The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

January 12, 2025 7:45 PM

1955 Hammer film production of the 1953 BBC TV production of The Quatermass Experiment by Nigel Kneale. Stars American actor Brian Donlevy as Professor Barnard Quatermass, and Richard Wordsworth as the doomed surviving astronaut, Victor Carroon.

A spaceship crewed by three crash lands with only one still aboard, the other two mysteriously missing. The survivor, the nearly catatonic Carroon, seems to be afflicted with some kind of strange illness, and Professor Quatermass is determined to unravel the mystery of the missing astronauts and the afflicted survivor.

Available on DVD, and via youtube and dailymotion from individual uploaders. The original BBC serial unfortunately doesn't completely survive. Writer Nigel Kneale's creation, Professor Quatermass, would go on to become a recurring character in a few more series and movies. This movie, and the franchise seems to have a long tail in British scifi, and scifi film in general.

posted by 2N2222 (8 comments total)

I think this is a reasonably impressive movie for the time, an early example of body horror and cosmic horror, the latter seeming to be something Kneale had a knack for. Our surviving astronaut seems infected by something that somehow penetrated the spaceship. It may or may not have much of an intelligence, but what it does seems to be assimilating any kind of life form, which happens to Richard Wordsworth's Carroon, who says no audible words in the whole movie and manages to perform quite well, with his gaunt frame and tortured demeanor. He begins a transformation, moderately at first, more in the shadows where the viewer can't quite see him, and finally at the end when he's no longer recognizable as a man. Despite the primitive state of the art in effects and makeup, the final reveal was kind of squicky, and tragic.

There's a scene where Quatermass and others are watching some silent footage of the astronauts while on their mission that seems novel and works well, despite being low on special effects. It teases at exposition, to reveal the mystery of the missing two astronauts, but ends up making the audience provide their own interpretation of the events. This structure has a certain novelty that I thought was impressive for the era.

Wordsworth is quite good in his part. Donlevy as Quatermass, IMO, not so much. Kneale has a rep for creating grumpy old dude characters, and Donlevy delivers. The character is kind of an authoritative pushy ass, who manages to get things done despite his personality. I suppose Donlevy did that part well, but Kneale reportedly disliked the choice to play Quatermass.

It's truly a pity the original BBC serial isn't fully available. Most of it didn't survive because most of the BBC stuff overall was never preserved. Some of it is viewable on youtube, and it's an interesting watch to see how similar it is to the Hammer treatment.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:09 PM on January 12 [3 favorites]

It's really nice to see Quatermass on here! Nigel Kneale's writing isn't nearly as well known as it ought to be, and I think all of the Quatermass films and TV productions are worth watching. The TV productions are extremely impressive given how early they are, and Hammer did an great job of keeping the atmosphere of the originals while improving the production values.

I also liked the use of the footage of the astronauts - and the idea of having the ending be reported by a TV crew, in an accurate mockup of a BBC OB vehicle of the time. I wonder if Kneale would have used the same approach if he'd not been writing for TV to start with?

(There's a good discussion of the preservation of the TV productions on the Restoration Team site. Quatermass has fared better than many BBC productions, as everything that was recorded has been preserved, and The Pit in particular looks very good in the most recent Blu-Ray restoration. The reason we only have episodes 1-2 of The Quatermass Experiment is that they didn't record the later episodes at all, probably because episode 2's recording came out so poorly.)
posted by offog at 3:56 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]

Every time I see the title for this, my inner spell check really feels strongly that it must be missing an R to make it Quartermass, as well as an E obviously, because wtf "Xperiment."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:03 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]

*blink*

I just read Quatermass 13 times on this page, and thought it said Quartermass (with the R) every single time. I actually had to edit the previous sentence, because I added an R the first time.

Also, open your mind, Kuatomass...
posted by mrphancy at 2:04 PM on January 13 [2 favorites]

It's like the Berenstein Bears effect for vintage UK sci-fi.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:17 PM on January 13 [2 favorites]

After hearing about these for a while, I finally caught this and Quatermass in the Pit (the 3rd movie) last year. I'm a fan of both SF and Hammer films so not sure what took me so long.

This fell into the like-not-love category. Impressive horror for a tiny budget though. And you can definitely see Dr. Who's DNA in Quatermass.
posted by mark k at 12:11 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

This somehow made It onto (I think it was) St Pete's channel 44 Saturday afternoon Creature Feature sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, to seriously spook child-me, probably visiting my grandmother in Lakeland, Fla. at the time.

I can recall feeling confused when I also saw the character in Quatermass and the Pit, child-me not having that good a grasp on the idea of multiple movies featuring the same character.   I think I was under the impression that only James Bond did that, but it felt very cool for some reason—almost transgressive in a weird way—when I finally wrapped my brain around the idea.

That it's stuck with me 40-odd years attests to how well it was put together for its time, even with its era-limited special effects.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 5:17 AM on January 14

The secret is to remember that Quatermass has all the mass and gravitas, not just a quarter. My problem is I want to call Kneale “Keene” for some reason.

I am fond of Kneale’s formula of “angry men shout at each other (and, occasionally, women) with monsters.” It’s not scary, but it is effective, although it runs a little dry in the 4th installment with the whole “past its sell-by” hippie plot. The Stone Tape would have made a better send-off for the character.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:42 AM on January 16