[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neanderthal_man.jpg]]

''The Neanderthal Man'' is a 1953 SciFiHorror BMovie, directed by E. A. Dupont and starring Robert Shayne.

Professor Clifford Groves (Shayne), a celebrated anthropologist, moves with his wife and daughter to the Sierra Nevadas so he can work on his masterpiece: a serum that can reverse a million years of evolution. He tests it on himself, turns into a Neanderthal, and goes on a killing spree.

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!!''The Neanderthal Man'' contains examples of:

* DevolutionDevice: The serum can turn a man into a Neanderthal and a housecat into a saber-toothed tiger (note that the saber-tooth cats were not, in real life, the ancestors of house cats, and as far as we know have no living descendants at all).
* DyingAsYourself: After Groves is shot, he turns from a Neanderthal to a human, then dies.
* FrazettaMan: The Neanderthal Man is a dimwitted, hairy brute who runs around strangling people and animals.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: During the climax, [[spoiler:the Neanderthal Man is attacked by his saber-toothed tiger, giving the sheriff's posse time to shoot him]].
* MadScientist: Groves.
* OpeningMonologue: "In brooding beauty whose parallel one would have far to seek, stand California's high Sierras, fishermen's paradise and hunter's haven, where the defacing hand of civilization has fallen only lightly, and nature's vestments are displayed in all her rugged, primeval abandon."
* ProfessorGuineaPig: Groves.
* {{Slurpasaur}}: Aside from a rather moth-eaten looking prop head used in closeups, the saber-tooth cat is played by a regular non-saber-tooth tiger, making all the skepticism over whether such a beast could actually exist seem very silly. In a few shots you can even see the chain around its neck. You could even call this an aversion since they don't even bother to give it plastic fangs.
* TechnicolorScience: Groves's workroom contains vials full of different-colored liquid, one of which is bubbling and steaming.
* TheyCalledMeMad: Groves's fellow anthropologists all think his theories are absurd. It doesn't help that when he's asked for evidence, he starts yelling about how close-minded everyone else is.
-->'''Groves''': Lunacy, is it? In other words, you will never accept a new idea unless it is offered with proof? You have no vision, only sight! Small men, small views! You want proof, do you? Well, I'll give you proof! I'll show you such proof that no men have ever had!
* ThisIsReality: Groves accuses his skeptical colleagues of having a "comic strip mentality."
* UnwittingTestSubject: Groves originally tested the serum on the family's deaf-mute housekeeper, Celia. She only partially reverted, and she has no memory of being experimented on. Groves chalks up the failure of the experiment to "some incompatibility between my formula and the basic female constitution."
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