is by William Raynor (see above entry). James Sealy plays nearly the same army major he did in SNOW CREATURE. Square jawed Frank Gerstle (who would later be in movies by Ed Cahn, Corman and Sam Fuller) plays a fellow scientist.

Some of the funniest non-alien scenes involve out of place close-ups of an investigating agent played by Steve Pendleton. Wilder just keeps showing shadowy close-ups of these guy’s mug while other characters are talking! The bulge eyed aliens were created by Ed Wood vet Harry Thomas!

Interestingly, Director Of Photography William H. Clothier (who also shot PHANTOM FROM SPACE) went on to shoot many John Wayne westerns including THE ALAMO (1960). W. Lee Wilder would go on to make a few more movies like the boring MANFISH (1956) with Victor Jory and Lon Chaney, the wacky MAN WITHOUT A BODY (1957) and the weird THE OMEGANS (his last in 1968) with Ingrid Pitt but he’d never top this “trilogy of terror”.

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