HALF HUMAN (1957)
Article #217 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-19-2001
Posting date: 3-4-2002

An abominable snowman is discovered in Japan.

This Ishiro Honda movie, like GODZILLA, was released in this country with different footage to make it more accessible to American audiences; it doesn’t do it nearly as well, though. In fact, the sequences consist of little more than John Carradine talking endlessly, though they do perform an autopsy on the the costume of the baby yeti, which Toho lent to the makers of this version for use in the movie. It still comes off better than a Jerry Warren movie, though, but I don’t care for the fact that it is the new footage that is almost entirely represented in the movie’s credits, with only a token mention of the actual Japanese cast and crew that were responsible for most of the movie. Incidentally, the story looks quite interesting and the Yeti costume is fantastic; I’m surprised that Toho could come up with a big hairy creature as good-looking as this one is and then bungle the costume used for King Kong (in KING KONG VS. GODZILLA). I can’t help but notice that in general movies about abominable snowmen are more interesting than movies about Bigfoot. I wish I could see the full Japanese version of the movie, but I gather that it is considered politically incorrect in Japan and is no longer available.