Scott LeBrun Which is surprising, given the nature of schlock purveyor Jerry Warrens' subsequent output. This entry in the yeti genre of the 1950s may be silly at times and not 100% convincing, but it's also pretty atmospheric, even spooky. Granted, the appearances of the monster were laugh inducing for this viewer, but the effects certainly could have been worse. The acting isn't as abominable as one might expect, and the protagonists aren't unlikable people. In addition, there's a delicious revelation from our primary antagonist.Working from a screenplay by B. Arthur Cassidy, Warren tells the tale of young and headstrong Connie Hayward (Asa Maynor), who launches an expedition into the Himalayas in search of her missing brother Jim, in the company of worrywart friend Trevor Hudson (Lloyd Nelson). They meet up with others in the area including Steve Cameron (Tom Maruzzi) and Dr. Erickson (George Wells Lewis), and come to learn that local stories about beast-men aren't as crazy as they might think. What's more, their guide, Varga (George Skaff), seems to have a hidden agenda.This viewer admits that he had a pretty good time with this one, although it helps if one is partial to monster movies and horror features set in mountainous or snowy environments. Another good thing is that Warren ensured that the running time remained very brief; there are versions running both 63 minutes and 67 minutes. Only the resolution really fell short of being satisfying.Incidentally, Maruzzi is actually billed twice, once under his own name and once under the phony matinée idol pseudonym Rock Madison given to him by Warren. The pretty Maynor can also be seen in "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", and co-stars Skaff and Nelson had pretty extensive careers afterwards; Skaff did other genre films such as "Frogs", "Exorcist II: The Heretic", and John Carpenters' 'Someone's Watching Me!', and Nelson became a frequent script supervisor and bit player in Clint Eastwood vehicles.A decent watch overall.Seven out of 10.

lemon_magic When I found out that the next movie on my groups list was a film directed by Jerry ("Wild Wild World Of Batwoman") Warren, I was resigned to the prospect of consuming the cinema equivalent of a sh*t sandwich. My consolation: "Batwoman" was one of those bad films that is SO bad that it's perversely fun to watch...so I was hoping for the same kind of entertainment value from "Man Beast".To my surprise, "Man Beast" was halfway decent. It wasn't a good film by any means: The leading lady and her first suitor are as wooden and clunky as you'd expect.The logic of the screen play falls apart in several places. Some of the dialog is pretty risible. And the cast spends most of its time in the "Himalayas" wearing clothing more suited to a walk in the woods in autumn. But still, there were moments in this film where I didn't want to wash my face with broken glass to distract myself from the proceedings.A couple things save this film from the usual dismal fate of JW productions: for once, his use of stock footage is reasonably well integrated with the rest of the stuff he actually shot himself. There's some decent bits of stage business and a couple of good "reveals" that pump some energy into some scenes. A couple of his actors are decent - the dashing he man guide who eventually usurps the girl's affections can deliver his lines, the actor who plays the professor manages a low key, believable performance. And "Varga" is an interesting character - both his makeup and costume "design" and the motivations of his character (and the revelation of his big secret) add some chewiness to the movie.But in the end, it's still a Jerry Warren film....Jerry Warren, a director who insists on undoing any good impression he might have made in the first part of the movie with a "Yeti attack" scene that is disconnected and impossible to follow, and who ends the movie with a 'huh?' moment (the surviving couple escape when Varga, a character who is part Yeti and who has lived in the mountains all his life, proves incompetent at pounding in a crampon and falls to his death as he tries to rappel after them.) I wouldn't seek this one out, but if you are trapped into watching it, at least you won't need to gnaw your leg off to escape.

ferbs54 It is almost impossible to discuss the 1956 yeti movie "Man Beast" without making comparisons to the British film "The Abominable Snowman," which came out the following year. While the latter film features the stars Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker, "Man Beast" boasts the "talents" of Virginia Maynor (who acts atrociously and doesn't even provide the requisite eye candy) and action lead Tom Maruzzi. And while the Brit film boasts a literate script and interesting characters...well, let's just say that the American film again comes off second best. But perhaps the most telling difference of all is that whereas "Snowman" only teases us with occasional glimpses of the yetis, seemingly adhering to Val Lewton's unspoken credo that the viewer's imagination can supply far more terror than anything shown on a screen, "Man Beast" shoves the yetis in our faces again and again. Fortunately, for red-blooded monster fans, this is not altogether a bad thing. The snowmen do look pretty scary here, especially in the film's finest scene, in which the yetis attack our heroes for the first time, in a dark cave. This scene is filmed largely in silence, and in somewhat slow motion, and is pretty darn nightmarish. As reported in the fine book "Sleaze Creatures," stock footage and filming in the hills of Bishop, CA do a decent job of simulating the Himalayan locale. Still, at least half of the film's compact 63-minute running time consists of scenic shots of our band plodding through the snow. Bottom line: This is a fun hour at the movies, inferior to the Brit version as it may be. Oh--the DVD here is nice and clean looking, but scratchy in spots, and with no extras to speak of.

connerg-2 This wasn't that bad, you only have to sit through this film for only 67 minutes, its sort of a quick story about the growing popularity of Yetis, Abdominale Snowmen, the Sasquatch, etc... in the 1950s, which grew its highest in the 70s. "Man Beast" is a fun movie too watch if you're not feeling critical about movies at the time. ... Plus, there's not as much talk in this as there is in other bad 50s b-sci fi films.