Snow Creature (1954)

Cast:

Paul Langton is Dr. Frank Parrish
Leslie Denison is Peter Wells
Teru Shimada is Subra
Rollin Moriyama is Leva Robert Kino is Insp. Karma

What the box says:

Frank Parrish, accompanied by cynical photo-journalist Peter Wells, leads a botanical expedition to the Himilayas to discover new flora. Their plans are derailed when the wife of their lead guide, Subra, is kidnapped by a Yeti. When Parrish refuses to believe his guide, the Sherpas rebel and form a search party at gunpoint. To everyone's surprise, they find a group of Yetis in a cavern, and take a male specimen to the USA for research.

Plot:

Dr. Frank Parrish, a botanist, hires a number of Sherpa for porters for this expedition. He also hires Peter Wells, a photographer.

Just need a little pick-me-up before going on to the heavy drinking for the day... They begin the journey into the the Himalayas. In the last town below the mountains, the Snow Creature grabs Tala, Subra's wife.

The townspeople come up to the scientific expedition and tell Subra, head porter, that his wife was taken by the Yeti. Frank and Peter don't believe the story about the abominable snowman.

RrrrAAAAaaaaHHHHHhhhrrrrRRRRR!!!! Subra leads the porters in revolt to find his wife. Frank and Peter reluctantly agree to join. They get ahold of the short-wave radio. However, Subra shoots it.

They find some Yeti footprints and keep on searching.

Well, the track almost appears to belong to a BigFoot.. That night, our intrepid heroes try to repair the radio but find one of the Sherpas had been killed during the night.

The next day, the Yeti starts an avalanche. The group is able to evade the falling rocks and later keep on. They set up camp in a cave and find a necklace that belonged to Subra's wife. Searching through the cave, they find a few skeletons, and the Yeti which was stunned. Frank manages to drug the Yeti. He convinces the porters to take the Yeti down the mountain with them.

At the town, Frank sets up the arrangements to take the Yeti to the US.

Good, that newspapers don't believe in sensational headlines.

Let the flight montage ensue. Frank lands in California. The customs department wants a definite answer on the Yeti's immigration status. Frank will have some anthropologists classify it.

Later, the Yeti, breaks out of the cage. Let the reigh of disaster ensue as all learn of the Yeti's escape. It manages to attack and kill some lady. The police start searching for it and release a radio warning.

We have to attack here... They realize the Yeti is traveling the city through the storm drains. The police prepare to start systemically searching the sewers.
Should we wear business suits in the sewer?

They try to trap it in a net. However, the Lt has to shoot it.

What I say:

The Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti are two of the most famous monsters identified by "questionable" evidence the bad photos or the hysterical witness. This is the first of if not the first movies movies about the Yeti or the Abominable Snowman. The 1970s saw an explosion in TV-monster movies which gave us Bigfoot in Snowbeast.

W. Lee Wilder is the director. The last name may be more famous attached to his brother: Billy Wilder. For some reason, I think we can see where the talent in that family went. W. Lee Wilder maybe be known for Killer From Space and Phantom From Space.

Well's newspaper headline refers to the Yeti as a "Snow Man" fires up the the US government which is desperately trying to decide the immigration status of the Yeti. Movies didn't have quite very many problems trying to get gorillas into the country. In the 1930s, King Kong didn't have half as many problems getting into the country. Maybe, it was due to him that caused all the bipedal mammalian entrance problems by the 1950s.

Every scientist and photographer who goes on any kind of expedition automatically becomes BETTER to the locals. It's more than just that the good doctor Parrish has his nose so stuck up in the air, you'd think he was the head of human resources department. It is his way or the highway especially since he might find a plant...The way Parrish ignored how the chief porter's wife is missing is asking for a rebellion... After the Yeti is knocked out, Parrish leaps into charge of the expedition again. Thankfully, the porters automatically become subservient to Doctor BETTER-Man.

1950s B-movies aren't known for being brilliant or even slightly entertaining. For a movie only 71 minutes, not much is accomplished even with all the stock footage and narration explaining how "deep" everything is. How, can such a short movie break the movie's greatest law? Not be boring. If you can walk out of a movie for and still not miss anything, there's a problem. Frank's photographer buddy disappears about halfway through the movie with no explanation. Searching the LA sewers, does give this movie a very Them!-like feel without the giant ants, flamethrowers, or actually being a good movie.

If Richard Kiel (Jaws from the James Bond movies) hadn't shaved for a few days, he would have looked more like the Yeti than the Snow Creature in this movie did. If your Yeti looks less realistic than Teen Wolf, you may have some problems. OK, the bigfoot that popped up in the 6 Million Dollar Man series looked more realistic that this movie's did.

Quotable Dialogue
"The Yeti Mr. Doctor!"
"Subra only want to kill radio-machine!"
"A dangerous killer beast is at large..."
Morals of the Story
Movie natives are always primitive and superstitious.
Yetis must have greencards and passports.
Movie natives apparently love the firewater.
3 Piece suits should be worn in sewers.