As a Hammer fan, I really wanted to like this film. Unfortunately I found that the casting of Forrest Tucker (and far worse Robert Brown) spoiled what might have been a good Hammer film (Richard Wattis looks a bit out of place too).
Tucker and Brown play their scenes a little like Larry and Mo (without the humour). For me, this ruined the film. The bad acting was made very obvious by the presence of Cushing, who played his scenes far more in line with what the general mood of the film required.
Brown is surprisingly bad, and his role as the films likable American dope is awful. Tucker on the other hand has a reasonable start in the initial scenes. But from then on descends into a boorish 'American tough guy' routine, resorting to the 'shouting all your lines and looking angry' method. This might have been passable in a 30's gangster B movie, but its out of place here.
Prehaps it's the effects of altitude, but Tucker's acting seems to become increasingly one dimensional the higher up the mountain he climbs. Becoming particularly tiresome after the 10000 feet, and by the end of the film becomes a frozen wooden block. Brown is so out of place that he looks ridiculous throughout.
In Tucker and Brown's defence, this may have been the result of bad direction and a poor script, something I suspect which could have been rooted in the same mind set that gave us Quatermass X - trying too hard to ape American cinema perhaps, when there wasn't the talent to pull it off. But Quatermass X is a 'pulp' B movie and you can enjoy it for what it is. This film however has higher pretensions and as such it's difficult to excuse or enjoy the poor production values.
The director's handling of the action and suspense is also pretty mediocre.
It was on the whole a disappointing film. I found myself spending most of the movie distracted by the two American characters, and wondering why the Yeti was taking so long to get rid of them.
I suppose the one ray of hope for die hard fans is that I seem to be the only one here who thought this was a bad movie. Perhaps its just me - so see it for yourself, hopefully you'll like it more than I did.
Gets a 4 only because I'm ignoring Larry and Mo (and the large heavy cage they somehow managed to drag to the top of the mountain).
Tucker and Brown play their scenes a little like Larry and Mo (without the humour). For me, this ruined the film. The bad acting was made very obvious by the presence of Cushing, who played his scenes far more in line with what the general mood of the film required.
Brown is surprisingly bad, and his role as the films likable American dope is awful. Tucker on the other hand has a reasonable start in the initial scenes. But from then on descends into a boorish 'American tough guy' routine, resorting to the 'shouting all your lines and looking angry' method. This might have been passable in a 30's gangster B movie, but its out of place here.
Prehaps it's the effects of altitude, but Tucker's acting seems to become increasingly one dimensional the higher up the mountain he climbs. Becoming particularly tiresome after the 10000 feet, and by the end of the film becomes a frozen wooden block. Brown is so out of place that he looks ridiculous throughout.
In Tucker and Brown's defence, this may have been the result of bad direction and a poor script, something I suspect which could have been rooted in the same mind set that gave us Quatermass X - trying too hard to ape American cinema perhaps, when there wasn't the talent to pull it off. But Quatermass X is a 'pulp' B movie and you can enjoy it for what it is. This film however has higher pretensions and as such it's difficult to excuse or enjoy the poor production values.
The director's handling of the action and suspense is also pretty mediocre.
It was on the whole a disappointing film. I found myself spending most of the movie distracted by the two American characters, and wondering why the Yeti was taking so long to get rid of them.
I suppose the one ray of hope for die hard fans is that I seem to be the only one here who thought this was a bad movie. Perhaps its just me - so see it for yourself, hopefully you'll like it more than I did.
Gets a 4 only because I'm ignoring Larry and Mo (and the large heavy cage they somehow managed to drag to the top of the mountain).