Villain(s)  Abominable Snowman

Actor(s):  Rock Madison, Asa Maynor, George Skaff, Tom Maruzzi

Brief Description  Released in 1956, Man Beast is an American low-budget horror-adventure film directed and produced by Jerry Warren in his directorial debut. The plot follows a young woman named Connie Hayward who leads an expedition into the dangerous Himalayan Mountains to find her missing brother, who vanished while hunting the legendary Yeti.

Plot:
The film opens with an informative narrator and aerial stock footage of the Himalayas. The story begins in medias res as Connie Hayward (Asa Maynor) and her whiny boyfriend Trevor "Hud" Hudson (Lloyd Nelson) arrive at a remote Tibetan outpost. Connie is desperate to find her scientist brother, James, who went missing during a previous expedition to find the legendary Yeti.

Connie and Trevor hire a dashing, experienced mountain climber named Steve Cameron (Tom Maruzzi) to guide them further into the peaks. Along the trek, they catch up with Dr. Eric Erickson (George Wells Lewis), a scientist who was part of the original team. They also cross paths with Varga (George Skaff), a mysterious, pale-looking local guide who was with Connie's brother before his disappearance. Varga tells them that James's camp was destroyed.

As the combined team continues climbing, they face mysterious attacks, rockslides, and avalanches. Behind the scenes, the audience learns that Varga is actively conspiring with the Yetis, communicating with them through hand signals over the rocks. Varga systematically isolates and kills off the members of the party. Trevor is chased by a Yeti and falls off a treacherous cliff to his death. Dr. Erickson is lured into a cave by Varga and shot dead.

With only Connie and Steve left alive, Varga captures Connie and delivers a bizarre, memorable villain speech detailing his true origin. He reveals that he is actually a fifth-generation descendant of the Yeti. For decades, the Abominable Snowmen have been kidnapping human women to breed with them in a multi-generational plot to phase out the primitive Yeti DNA and produce human-passing progeny. Because Varga is a product of this lineage, he can easily survive the freezing high altitudes without losing his breath. He plans to kidnap Connie so she can birth the next generation of his hybrid bloodline.

Steve launches a rescue, attacking Varga and knocking him unconscious. Steve and Connie flee down the mountain using a climbing rope. Varga wakes up and pursues them down the same line, but the rope slips loose from its anchor point, sending Varga plunging to his death. Connie and Steve—who have fallen in love over the course of the harrowing journey—escape safely back to civilization. The Yeti costume was a recycled, slightly altered white gorilla suit originally used in the 1945 movie White Pongo. Critics note it resembles a cheap, "bargain-basement" costume carrying a giant stick.