"The Neanderthal Man" is a very, very bad film. But it's also very campy and kitschy...and is fun to watch, albeit very, very stupid! It's a variation on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"...but a very badly made one.

A very strange and enormous cat-like creature has been spotted in the Sierras in California. It's mostly strange because for most of the shots, you see a normal everyday tiger...but in closeups it's got a silly fake head with enormous Sabre-tooth Tiger-like fangs. But it's hilarious that in many scenes you don't see the fangs at all and in others they are there. This special effect must have cost at least $4!

Eventually, it's difficult to deny that something is out there...but despite more and more evidence, Professor Groves acts angrier and angrier. He's also fond of telling everyone (particularly the other professors) how stupid and short-sighted they are for not agreeing 100% with him and his wacky theories--though he's offered zero proof! Could this nutty professor (and not of the Jerry Lewis variety) have something to do with the strange sightings as well as a murderous caveman that soon appears as well?

The Sabre-tooth Tiger is hilariously bad...as is the getup the Neanderthal guy sports. But, despite being really, really stupid the film is fun to watch because Robert Shayne is wonderfully silly as Professor Groves. He is obviously imbalanced...and hilariously so. Heck, he makes Dr. Strangelove look totally normal by comparison!

By the way, fans of 1950s TV will likely recognize Shayne as the Inspector from "The Adventures of Superman". Also, while the sign language they use in the film isn't perfect, it's not too bad...better than most you see in films. And, I should know as we use sign language regularly in my home.

While Superman was on hiatus Robert Shayne who played Inspector Henderson got roped into doing this combination ripoff from Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde and The Invisible Man. Shayne's out doing some nasty experiments on cats among other things including himself. He's developed a serum that has the subjects revert to the primeval. Little house cats turn into sabre tooth tigers and pretty lame ones at that. And Shayne when he injects himself goes all Hyde.

What was Shayne thinking when he signed on for this? Or players like Richard Crane, Beverly Garland, William Fawcett and others. Shayne overacts outrageously to cover up how bad this is.

The SPCA should have gone after this film for cruelty to animals as well as the critics. One stinkerooney with an ending totally ripped off from Claude Rains and The Invisible Man.

A rip off of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", this takes a lot of patience to tolerate Household cats become giant beasts and a moody scientist turns into a prehistoric man, growing more facial hair than the wolf-man. His friends and family suspect that something is up but let him be. When people start being attacked he feigns sympathy. Of course, where there is caveman, there must be cave-woman and that is where the film dissolve s into absolute silliness. Shots of big jungle cats passing as prehistoric cats fools nobody. As the truth of what is going on is revealed, the film moves into melodramatic drivel that seemed more appropriate for the decade before when Lon Chaney Jr. was making films like this by the dozen.