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The 1955 film 'The Quatermass Xperiment' was a huge success at the time. Based upon the 1953 BBC six part television series of a similar name, it is deemed to be one of the first British horror movies, and has been hugely influential. Part of its success was due to Hammer Films treating the film's science fiction content as horror - creating an atmosphere rather than just focussing on the story.
Professor Bernard Quatermass is an American with a lot of money, which he invests into his own private space programme. He builds a rocket ship, and sends it into orbit, with three astronauts aboard. Something goes wrong during the flight, leading to two of the mens' death, and doing something funny to the third. This third crew member flees his nurses at his hospital, and goes on a bit of a rampage, absorbing others into himself and growing...
Richard Wordsworth puts on a good performance as Victor Carroon, the changed astronaut. Although he doesn't say much, as he's only human for a small part of the film, you can see the anguish in his face as he copes with the changes going through him. Brian
Donlevy is Quatermass, the abrupt american, who seems to deal with the crisis strongly and calmly - although the director of the original tv series thought he murdered the part. Everyone else puts on a good performance, in the "fast-talkin,high-trousers" 1950s style.
You could say this an exciting film, and it certainly would have been very intense in a cinema so long ago, but compared to today's explosion-fests, it appears quite tame. That is not to belittle the film though, as it is a very enjoyable watch. The director uses various tools to create a tense atmosphere, such as a good musical score. He also hides things from us, the viewer, to keep a bit of suspense - but also, I imagine, to save on special effects! The film's £42,000 budget is probably fairly comparible to today's budgets in real terms, though I don't know the overall inflation since that time so can't work out how much that'd be today!
Aside from the film itself, it's fairly interesting to be able to see London in the 1950s. Some of you may have been alive at that time and recognise things, but it's a good fourty years before my time. It's from an era when London was still a port, and there were areas of wasteland next to the Thames. It also shows what I think was London Zoo, but if anyone knows of any other zoos there at that time, let me know!
The film differs from the television series in a number of ways. For one thing, instead of being six hours long, it is only eighty minutes. This means that it was necessary to cut out a number of sub-plots. One of these was that in the changing creature that used to be the astronaut, there is still the consciousnesses of every creature it absorbs. This means Quatermass is able to appeal to the last vestiges of its humanity in order to sort out the crisis. This is not so in the film, and so we're perhaps a little confused as to whether the astronaut is still human with a changing body and uncontrollable urges, or whether he has been engulfed by an alien presence. Other changes include Quatermass himself being very controlling and a bully, whereas in the TV series he was a friendly and approachable character. Also, the dropping of the first 'e' from 'experiment' in the name of the tv series; this is meant to emphasise the fact that it receieved an 'X' rating at the box office, and is (was) for adults only. An even bigger change is that it was called 'The Creeping Horror' for its American release. I guess they must need something more in-your-face to grab their attention..
The film shows its age somewhat in the special effects - the creature looks unconvincing, but that shouldn't matter! Of course, it is also filmed in black and white. Another thing I thought interesting in its agedness was how they portray a laborotory. In one scene where remains from the spaceship are being tested in a lab, there is a bunsen burner running constantly on the yellow safety flame, and the 'scientist' does things like pouring various beakers of liquid into other beakers. I'm no professional biologist but I'm fairly sure that sort of thing doesn't happen too much, so it perhaps shows how people thought of scientists as magical fountains of knowledge and labs as mystical places in those times. Perhaps not.
Overall I would recommend this film, as much to see 50s London and to find out what has influenced generations of horror and science fiction movies, as for the film itself.
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Science Fiction - Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga - Original Language: Japanese - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ayako Kawasumi, Fujiko Takimoto
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Advantages: An excellent production that will appeal to any fan of classic TV and SF. Disadvantages: Because it's a recording, it loses some of the excitement of watching it live.
The_Man_With_No_Nickname 26.12.2008 (28.11.2008)
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Review of The QuatermassExperiment (DVD)
Advantages: Probably the best British TV science-fiction series ever Disadvantages: Poor transfer to DVD in places, although given the equipment in use....
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