The Abominable Snowman (1957)

	Director: Val Guest
	Starring: Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing, Maureen Connell, Richard Wattis
	Run Time: 91 mins
	Certificate: PG
	Rating:

Plot
An English botanist and an American scientist lead an expedition to the Himalayas to search for and prove the existence of the Yeti.

Review
One of Hammer's early sci-fi/horror films is yet another prime example of just how good their output was during their early years before they hit it big with Gothic horror. The Abominable Snowman had a badly timed release shortly after Hammer's breakthrough film, The Curse of Frankenstein. With that pushing the boundaries of on-screen blood like never before and bringing horror to life in vivid colour, this black and white film seemed rather outdated. The Abominable Snowman tends to get overlooked and it's a shame too because it's a quite brilliant film.

Like The Quatermass Experiment, this owes it's excellence to yet another amazing script from Nigel Kneale. Not a line of dialogue is wasted as Kneale uses every moment he has to add something to the story or the characters. Kneale loves writing about the unexplained mysteries of this planet and conceives all manner of weird and wonderful explanations for their existence. Here he has given the myth of the Abominable Snowman a whole unique spin - what if they were a species waiting patiently in the Himalayas waiting for man to destroy itself? I loved the characters of Dr Rollason and Tom Friend - the two sides of man that come out in the face of scientific discovery. Rollason is the scholar who wants to learn things for the good of man and to further man's progression in evolution. Friend is the entrepreneur, taken over by greed and the desire to make a name for himself at the cost of these advances. There's no middle ground between them. It's no coincidence that the rest of the cast are expendable enough to leave these two men bickering and squabbling until the very end. Even the whole characterisation of the Yetis are done in way so that we don't know what to expect from them when they appear - they could be a Rollason and use their hunger for knowledge to further their existence or they could be like Friend, out to destroy all that is alien to them. Not knowing whether the Yetis will be the rampaging monsters they are usually depicted in film or peaceful and enlightened is one of the highlights of the film.

Peter Cushing is excellent once more. I get sick of writing this statement in my reviews but it's true - the man is arguably the finest actor I've had the pleasure of watching in a horror film, in fact any film period. He just brings so much depth to his roles, even the ones which are badly underwritten. Forrest Tucker is also excellent in his role as the American. He has all of the qualities you would expect from a brash American and plays this to advantage. Val Guest's direction also helps the film greatly. There are some wonderful shots of the Pyrenees (doubling quite nicely for the Himalayas) which create the sense of isolation that is needed and the sets that are used aren't too bad - black and white certainly helps them look better than they probably did. Guest manages to build tension up gradually and once the expedition starts, it's just constant suspense as you know that the group are being watched all of the time. The Yetis' wails of misery are just some of the most haunting sounds I've heard and thankfully the Yetis themselves aren't shown until the finale. Once more, "less is more" and the less we see of the Yeti, the greater the mystery is.

Verdict
Another intelligent, thought-provoking and superbly-made gem from Hammer, The Abominable Snowman is highly recommended to anyone looking for classics from the past.