Product Description

Botanist Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing) decides the join the exploration team of crass, American showman Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) on a dangerous expedition into the Himalayas to search for the legendary Yeti. Soon after setting up camp, the group is attacked by a large beast which is shot by trapper Ed Shelley (Robert Brown) and stored in a cave to attract a live specimen. Before long, the strain of the expedition is felt and the party begins to lose control. To his growing terror, Dr. Rollason suspects that the race of giant "monsters" not only exists, but is capable on invading the thoughts of human beings.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9956 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-11-26
• Format: NTSC
• Running time: 91 minutes

Customer Reviews

NOT genuine Anchor Bay
The three star rating here isn't for the film, which is one of Hammer's finest early films. It's for the DVD. Read the description carefully and be advised - This is NOT a DVD, but a DVD-R. I don't know who makes it, but despite what Amazon says, and what the case liner says, it most certainly ISN'T Anchor Bay, who appently no longer have the rights to distribute the Hammer films. The genuine Anchor Bay copy is on Amazon too, at the usual ridiculous astronomical scalper prices - $516.76 REALLY! This DVD-R, with the usual blurry copy of the cover sheet, and a generic label on the disk, is almost certainly an illegal copy.

Having said that however, it's also apparently copied from the genuine disk, as it looks virtually identical. The picture isn't quite as good as the real one (which I have), but it's not bad. A bit darker and less sharp, but by no means bad. About what you'd expect from a copy of the original. Everything is exactly the same, and all the extras are there - the commentary etc., so if you don't feel like selling your house to get a genuine copy, which is rather hard to get now, this is an OK choice. Just know what you're getting.

As for the film itself - As I said, it's one of Hammer's best of the first wave, having been made the same year as Curse of Frankenstein. Not exactly horror, nor quite science fiction, but somewhere in between. With a literate script from Nigel Kneale from his own BBC teleplay version, (which also starred Cushing, but with Stanley Baker instead of Forrest Tucker as Tom Friend, and which like so many other BBC productions of the time, sadly no longer exists,) the film has good pacing and the usual fine performance from Cushing, and from Tucker as well. Filmed in Hammerscope (2:35:1) I believe it was their first really widescreen film, the other early horrors being shot 1:66:1. And it was (wisely I believe) shot in black and white, which adds to the eerie atmoshpere of the setting, on the snowy Himalayan peaks. Avoiding showing the creature outright adds an air of mystery, and the film treats it's subject matter with respect. It is probably the only film about the Yeti which is any good, not that there are that many. It's definetely worth owning. I'd give the film four stars, the DVD-R three.

The Abominable Snowman
The Abominable Snowman proves that you don't need a mega budget to produce an excellent movie. The treatment of the subject matter, the Yeti, is surprising. Not surprising that the great Nigel Kneale would create an intelligent story. The acting is superb. Peter Cushing became a fixture and headliner in Hammer movies about this time. This dvd has a nice special feature on Cushing. By all accounts, it was wonderful to be a part of the Hammer Family. The sets depicting the Himalayas are very atmospheric. The location footage, shot in the French Pyrenees, is also excellent. The director is the very talented Val Guest. Can't say enough about how delightfully surprised I was concerning the depiction of the Yeti. Who the Yeti were, why they were living in the awesomely foreboding Himalayas, their intelligence(and superintelligence), and their protection by the lama. The ending is haunting. Engrossing film. The Abominable Snowman is a triumph of the Horror/Sci-Fi Genre!

I love the oldies!
While I also like more recent sci-fi and horror flicks, I still have a place in my heart for the classics, which I consider this film to be. The special effects were very good for its time, but I really liked the way the story developed without the "cheesy" technique of having the "snowman" chase people around on-screen throughout. Having the creature lurking in the background, mostly unseen, gave the feel of the first Alien movie (not an exact analogy, of course). My copy was excellent, and very inexpensive: I looked at Amazon.com for several months, and found mostly used copies priced as high as $100. When I saw this offer of under $20 for new, I jumped quickly.