The Snow Creature (1954)

NOTES: Myles Wilder is W. Lee Wilder's son. According to the pressbook, the Yeti was played by Dick Sands (IMDB has Lock Martin, unconfirmed). COMMENT: Despite all the abundant ploys of financially stressed "B" picture-making (including a copious amount of obvious library footage, and the repetition, freeze-framing and reversal of numerous shots - one brief clip of the "monster" advancing towards the camera is spliced into the picture no fewer than twenty-one times); despite the laughably inept make-up and costuming of the "monster" who is so phony he will scare not even the most panicky child; despite (or maybe because of) the lack of feminine interest, The Snow Creature still has a certain appeal. It is most attractively photographed (particularly the scenes in the sewers) by Floyd "High Noon" Crosby, and - with the exception of the points noted above - not too ploddingly directed by that experienced, exploitation cost-cutter W. Lee Wilder. Aside from Dick Sands, the cast isn't half-bad either.OTHER VIEWS: The Snow Creature is one of the tamest we have ever met with, he is so obviously a tall actor in a fur-moulted suit that has seen better days. Both script and direction show occasional flashes of promise, but the film's Z-grade budget and corny dialogue defeat any attempt at imaginative handling or suspenseful plotting. The same shot of the snow creature advancing into the camera is endlessly repeated - and it wasn't a very menacing shot in the first place! Still, the acting is serviceable and the film's short running time and numerous changes of scenes lend it a rapid enough pace. Horror fans will probably accept it in supporting slots. There is no femme interest. - JHR writing as George Addison.

Dismally made sci-fi yarn of a trek to the Himalayas to search for rare flora and fauna which (in addition to have been a more interesting plot possibility than this one) leads to the discovery of a Yeti seen in the constantly repeated same shot with a bad edit as it is continuously repeated every time this solitary creature appears. When the Yeti is captured (and kept in something that looks like an antique phone booth), it is flown to civilization, and escapes with nowhere to hide. Since they obviously didn't give the poor creature a credit card, I guess he/it couldn't check into a hotel. This is another example of human beings going where they shouldn't be and thinking that they have the right to capture a creature like this, take it away from the only home it has ever known, and bring it back to what we call civilization in order to further research it. Lousy photography makes this one almost impossible to watch at any rate, with the acting ludicrously amateurish and the script so bad it feels like it was written in crayon. Filmmakers should be given a list in cinema school of "What not to do" and ordered to watch them. This would be near the top of the list.

A low budget creature feature directed by W. Lee Wilder has a California botanist Dr. Frank Parrish(Paul Langton) leading an expedition to the Himalayas. Parrish with his photographer Peter Wells(Leslie Denison)in tow hires an English-speaking mountain native Surba(Teru Shimada)to guide the search in study of plant life. Surba gathers several Sherpas from Shekar to carry supplies up the foothills to about 10,000 ft. While away Surba receives word that his wife has been abducted by a legendary man-like creature known as a "yeti". Now the expedition becomes a hunt for the abominable snowman. Surba wants the snow creature killed; but Dr. Parrish has every intent to capture it and bring it back to America alive. Other players: Robert King, Darlene Fields, Rudolph Anders and Robert Bice. The plot is too familiar and holds no surprises. Screenplay and story written by Myles Wilder.

I went on Wilder bender and watched three of his movies in a row, but the bender stopped here. The yeti suit is bad and to make matters worse most of the footage of the yeti is the same shot used over and over again and run backwards and forwards to make him step in and out of the light and then sometimes freeze frame him in place. The copy I saw was so poor it was at times hard to tell if it was the Yeti or just one of the other characters wearing a furry hat.In some wide shots, the Yeti at least looks really tall and they seem to have designed some kind of a monkey butt type butt. Then again most Yeti suits are bad, this one is of a kind.But wow this movie is certainly among the worst of the pre-Sci-Fi channel bigfoot movies, all of which are the worst of a lousy genre and unfairly treated monster. One of the riddles of film. Why is it there are virtually no good bigfoot movies? The movie turns into sort of The Third Man with the police chasing the Yeti around in the Sewers, here boring shots get repeated and some lighting gear gets into one shot.Acting from the leads is OK and the opening Tibet section is slow but kind of decent, when the Yeti gets to America it's all over though.Scene in the meat locker is one of the few effective scenes. Director of photography Crosby who shot Corman's good films can't do much with this one. It's not good, then gets bad when Yeti hits the streets. The suit does look like a poodle and it seems like they forgot to shoot any footage of it then had to reuse stuff to be able to edit the scenes together properly.Big Wilder mis-step this go round.