"There he was. Larger than life. Ugliest, meanest looking thing I ever laid eyes on."
In the high Sierras a sabretoothed tiger is running around. It’s true. Mr. Wheeler (Frank Gerstle) saw it. Of course no one believes him. At least until the game warden George Oakes (Robert Long) sees it too. He gets a moulage of its paw print. Now farmers are starting to lose cattle. Oakes contacts Dr. Ross Harkness (Richard Crane), a zoologist and shows him the moulage. Harkness goes to the mountains to investigate. He meets Professor Grove’s fiancée Ruth Marshall (Doris Merrick), his daughter Jan (Joyce Terry), and finally the professor (Robert Shayne). Harkness then meets up with Oakes and the two of them go hunting for and shoot the big cat. They contact Professor Groves to examine it however when they go back, the cat is gone.
Professor Groves has been a bad boy. Professor Groves is one in a long line of mad scientists. He is responsible for the giant cat seen in the mountains. He has developed a serum that will revert certain subjects to their prehistoric state. It works on cats, but not on dogs. It works on men, but not so much on women. (He experimented with his housekeeper.) Unfortunately he takes the serum himself and reverts to a Neanderthal. In this state he starts killing men and raping women. Dr. Harkness finds out what the professor is doing. But the sheriff and his men are searching for the killer and they may find him first.
“The Neanderthal Man” was released in 1953 and was directed by Ewald Andre Dupont. It is kinda like you basic Jekyll and Hyde or even werewolf movie. Man takes serum. Man turns into monster. Man kills stuff. The man is usually a scientist with either a big ego or big ambitions and not as much brains as he should have or thinks he has. This one is also a dick.
The special effects are a gorilla head and a stuffed tiger. That’s about it. Maybe some tufts of hair to glue onto the monster’s arms but they’re not even used in all the shots. But that’s what a lot of low budget hairy ape type movies have for special effects. Both shots of a normal tiger and a stuffed tiger with long teeth are used. Occasionally you can see the leash on the regular tiger. The movie is unoriginal but still entertaining. If you’re into hairy guys you’ll be wanting to check it out.
Beverly Garland is in a supporting role. It’s her first role using her new name. Previously she was billed as Beverly Campbell. One of the exhibits on the board behind Professor Groves when he’s addressing the Naturalist Society meeting is “Piltdown” man which has now been debunked as a hoax. Sabretoothed tigers are not really tigers and are not closely related to the tiger or any other modern cat.