The Abominable Snowman – 1957 | 91 mins | Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi | B&W

Plot Synopsis

The Abominable Snowman was the final film collaboration between director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale. Based on the 1955 BBC TV drama ‘The Creature’, and inspired by a spate of journeys to the Himalayas to locate the mythical yeti, including expeditions by both The Daily Mail and Sir Edmund Hillary, The Abominable Snowman is a beautifully photographed atmospheric chiller from the heyday of Hammer Studios. Tensely directed by Val Guest at Bray, Pinewood, and on location in the French Pyrenees, the film uses eerie claustrophobia and unseen terror to convey a taut paranoid atmosphere – only unveiling the yeti’s shadowy silhouette during the films climatic ending.

Botanist John Rollason (Peter Cushing) is holed up in the remote Rong-ruk Tibetan monastery overseen by wise local Lama (Arnold Marlé), with Rollason is his wife Helen (Maureen Connell), and research assistant Fox (Peter Wattis). A team of explorers led by brash American adventurer Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) arrive and enlist Rollason to lead an expedition to the Himalayan Mountains in search of the legendary yeti. Rollason is told the mission is for scientific purposes and agrees; yet Friend’s real intention is to capture and exploit the legendary creature. As the expedition reaches the snowy peaks of the Himalayas, strange cries can be heard during the night.

Before long misfortune strikes the expedition as Kusang (Wolfe Morris) the frightened Sherpa flees, an avoidable accident injures Scottish photographer McNee (Michael Brill), tough ex-trapper Ed Shelley (Robert Brown) is persuaded to act as live bait for the yeti, and Friend’s hysterical recklessness places him in mortal danger. When Helen sees Kusang stagger back into the monastery, she immediately sets out with a relief party to rescue Rollason and the others.