Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Charming and brutal

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Aside from one Glaring Flaw, this is an Underrated Horror Film that came Early in the 1950's Cycle. Robert Shayne gives a Thoughtful, Intense, and Realistic Performance.There are some Unsettling Visuals like the Deaf and Dumb Maid's Photographs, the Creepy and very Well Done Makeup for the Titular Monster, and the Murder Mutilations are done with Verve.Along with Shayne as the Mad Scientist, Beverly Garland Proves why She is a Scream Queen of Note. The Central "Skeptical Scientist" is by Richard Crane, and makes for a rather Stiff, but Acceptable Turn.There is an Atmosphere of Dread as the Tale Unfolds, mostly because of Shayne's Descent into Madness and the Brutal Murders of the Townies.The Aforementioned "Glaring Flaw" is Obvious. The Sabre Tooth Tiger. Much is made of this "Can't be Real" Beast, but when Shown Prowling for Prey the Fangs are Missing, but otherwise Close-Ups Reveal Huge Foot Long Teeth.It is a Distraction that is Intolerable and Unfitting this Underrated B-Movie that Otherwise makes its Low-Budget Scientific and Philosophical Points with Stylish Flourishes and Entertains for its 78 Minutes.

For those viewers who are wondering if actor Robert Shayne ever incarnated another role besides that of Inspector Henderson on TV's "Adventures of Superman," a quick skim of his IMDb credits will reveal the answer to be a most definitive "yes." Besides playing the part of the tough-talking best friend of Clark Kent with ever-increasing frequency on that show, which ran from 1952 - '58, Shayne, it seems, has dozens upon dozens of film and TV appearances to his credit. But those fans who would like to see Shayne as the top-billed, leading-man star of a theatrically exhibited motion picture should be made aware of "The Neanderthal Man," which was released by United Artists in June 1953. Despite its DVD availability today via an outfit known as Cheezy Flicks, the picture--minor entertainment though it might be--is yet intelligently scripted, well shot, and finely acted by its largely "no name" cast.In the film, Shayne (here, for some unfathomable reason, listed in the cast credits as "Robert Shane," and sporting a moustache that makes him initially unrecognizable, although that wonderful voice cannot be missed) plays the part of Prof. Clifford Groves, who, soon after we first encounter him, is being scoffed at by his fellow members of The Naturalists Club. Groves has just put forth his pet theory that primitive man had a brain just as advanced as our own, and with complex emotions to match. In an attempt to prove his theory that the mind of Java or Neanderthal man was just as capable of mentation as that of modern-day Homo sapiens, Groves attempts a "reactivation of the dormant cells of the mind of Man." He later injects himself with his new serum, and the viewer has little doubt as to the outcome...especially since a supposedly extinct saber-toothed tiger has lately been spotted around the professor's isolated home in the Sierras! And indeed, Groves does soon turn into a vaguely apelike creature, with an enormous noggin and with decidedly homicidal tendencies! Can visiting naturalist Dr. Ross Harkness (Richard Crane, who some may recall from 1959's "The Alligator People") and Groves' daughter Jan (pretty Joyce Terry) put an end to the slayings before the sheriff, game warden and understandably frightened townspeople shoot the prehistoric marauder down?"The Neanderthal Man" has at least three sequences that make it worthy of commendation, despite the "Maltin's Classic Movie Guide"'s assertion that the film is "colorless and cheap." In the first, that saber-tooth jumps atop the windshield of the game warden's car, and the close-up shot of its snarling mug is fairly startling. In the second, Harkness discovers a series of photos of Cella--Groves' mute, Mexican housekeeper--in the professor's lab. Cella had been given an early, experimental version of the good doctor's serum, and her increasingly hideous visage in the snapshots really is something to see. In the third memorable scene, the Neanderthal Man carries of sexy waitress Nola, here played by cult actress Beverly Garland, who gets to scream her head off in this, her first appearance in a horror film. (Beverly would also go on to star in "The Alligator People" six years later.) But the film has several other fine points to offer. Its transformation scenes are reasonably well done, and the FX by Jack Rabin and David Commons are pleasing. The B&W cinematography here by Stanley Cortez is at times most impressive, too (Cortez also lent his skills to such classic pictures as "Smash-up: The Story of a Woman," "The Three Faces of Eve" and "The Angry Red Planet"). Director E. A. Dupont has brought his film in in a no-nonsense manner (the compact affair clocks in at a mere 78 minutes), while the musical background by Albert Glasser really does keep things atmospheric. Glasser's "psychotronic" credits, by the way, are MOST impressive, including contributions to such wonderful '50s sci-fi fare as "Monster From Green Hell," "Beginning of the End," "The Cyclops," "The Amazing Colossal Man" (all from 1957!), "Giant From the Unknown," "Attack of the Puppet People," "War of the Colossal Beast" AND "Earth vs. the Spider" (all from 1958!). Finally, the film's script, by co-writers/co-producers Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen, is a bright one, and never insults the viewer's intelligence. But ultimately, the film does belong to Shayne, who makes the most of his leading role here; unsympathetic as Groves may be--he insults his peers and houseguest Harkness, is terse with his daughter and dismissive of his fiancée Ruth (gorgeous Doris Merrick)--Shayne yet makes us feel for the poor, misguided genius. Bottom line: Although the theatrical poster for this film engaged in some typical hyperbole for the era ("What primitive passions...what mad desires drove him on? He held them all in the grip of deadly terror...nothing could keep him from this woman he claimed as his own!"), the film itself remains a modestly satisfactory achievement, and is of course required viewing for all fans of Robert Shayne....

