Movie Review: The Neanderthal Man (1953)

Synopsis: Professor Clifford Groves has a controversial opinion about neanderthals, while his colleagues believe they lacked intelligence, he argues they were smarter than modern man. Determined to prove his theory, he injects himself with a serum that de-evolves him to neanderthal form. Meanwhile, local authorities are hunting for answers relating to the sabretooth tiger Groves created from a cat using the same serum.

Who's in it? The movie stars Robert Shayne, Joyce Terry, Richard Crane, Doris Merrick and Robert Long.

Review: I had another movie in mind this morning but came across The Neanderthal Man first and decided to give that one a try instead. It turned out to be what I would expect from a 1950s monster movie but was also slightly better than I thought it would be.

I'll start out by giving the film some credit, unlike many "mad scientist" movies, the mad scientist in this one, Groves (Shayne) at least had a reason for conducting his experiment. I'm not saying it was a good reason and I'm still a bit fuzzy on how turning himself into a neanderthal would remotely prove his theory or why he first experimented on cats, but bad justification still trumps no justification.

The special effects were about as limited as a normal 1950s movie would be. Groves neanderthal transformation was a clear rip-off of The Wolf Man with the final result being a bit more mask-like despite having a 12-year technology advantage. The "sabretooth" tiger was a mix of Bengal tiger stock footage and a very fake looking stuffed animal, almost to the point the latter was laughable. Still, the film did make good use of them despite the limitations.

Also, unlike way too many movies from this genre, the action was reasonably steady throughout the film. The tiger scenes kept things interesting until the neanderthal plot evolved and we at least got to see the monsters earlier in the movie rather than just showing them in the final few minutes.

In fact, one of my complaints was the on-screen death toll could have and probably should have been higher than it was. The low number of bodies would have made sense if Groves was maintaining enough of himself to target specific individuals but there was no evidence that was the case and, even if there had been, the targeted deaths didn't make a whole lot of sense as far as his motives were concerned. In other words, it wouldn't have hurt to see him terrifying a few more people.

Plus, as is often the case with movies like this, it did seem to take even those closest to Groves to put two and two together. Considering both his expertise and the strange, hostile way he was behaving, it sure took them a long time to figure out he may be involved.

Final Opinion: It's not a great movie by any measure but I did like it better than some similar films made around the same time. In other words, it wouldn't make my top 10 but probably would be in the top 50 percent.

My Grade: C+

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Here are some reviews of other 1950s monster movies:

Movie Review: The Giant Behemoth (1959)

Movie Review: Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)

Movie Review: First Man into Space (1959)

Movie Review: How to Make a Monster (1958)