Quatermass 2 (Enemy from Space)

While returning to his observatory in rural England, physicist Bernard Quatermass narrowly avoids a car accident. The other vehicle stops and a delirious man emerges...with an unusual wound on his face. His wife claims he was burned by a falling piece of stone. After assisting the couple, Quatermass arrives at his science complex.

His staff is anxious to tell him about weird meteor-like objects falling throughout the countryside. Quatermass is in no mood to listen to anyone. He's deeply bitter after learning that his moon colony project has been unfunded. The next day, Quatermass connects the two incidents involving the falling rocks and decides to investigate with a colleague.

Discovering the dome city.

The duo discover that a nearby village has disappeared. In its place, they find a city of metallic domes that looks mighty similar to Quatermass's moon colony model. The landscape is also littered with the unusual rocks. When Quatermass's colleague picks one up, he suffers a facial burn. Within seconds, security personnel in gas masks appear and take away the injured man amid Quatermass's feeble protests.

It's difficult to describe the plot to Quatermass 2 (aka Enemy from Space), the superior 1957 sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment (1955). As Quatermass probes deeper into mysterious activities at the dome city, he uncovers a tangled conspiracy that involves members of the British government. (I love that government officials explain that the facility will end world hunger by manufacturing synthetic food--when its real mission threatens to end mankind's existence.)

Like the first Quatermass film and the later Quatermass and the Pit (1967), Quatermass 2 was based on a TV serial written by the brilliant Nigel Kneale. The TV version consisted of six 30-minute episodes, which provided more time to explore Kneale's central theme of an "invisible" enemy indistinguishable from the human race. (Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Quatermass 2 is considered by some critics to be a Cold War metaphor.)

A lingering image....

If the screenplay, penned by Kneale and director Val Guest, rushes the plot, Guest compensates by including some marvelous visuals. The Shell Haven Refinery in Essex was used as the setting for the mysterious plant. With its cold metallic structures, it provides a chilling, bleak backdrop to the action. And one scene, in which a dying man staggers down a metal staircase covered in a burning, black goo...let's just say it's a genuinely disturbing image that lingers long after the movie is over.

The miscast Donlevy.

The only thing preventing Quatermass 2 from taking its place among the best sci fi films of the 1950s is its star. Brian Donlevy, who played the lead in The Quatermass Xperiment reprises the role--and he reminded me of one of those emotionless pod people in Body Snatchers. He recites dialogue like a robot and never convinces the audience--not for a nanosecond--that he is a rocket scientist. In contrast, Quatermass and the Pit is the best Quatermass movie largely because of Andrew Keir's performance in the lead role (well, it also features a highly imaginative plot that mixes sci fi and horror).

Hammer horror fans will instantly recognize the music in the opening scene. It's a variation of James Bernard's Horror of Dracula score (which was reused in several other Hammer pictures).


This post is part of the 2nd Great Hammer-Amicus Blogathon hosted by Cinema Catharsis and and Reelweegiemidget Reviews. Please check out the full blogathon schedule by searching for #HammerAmicusBlogathon on Twitter.

Bette and Joan Go Hammering

In the 1960s and 1970s, it wasn't unusual for faded classic film stars to find steady work in the horror genre. Examples include Joseph Cotten (Baron Blood), Ray Milland (Terror in the Wax Museum), and Joan Crawford (Trog). Today, we look at two Hammer films starring classic film icons Bette Davis and Joan Fontaine. Ms. Davis had dabbled with horror earlier when she appeared in Robert Aldrich's black comedies Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). She made two Hammer films; the second was The Anniversary, but our pick for this post is...

Would you trust this woman?

The Nanny (1965). Frankly, I'm baffled as to why this well-done psychological drama remains little more than a footnote in Bette Davis' distinguished filmography. Hammer regular Jimmy Sangster specialized in this genre and penned several fine suspense films (e.g., Scream of Fear, Nightmare). The Nanny ranks with the best of them.

A nicely framed shot from director Seth Holt.

Bette stars as the title character, who initially comes across as an older Mary Poppins (in fact, one character compares her to the practically perfect Poppins). Nanny (her name is never revealed) is beloved by Mrs. Fane, one of her former charges, but is reviled by 10-year-old Joey Fane (William Dix). Joey has just returned home from two years in an institution, to which he was confined following his alleged involvement with his little sister's drowning death. Joey not only hates Nanny, but believes that she is trying to kill him. He refuses to eat any food prepared by Nanny (for fear of poisoning) and he locks the loo door when taking a bath (for fear of being drowned). Little Joey is an unadulterated brat and, as his former psychiatrist claims, he may be mentally disturbed. But could he be right about Nanny?

