ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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This is probably the best movie about the legendary Yeti, with an intelligent script, a good cast, and some scary moments. It's not really a man-against-monster story, it's a man-against-man morality play.

Peter Cushing (star of numerous Hammer horror films) and Forest Tucker ("The Crawling Eye", "Cosmic Monster") jointly lead an expedition to capture the legendary Yeti, but each has his own reason for wanting to find the creature; Cushing wants to study it scientifically, Tucker wants to use it to get rich.


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Tension created by the opposing purposes increases while they trek across the Himalayas. A Yeti stalks the expedition, releasing a captured animal and trying to steal the men's guns. The Yetis (plural) appear only briefly near the end, but it's worth the wait. Directed by Val Guest from Nigel Kneale's adaption of a BBC play called "The Creature".

Like this movie? Hate this movie? Help me start a conversation, folks.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I love this widescreen trailer! It's delightfully melodramatic. The narrator practically comes right out and says we're all wimps if we don't go to this movie.


The Abominable Snowman dares you to see this movie!

We dare you so see this movie!

Bud dares you to reply to this post, you sissies!!

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_The Abominable Snowman Of The Himalayas (1957) Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

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____ The Abominable Snowman Of The Himalayas


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The Abominable Snowman (UK) AbominableSnowman001.jpg

Hammer Films offering of the legend of the Yeti, otherwise known as the titular character.

Peter Cushing plays the moral scientist in this one, a botanist staying at a monastery in the Himalayan mountains with his wife and an assistant. Enter the immoral explorer, played by Forrest Tucker, and the two are soon trudging into the high wastelands with a few others in the quest to find the elusive missing link. Tucker's associates include a shady trapper (Robert Brown).

The actions of these two neer-do-wells soon plunge the expedition into calamity, showing — as usual — that mercenary attitudes will always work against such an enterprise. There's also the ever-present danger of avalanches.

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This was based on a play called "The Creature" and a TV BBC production (Tucker's character was played by Stanley Baker in the earlier version) and gets by with a lot of suggestion and possibly mystical ramifications.

There's quite a bit of theorizing, usually by Cushing, but also by the resident high lama, who hints in stilted English that there's more to the Yeti than we think, and that mankind may eventually be replaced — exactly the opposite of how we all think of the supposedly dying-away snow creatures.

The creatures remain mostly unseen until the very end, except for one glimpse of a huge hairy arm and paw, grasping at a discarded rifle. Tucker overacts a bit, but then again he was supposed to be a flamboyant opportunist.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Not only is this a fine review by Bogmeister, he also provides a delightful "blast from the past at the bottom of this posts in the form of a Youtube video of Commander USA's presentation of this movie!

I used to love videotaping movies from the USA network because it was so easy to cut out the commercials during the taping. They always put their logo on the screen briefly after a commercial break, while the announcer proudly stated, "And now we return to the USA premiere of . . . ".

Furthermore, the USA network was the first network to show The Space Children on television, back in 1986. I had waited 28 years to see that movie, which I'd watched at a drive-in when I was ten years old . . . and it loved dearly.

But when it aired in 1986, my family and I were living with my grandmother-in-law while our new house was being completed!

And Granny didn't have the USA network in her cable package!

Desperate to see The Space Children, I enlisted the help of three different friends to make a videotape for me so that we could have a Space Children Night a few weeks later and make a big event out of my second viewing of the movie I'd waited more than a quarter of a century to see!

Of the three attempts to tape the movie, two were interrupted by a power outrage!

But the third one succeed, and the friend with the tape agreed to host an event at which he and I turned his large living room into a drive-in snack bar, complete with a long table which had the food laid out in snack-bar fashion . . . and "cash register" at the end!

Its was actually an old style mechanical adding machine, but yes — the guest really did pay for their food, based on the posted prices which were listed on a menu written on poster board and taped to the wall behind the long table.

So, that's why I was pleased to see Andrew's little treat at the bottom of his Abominable Snowman post. I doubt any of us will actually watch the video, but it's the thought that counts.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Bah, I always preferred the abdominal snowman !








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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[The Spike]

Tom Friend is about to embark on a life changing expedition,

His aim?

To find the fabled creature known as the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. Joining him on the trip is botanist John Rollason, whose scientific interest is totally at odds with Friend and his trapper companion, Ed Shelley.

As the expedition moves deeper into the Himalayas, bad luck and differences of opinions dog the party, and as the confrontations draw closer it becomes apparent that the Yeti is not a dumb animal to be killed or captured.

Adapted by Nigel Kneale from his own BBC play, "The Creature", The Abominable Snowman is one of the finest early offerings from Hammer Studios. The long running (to this day) stories of a giant beast living up in the Himalayas is of course interesting stuff, much like Nesse up in her Loch, it seems their worth will never ever fade.

Thankfully there is a ream of intelligence in this picture, forgoing out and out shocks in the name of horror, director Val Guest has treated Kneale's story with the utmost respect. This is more of a character story as regards men with different ideals on a supposed legend, we barely see the creature until the wonderful last quarter, we don't need to because there are other creatures on this expedition, it's very adroit and accomplished in its telling.

The cast do not let the material down. Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing takes the role of Rollason, Forrest Tucker ("Sands Of Iwo Jima") is Friend, Robert Brown ("The Masque of the Red Death") is Shelley and Maureen Connell is wonderful down in the village as Rollason's fraught wife, Helen.

Now in this day and age we can get good digital transfers of old black and white classics, and here the Regalscope Widescreen brilliantly captures the snowy landscapes, firmly enhanced by Arthur Grant's gorgeous monochrome photography. So what you waiting for? The technical side is great, the story is of course excellent, all that remains to say is that the ending is perfect and seals the deal.

A British treasure. 8/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

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The title theme is very effective, a creepy and haunting theme which captures the remote and cold Himalayas perfectly.

___The Abominable Snowman by Humphrey Searle


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)