Wheeler (Frank Gerstle), a tourist-hunter in the California High Sierras, is not believed by the patrons of Webb's Cafe when he claims to have run across a live tiger with tusks. Among the scoffers is game-warden George Oakes -- until he is driving home later that night and the critter hops on the hood of his car.The general idea of this film is pretty standard -- you have a mad scientist who wants to turn people into Neanderthals and cats into saber-toothed tigers. There are plenty of scientific arguments that can be made against this being possible, but let us just ignore that...He gets especially upset when his theories are presented to the local natural history society and they scoff at him. Interestingly, he includes Piltdown Man as part of the evolutionary chain of man -- a fossil that was determined to be a hoax in November 1953, around the same time as this film came out... What could be considered really sad about this film is that it comes from director E. A. Dupont, who used to be somebody. Once upon a time, he was a big name in the world of German silent cinema, writing and directing "Variete" starring Emil Jannings and with Karl Freund operating the camera. A classic film. And now, at this point, he is directing cheesy science fiction with cheesy makeup and no real directorial flair. This is your average science fiction film of the 1950s, with almost no notable names (besides Dupont). He could have done better...The one possibly notable name is Beverly Garland, who played the waitress. Although not A-list, she did go on to appear in multiple Roger Corman films and continued acting up through the 2000s on shows such as "7th Heaven". Some could say Robert Shayne was notable, but aside from bit parts in "North By Northwest" and "Invaders From Mars" he hardly left his mark. Although perhaps talking this movie down, I am not saying you should avoid this film, but just be prepared for the average 1950s flick, probably not something you will tell your friends about. For those who really must see it, Scream Factory has released a nice blu-ray of the film, with a fairly decent transfer (though no special features).

A most interesting and weakly executed Sci-Fi diversion, where we have a somewhat unbalanced scientist proposing a theory that brain size is indicative of intelligence. A theory laughed at by fellow scientists in this film, but now recognized as accurate.Of course, in the film, the scientist promotes as fact that brain size of the neanderthal is perhaps even larger than modern man, when it was not. That's the flaw here, but still we get to see him revert himself back to a neanderthal with violent tendencies, probably also pretty far-fetched. I'd expect a neanderthal in today's world to be more bewildered and frightened than overtly violent for no reason.Also of notable fun is the "reversion" of house cats to sabre-tooth tigers. Pretty unlikely as they're not really evolutionarily that closely related in any line. But still fun and in one case, ironically deadly.This is mild low-budget 1950s science fiction, short enough to not be tedious, although the excessively prose dialog is annoying. It's almost like writing in a period stage-drama style of the 1900s, and applying it to a 50s B-movie.While merely okay, this film could have been so much better in the hands of Jack Arnold and the sci-fi effects wizards at 1950s Universal-International. Oh, wait, I just remembered they did it as Monster on the Campus.