Pamela Franklin.

While the plot's outcome lacks surprise, The Nanny works wonderfully thanks to Sangster's sharply-written script and a bevy of strong performances. Young William Dix is excellent as the pouty, bratty Joey (he only made two other films). Wendy Craig expertly captures the childlike nuances of Joey's incompetent mother. Finally, Pamela Franklin adds some bite as a cynical 14-year-old who lives in the apartment above Joey's. It's an impressively natural performance and reminded me how talented she was in films like The Innocents, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and The Legend of Hell House.

In their book Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography, authors Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Veechio claim Ms. Davis "gave what is probably the best performance by an actress in a Hammer film." I wouldn't go that far (Martita Hunt in Brides of Dracula springs to mind immediately). However, Bette convincingly makes the viewer question whether Nanny will be the heroine or the villain. She battled the flu--and director Seth Holt--throughout much of the production. Oddly, she was not the first choice for the role. Writer-producer Jimmy Sangster first met with Greer Garson, but could not convince her to take the part.

Joan Fontaine.

The Witches (aka The Devil's Own) (1966). After recovering from a nervous breakdown, spinster Gwen Hayfield (Joan Fontaine) accepts a teaching position at a school in the rural British hamlet of Haddaby. The village seems idyllic at first, but that turns out to be a facade that masks unnatural behavior and, ultimately, a deep-rooted evil.

Screenwriter Nigel Kneale was one of the most important British television writers of the 1950s and 1960s, his best known works being the Quatermass miniseries and films. His adaptation of Norah Lofts' novel The Devil's Own is ambitious, but also unsatisfying. The opening scenes work well enough and establish a nice sense of unease. One character who is introduced as a clergyman later reveals that he likes to dress that way because it makes him "feel secure." However, the plot grows sillier as it progresses and climaxes in a ludicrous (and lengthy) pagan orgy. The existence of pagan rituals amid modern society is a theme that Kneale would explore later and more effectively in the Quatermass miniseries (1979).

What's on Kay Walsh's head?

Joan Fontaine appears appropriately puzzled as Miss Hayfield, but it's merely an adequate performance. Indeed, she is upstaged by British veteran Kay Walsh, who attacks her role as the villain with such zest that she almost pulls off wearing the silliest high priestess headdress in film history.

I've probably made The Witches sound worse than it is. It's a respectable Hammer effort, but you're far better off watching Bette Davis in The Nanny.

Quatermass and the Pit: Nigel Kneale's Original BBC Serial

As regular readers of this blog know, Hammer's 1967 science fiction classic Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) ranks among my favorite films. Its ingenious premise captured my imagination as a youth and has held my interest through repeated viewings over the last four decades. So, it was with excitement--and a little trepidation--that I approached the original 1958 BBC serial that inspired the movie adaptation.

Andre Morell as Professor Quatermass.

The serial opens with the discovery of a human-like skull during construction in the Hobbs Lane area of London. An American paleontologist, Dr. Matthew Roney, find more skeletal remains and proclaims that these "ape men" hail from five million years ago. When further excavation reveals a large cylinder made of an unknown material, Roney contacts his friend, Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group.

Meanwhile, Barbara Judd, Roney's assistant, learns that local residents consider Hobbs Lane to be haunted. She uncovers tales of "dwarfs that disappear into walls" that surface after any physical disturbance in the area. Barbara's findings, revealed only to Quatermass and Roney, become more terrifying when a soldier working inside the cylinder claims to have seen the "dwarfs."

The situation becomes significantly more perplexing when Quatermass discovers a hidden chamber in the cylinder--filled with the remains of large insect-like creatures. Is the cylinder a spaceship? Were the dead creatures from another planet? Are the "ape-men" genetically-altered mutations that evolved into the human race? Are we Martians?

Writer Nigel Kneale integrates a host of a fascinating ideas in his thematrically complex plot. Not only does he expand on his basic premise--that the human race may be a result of alien colonization--but he also offers scientifically-inspired explanations for the supernatural.

If this all sounds familiar to admirers of the 1967 film version, then I will confirm what you've probably guessed: the film was an extremely faithful adapation of the serial. Kneale wrote the film's screenplay and did a marvelous job in condensing his 210-minute serial into a crisp 97-minute movie. Indeed, the serial seems quite slow compared to the film and the serial's longer running time doesn't result in any additional insights.

