The Snow Creature (1954, Paul Langton, Leslie Denison, William Phipps, Teru Shimada) – Classic Movie Review 12,526

W Lee Wilder’s entertainingly bad 1954 low budget monster movie The Snow Creature is made by his production company, and written by his son Myles Wilder.

Producer/ director W Lee Wilder’s 1954 low budget American science fiction horror film/ monster movie The Snow Creature is made by own film production company Planet Filmplays for release by United Artists. It is written by his son Myles Wilder, and stars Paul Langton, Leslie Denison, William Phipps, and Teru Shimada.

A pioneer as almost certainly the first of several Yeti/ Abominable Snowman-themed movies, it is nevertheless hilariously, hugely entertainingly bad. Unfortunately, when it is not hilarious, it is a bit boring, but it is only 69 minutes long.

Paul Langton stars as Dr Frank Parrish leads a scientific expedition intent on collecting botanical samples in a Himalayan country. But the expedition’s chief guide, a sherpa named Subra (Teru Shimada) takes control after his wife is kidnapped and he cannot convince Parrish to pursue the monster Yeti and save his wife. Parrish doesn’t believe in the Yeti’s existence, but is forced to join Subra’s pursuit. As the over 7 feet tall Lock Martin plays the Yeti, boy was Parrish wrong. Martin had previously appeared as the robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).

It starts in a Himalayan country that presumably borders India but the actors portraying the locals speak Japanese, while the return flight taken by the main characters heads west from India to California (via TWA). So it ends up in an urban setting, with the film’s climax in the Los Angeles storm drain system, as in the 1954 Them!. As expected, the monster is particularly unconvincing.

The cast are Paul Langton as Frank Parrish, Leslie Denison as Peter Wells, Teru Shimada as Subra, William Phipps as Lt. Dunbar, Lock Martin as the Yeti, Rollin Moriyama as Leva, Robert Kino as Inspector Karma, George Douglas as Corey Jr, and Rudolf Anders as Dr Louis DuPont.

Hammer were going to use the title for its 1957 The Abominable Snowman film.

Austrian-American screenwriter, film producer and director William Lee Wilder (August 22, 1904 – February 14, 1982) was the brother of the film director Billy Wilder and father of TV comedy writer and producer Myles Wilder.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,526

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