Snow Creature! Half Man! Half Monster!

Found 1954's The Snow Creature in a cheap collection buried in a bin at a local discount store. It was one of those packages in which it's hard to see what's really in it, but since it was a mere three bucks, I though the damage was pretty insignificant. Even if I hated everything, there were monster movies I hadn't seen. The real draw was this one though. 

It's the same plot pretty much as King Kong, Gorgo, and several other monster flicks. An expedition runs across a dangerous monster/creature and struggles to capture it in order to bring it to civilization where it promptly escapes and causes some measure of damage. In the case of this "Monster", the damage is pretty minimal. The creature, a ragtag costume which is mostly hidden in the shadows of the night, caves and later the sewers is stunningly bad. We see the same scene over and over as the actor portraying the beast moves forward and back. 

That said, there are some redeeming factors in this earliest Yeti movie. The Sherpas are somewhat more fully realized characters with motivations beyond being servants to all-knowing white explorers. Also, there is a brief discussion of what the creature might be, and how human it could be considered. But all that goes out the window when it breaks loose and wanders around inflicting a lot of panic and some mayhem and murder. The scenes in the sewers reminded me of the finale of Them! sort of. 

I cannot really recommend this seventy-year-old artifact, it's pretty weak, but for any fan of vintage monster movies, this one is a nifty primordial example of what would develop in the 50's. But if you're game, the movie is easily accessible on YouTube! 

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