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January 22, 2014

Movie Review: "The Beast of Hollow Mountain/The Neanderthal Man" (1956/53; Shout/Scream Factory)

...what was it, that old saying, about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery?? Point in case, the little guy...filmmaker-wise...who is inspired to 'knock off' something put out by the big-leaguers. We've seen and heard this one before, time and time again...and we've resigningly come to accept the fact that, for good or bad...for every 'Alien', there's a 'Galaxy of Terror', an 'Xtro' and an 'Inseminoid', just to give one of the more obvious examples. However, every once in a blue moon, just the opposite happens...'opposite', in the sense that a fairly good, albeit forgettable and negligible genre idea is put out there, for all the masses to see...an 'underdog' production contender, so to speak...only to have greater life breathed into such ideas, by big-studio efforts...upheld to the point where they stand out more prominently, historically, than the underlings with the original concept...in effect, making those who were there, first, almost forgotten. Alas, and yet in a way, thankfully, such is the latter case, with regards to a duo of lower-tiered classic 'B', creature-feature-style, sci-fi/horror flicks, recently showcased together, on one of Shout/Scream Factory's two-fer combo packs...

...kicking things into gear, with 1956's "Beast of Hollow Mountain", a cross-genre of sci-fi monster cheese and wild western 'yee-ha', the story herein unfolds with a love triangle in 19th century Mexico, of all things. A tried & true American cowboy, Jim Ryan (Guy Madison) is called in to tag-team the operation of a small, south-of-the-border cattle ranch, with local resident, Felipe (Carlos Rivas). Jim becomes smitten with a local alcade's daughter, Sarita (Patricia Medina). However, blag dang nabbit, wouldn't you know it?? Sarita is reluctantly bequeathed to Enrique Rios (Eduardo Noriega), a shifty cattle baron, who is dead determined to buy out all the local ranchers. And as if this wasn't enough, cattle from the local ranches...including Jim and Felipe's...are suspiciously and mysteriously disappearing. 'Suspiciously', in that the disappearances are suspectedly perpetrated by rustlers, hired by Enrique; however, when the dusty-town locals' superstitious ranting about a monstrous evil in the hills of Hollow Mountain, is horrifically followed by the appearance of a towering prehistoric terror from beyond time...well, let's just say that troubled romance and ranch takeovers quickly take a backseat, in favor of much...eh, bigger priorities...
...now, this little prehistoric schlocker-that-could...a precursor blueprint to the similarly conceived, and much more exciting 1969 Warner Bros' genre production, "The Valley of Gwangi"...just had to have the kiddies impatiently squirming in the aisles, when it was first released. After all, the first two-thirds of "Beast of Hollow Mountain"...an idea conceived and written by famed genre filmmaker Willis O'Brien (...here, under an assumed pseudonym, as protest to having been re-nigged on the assumption that he'd also be doing the special effects, here)...plays off more like a mushy soap opera, with the romance angle taking front stage, amidst the mystery, intrigue and action of duking ranchers, snidely villainy and dinosaur dilemma. However, when our voraciously intrepid, razor-toothed Tyranno comes into the picture, that's when this flick best comes to life. And 'come to life' it does, most outrageously...not merely with the expected genre mix of cowboys rangling a prehistoric beast, but with the 'beast' itself, which. although quaintly effective, as animated dinosaurs go, still bore a slightly laughable 'Gumby'-like stature, in it's rendering...which assuredly makes one wonder what the story was, with regards to not using Willis O'Brien's well-reputed talents in stop-motion special effects, in this particular production. If at the very least, interesting enough, "Beast..." provided the springboard for yet another cowboy-star-to-be, with Guy Madison, who would simultaneously catapult to greater fame, in the new medium of television, with "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickcock"...


...as we sojourn forth into another prehistoric themed excursion into the genre cinema fantastique...namely, 1953's schlocky cerebral shocker, "The Neanderthal Man", we find the film having a lot in common with "Beast of Hollow Mountain", in regards to storytelling, as well as mediorically pitching a concept, which would be greater and much more effectively expounded upon, sometime later...
...oh, how incredibly arrogant we are, Professor Clifford Groves, aren't we!! But then, some of your ideas are pretty far fetched, right?? Imagine...chemically regressing lifeforms to a prehistoric level, and for what?? To prove that the evolutionarily lower base life forms, genuinely had the intellectual potential of his contemporary protegee?? How incredulous and unsubstantiated!! Or is it??...
...and so, in arrogant response to his condescending and supposedly scholared naysayers, Clifford Groves (Robert Shayne) proceeds with his unorthodox experiments, in attempting to prove his theories. Soon, the town is put on edge, with rampantly outrageous reports of what is described as a prehistoric saber-toothed tiger, running around. But does Professor Groves merely stop, with his poor little housecat?? No siree-bob!! He soon sets his sights on making his deaf-mute housekeeper, his next guinea pig. And if that's not enough...well, you can bet your bottom dollar that he himself, takes a turn at regression. Really, what could possibly happen, Professor!! According to your theories, you'll still have the same level of intellectual potential, in regression, as you do now, right?? Or will you?? Least to say, the possibilities prove to be monstrous...
...as with "Beast...", "The Neanderthal Man"...a concept later tackled by Universal, in the better known, and effects-wise, visually more striking "Monster on the Campus"...takes it's sweet time...stalling, in getting to the film's namesake titular moment, and front-ends the film with the Groves character's arrogant meanderings, rantings and theorizing; one might even say that in all of cinematic 'mad scientist' history, Professor Clifford Groves has to just about top them all, in overall smarm, gall, arrogance, contempt and disillusioned grandeur...and actor Robert Shayne (...hardly unfamiliar with schlocky genre films, having starred in genre classics, such as '57's gleefully laudable "The Giant Claw" and '58's "How to Make a Monster", amongst numerous others) is unflinching, in taking this character, over-the-top. The special effects are fairly threadbare, with mostly 'before & after' transformation suggestion...that is, until Professor Groves himself, transforms (...uh, did prehistoric dudes have afros??), and then the filmmakers pull out the ol' reliable 'multiple dissolve' effect, not unlike that of the Wolf Man, in the classic Universal monster days (...there is a creepy picture-to-picture transformation suggestion, of the deaf-mute housekeeper, which actually might have been even cooler to see, in the 'dissolved' method)...
...in the past, both "Beast of Hollow Mountain" and "The Neanderthal Man" have suffered the dirges of having slipshod prints, transferred uncleanly, via numerous poverty row distributors, who shall remain unnamed, here. However, the fine folks at Shout/Scream Factory, despite the embraceable substandard-ness of these films, have nonetheless given both of these semi-classics, a most decisively sharp and crisp rendering.  Regretfully, despite the typically expected matting of films like these, by Shout/Scream, there's no trailers, commentary, or anything supplemental (...would have been cool to have these films sandwiching some trailers and concession ads, like in the good ol' days of drive-in cinema).


...as these two tarnished film gems represent precursor attempts at ideas later...and better...examined, one might even consider these as the 'second tiered' co-features, in being paired with higher profile genre classics of the same meld, much like the ones previously mentioned. Wha-da-ya say?? "...Gwangi" paired up with "Neanderthal.."?? "Monster..." pitted against "Beast..."??...


...it c-c-could work, dammit...they said that I was c-c-crazy, for such theorizing...c-c-razy and insane...MuwHaHaHaHaHa....but I say, it could work...I'll make it work...MuwHaHaHaHaHaHaaaaa... 

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