This early 1950's film is unusual because it was made by a great director from the silent era. Dupont was German and involved in the Expressionist movement. He made an excellent film called ' Piccadilly ' made in 1929 which has been brought out by the British Film Institute and beautifully restored. It is intriguing that he directed this horror film which was double bill material aimed at what used to be called fleapit cinemas. I watched it again after many, many years and realised that glimpses of his fine direction were still there. The nature scenes are well filmed, and the use of sound extremely good accentuating especially the presence of a cat to almost horrific effect. In its short playing time the fluidity of the camera carries the viewer along to an unexpected climax again in the context of the natural world. The downside to this is the fair to poor acting and the special effects are quite simply bad. There are moments when I had to laugh and certain photos of the transformation of a woman into a monster should have had special attention. And yet despite all of its faults the film has a dark, brooding atmosphere and is strangely compelling. It is worthy of a 7 for moments, and there are quite a few, when the film reminds you that the magical touch of Dupont at his finest had not gone away. I feel that he was not given the necessary resources to make it better and if that is so we only have the best that he could do under such conditions. A singular film well worth tracking down.
Review of The Neanderthal Man
