The Abominable Snowman (DVD)

The title of this film, together with the fact that it is now shown under the ‘Hammer’ label as a horror film, might immediately place a picture in your mind of huge rampaging monsters roaring across the mountains and ruthlessly tracking down and killing a small group of relatively defenceless human explorers. Well, in ‘The Abominable Snowman’ the explorers exist, and there are one or two gunshots fired, but there the similarity ...
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The Abominable Snowman is a British film, and to me it more closely resembles the British scientific romance tale with its scientist hero, intellectual trappings and the raising of moral questions, than the American sci-fi horror of square jawed space-army Captain heroes fighting off long-toothed monsters. The ending of the film, whilst certainly not completely grim, is a far cry from the triumphalism and pounding orchestral music of ... more

The title of this film, together with the fact that it is now shown under the ‘Hammer’ label as a horror film, might immediately place a picture in your mind of huge rampaging monsters roaring across the mountains and ruthlessly tracking down and killing a small group of relatively defenceless human explorers. Well, in ‘The Abominable Snowman’ the explorers exist, and there are one or two gunshots fired, but there the similarity between this film and the common expectation of it ends.

The Abominable Snowman is a British film, and to me it more closely resembles the British scientific romance tale with its scientist hero, intellectual trappings and the raising of moral questions, than the American sci-fi horror of square jawed space-army Captain heroes fighting off long-toothed monsters. The ending of the film, whilst certainly not completely grim, is a far cry from the triumphalism and pounding orchestral music of the typical 1950s American film. The Abominable Snowman is essentially a much more refined production and this actually works in the film’s favour; whilst the level of excitement an audience is likely to derive from watching plastic monsters get clobbered has declined somewhat over the years, the level of interest generated in an open-minded audience by a well posed ‘what if’ scenario such as the one presented in this film has not, and most likely never will.

Dr. John Rollason is a British botanist currently studying the plant life of the Himalayas along with his wife Helen and his colleague Peter Fox. The three of them are being housed in a Buddhist monastery in the mountains, where an expedition headed by Tom Friend, an American businessman, is headed. Unbeknownst to his wife, Rollason plans to head off into the mountains in the thick of winter with Friend’s small expedition in search of the Yeti.

Once the small group heads off, Rollason reluctantly shrugging off his wife’s objections and puzzling over some enigmatic but seemingly meaningless remarks made by the monastery’s Llama just before departure, they follow the trail prepared by Friend on an earlier expedition, along which supplies such as food have already been laid. But the expedition is plagued by problems — accidents which nearly cripple the photographer, the loss of the native guide as he flees after seeing a Yeti, and an ever increasing sense of deliriousness. Friend is encouraged when one of the Yeti is killed and its body loaded onto a sleigh, but eventually, as Rollason and Friend start to become overwhelmed by their surroundings, it becomes evident that the Yeti are far more than just animals, and that entering their icy domain was a terrible mistake…

The Abominable Snowman, therefore, bears far more resemblance to scientific romance than Fifties sci-fi. But it also, as a horror film (which it undoubtedly is), bears far more resemblance to a psychological horror whose power lies in the generation of suspense and a claustrophobic atmosphere than a creature feature based around blood-letting and the firing of guns. As a Hammer film, and an early one at that, The Abominable Snowman is rather set bound in places, but in terms of claustrophobia this actually works to the film’s advantage; much of the film takes place in rather murky light conditions, for instance at night, and this is very effectively achieved indeed, with the blackness an ominous blanket through which the white shapes of nearby snowdrifts penetrate threateningly. Early cinema was dominated by Expressionism, a movement which included a desire to simulate exteriors in sets in order to gain more thorough control of the actors’ environment and hence determine more accurately what the audience saw on screen, and whilst I would hardly argue that The Abominable Snowman is a work of Expressionist cinema, those early lessons do seem to have been taken on board by director Val Guest and his crew here.

In this way the film combines scientific hypothesis and the benefits of being based around a Big Idea with the creation of suspense, hence drawing together the two noblest strands of science fiction and horror into a successful hybrid whose central themes and conceits do not seem particularly dated even if its black and white cinematography does. Perhaps this should not be so surprising, since this film is from the pen of Nigel Kneale, the man who brought Britain to a stop in the 1950s with his three television serials based around the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass, and particularly with the third of these sequels, ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ (1957 also). In fact, The Abominable Snowman was itself based upon a Kneale television serial of the same name and story as a part of the tradition at the time of turning TV serial into films (Quatermass itself was later turned into a feature).

All of this is complemented, of course, by a largely excellent cast. Peter Cushing would, of course, become one of the most famous British actors of his time and the star of countless films, many of which would be made by Hammer. By the time of this film being produced (1957), of course, none of this had yet happened — Cushing had really only made his mark on screen in the BBC production of ‘1984’ the year before, in which he had taken the part of Winston Smith — and so Cushing’s excellent performance and unmistakable screen presence do not prevent him from being preceded in the credits by Forrest Tucker, although it has to be said that Tucker himself is excellent in the part of Friend, combining just enough intelligence with his American entrepreneurial (or should that be greedy?) spirit to be credible.

Unfortunately, however, in the treatment of the ethnic minority characters the film does indeed show its age. Apart from the Llama himself, who is portrayed as wise and venerable, most of the native Himalayans are portrayed as superstitious and cowardly and suitable only for load-bearing, in a similar (although not quite so blatant) manner as the African natives in the popular Tarzan series of films in the time period just before this feature was filmed.

So, with a good storyline, nicely stages fake exteriors and actors in place, the main thing left to make The Abominable Snowman a classic is the musical score, and here, although the composer does not necessarily take the obvious route to success, we are not let down. For some reason (probably budgetary) Humphrey Searle chose not to utilise a full orchestra in a bombastic routine to accompany the entire film in the manner familiar to many black and white films, but his subtle tinkerings are more than adequate accompaniment, their low volume and low-key nature adding successfully to the edgy atmosphere of the film itself. The central theme, a plodding melody which mimics the footsteps of the Yeti, is similarly refrained, and yet still both successful as an accompaniment and memorable as the film’s theme.

Of course, no film review would be complete without a mention of the directing, and here I feel that Val Guest’s option were very much limited by what was available to him. The story could have proven a touch slight for a full-length feature, and this I would assume necessitated the sedate and suspense-building pace of the film whether Guest desired this or not (although I think it best to give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume that he did!). As for the choice of scene composition when filming, and hence indirectly via cinematography to the shot we see on screen, I would imagine that choices were similarly limited, this time by the sets on which the film was, for the most part, being made.

I would, however, point out that The Abominable Snowman is a successful film in clearly achieving what it set out to be. In this case, therefore, I would have to salute the achievements of Guest as director on the grounds that someone who succeeds with minimal resources and against budgetary adversity has actually achieved considerably more than someone who succeeds when these factors act in their favour instead.

And the end fact is that the final product is a refined and thoughtful science fiction / horror movie which most audiences will remember well after viewing. Can we really ask more than that?
 

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