MAN BEAST (1956)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological*

MAN BEAST was the first professional movie directed by Jerry Warren, but it turned out to be the last of his metaphenomenal films that found its way under my review-lens. It's primarily of interest because, even though it includes footage cadged from other films, the script is decent and Warren's direction is reasonably affecting. (Wikipedia alleges that Warren may have written the script under a pen name, given that Warren's wife, who was involved in the shoot, didn't know who the writer was and because the supposed author had but one credit on IMDB.)

Connie (Virginia Maynor) travels to the Himalayas in the company of Trevor (Lloyd Nelson). Connie's concerned because her brother was part of an expedition that's gone missing, an expedition seeking the mythical Abominable Snowman. Though Trevor has some romantic intentions toward Connie-- which she may or may not reciprocate-- he's also fairly reluctant about accompanying her, which made me wonder if he hadn't offered to go along with the expectation that Connie would give up early and go home. Connie, however, is adamant about finding out what happened. Felicitously the travelers meet a young fellow named Steve (Tom Maruzzi), who offers to be their guide as they look for the lost expedition. 

After many long minutes of mountain-climbing-- which footage actually looks very good, and Warren's modern scenes match well with it-- the trio encounters evidence of the lost expedition, but nothing to indicate what happened to its members. The protagonists also encounter another Yeti-hunter, Doctor Erikson (George Wells Lewis), and a mysterious Asian guide named Varga (George Skaff). There's also evidence of a real Yeti dogging their tracks, though he keeps his distance.

In due time, MAN BEAST turns out to be "Ten Little Indians in the Himalayas," as both Trevor and Erikson are killed. Connie and Steve live to learn that the perpetrator is Varga, who is half-human, half-Yeti. He and his kindred have been stealing Tibetan women for years in an attempt to breed fully human descendants, and Varga is the snowmen's most successful experiment. And he wants to conduct his own genetic experiment, with Connie.

This simple, elemental struggle-- the member of an offshoot race hopes to mate with "normal" humans in order to pass among them-- may be the only time that a Warren film came up with a villain whose plot made some sort of sense. Of course, it helps that George Skaff was the only no-name actor in the cast who showed some noteworthy skill, as he ably convey the villain's creepy obsession. Skaff and two other performers did remain active in the business while others' careers largely ended with MAN BEAST. Still, the small cast of performers are all adequate for the story, which is mercifully short at just over an hour.

Unfortunately, this was the only time Warren as scripter showed a sense of pacing and economy; three years later, he started down the path to utter tedium with TEENAGE ZOMBIES. From then on, it looks like most of his filmmaking was just another job, and not until he made his eighties "comeback" film, FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND, did he show something like enthusiasm for his fantasy-concepts, incoherent though his execution was.

And so with this review I close the curtain on Jerry Warren, with the caveat that if he had continued making merely dull but competent films like MAN BEAST, probably no one would remember his name any better than that of W. Lee (PHANTOM FROM SPACE) Wilder.