Quatermass helps a soldier who
"saw" a Martian.

In terms of lead performances, both Andre Morell (serial) and Andrew Keir (film) are marvelous as the passionate, inquisitive Quatermass. Originally, Morell was asked to reprise his performance for the film adaptation, but he turned it down. A fine actor, Morell appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s through the 1970s, including The Bridge on the River Kwai and Ben-Hur. He made possibly the screen's best Dr. John Watson opposite Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes in 1959's The Hound of the Baskervilles. He had another plum role opposite Cushing in the underrated suspense film Cash on Demand.

Unfortunately, although Morell is excellent in the Quatermass and the Pit serial, Anthony Bushell delivers a one-note performance as his adversary, Colonel Breen. Shouting dialogue in a stern voice, Bushnell's Breen comes across as a stereotype instead of an intelligent officer unwilling to accept the compelling evidence before him. Furthermore, Bushnell's portrayal dilutes Kneale's examination of the popular theme of military vs. science (explored, albeit briefly, in 1951's The Thing from Another World).

The 1958 Quatermass and the Pit was the third of four Quatermass television serials written by the prolific Nigel Kneale. After studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kneale turned to writing full time after winning the prestigious Somerset Maugham Award in 1950 for Tomato Cain & Other Stories. After penning a radio play for the BBC, Kneale joined the television staff at the British network. He introduced TV audiences to Professor Bernard Quatermass with The Quatermass Experiment, a 1953 serial consisting of six 30-minute episodes. It was a landmark event in early British television. Film historian and critic Leslie Halliwell noted in his Halliwell's Television Companion that The Quatermass Experiment "became the first TV serial to have the whole country (or such parts as could receive television) agog."

In the four original TV serials: Reginald Tate played Quatermass in The Quatermass Experiment; John Robinson starred in Quatermass II (1955); Morell followed in Quatermass and the Pit; and finally John Mills in 1979's Quatermass (aka The Quatermass Conclusion). Although Morell's performance is widely praised, I'm also fond of Mills' interpretation of an older Quatermass. In 2005, the BBC mounted a live remake of The Quatermass Experiment starring Jason Flemyng as a much younger scientist than his predecessors. On the silver screen, Brian Donlevy was woefully miscast as the lead in adaptations of The Quatermass Experiement and Quatermass II.

As for my final summation of the Quatermass and the Pit serial: Had I never seen the film version, I suspect the 1958 original would have had a stronger impact. It's well-written, generally well-acted, and I'm excited that I finally had an opportunity to see it. However, it lacks the energy of the 1967 film, which grips the viewer tightly and never lets up for 97 enthralling minutes.

31 Days of Halloween: We are the Martians in "Quatermass and the Pit"

Nigel Kneale introduced intrepid Professor Bernard Quatermass to British TV audiences in the 1950s with three immensely popular sci fi limited-run series. Hammer Films acquired the movie rights and produced big-screen adaptations of The Quatermass Experiment in 1955 and Quatermass II two years later. Believing an American lead was essential for statewide success, Hammer cast Brian Donlevy as Quatermass. It was a bad decision—Donlevy’s miscasting mars two otherwise intriguing science fiction films. Fortunately, Hammer corrected that mistake when it adapted Quatermass and the Pit in 1967 and cast Scottish actor Andrew Keir as the professor. But Keir isn’t the only thing that distinguishes the third film in the series; simply put, Quatermass and the Pit is one of the finest of all science fiction films, melding an incredibly original premise with a strong cast and effective setting.

Kneale’s screenplay has construction workers uncovering the ancient skulls of “ape men” while working in a deserted underground subway station in the Hobbs End area of London. Dr. Mathew Roney (James Donald) dates the ape men’s remains as five million years old, making them the earliest known ancestors of humans. Roney’s work comes to a sharp halt, though, when his excavations unearth a large metallic-like object in the rock. Is it a bomb? A spacecraft? And what does it have to do with stories of former Hobbs End residents claiming to have heard odd noises and experienced visions of “hideous dwarfs”?

To divulge more of the plot wouldn’t be fair to first-time viewers. I will say that, having watched Quatermass and the Pit again recently, I found myself marveling at the ingenuity of Kneale’s premise. To not give away too much, he finds a way to explain magic through the use of science…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The cast is top-notch and Keir is easily the big screen’s best Quatermass (though John Mills is very good in The Quatermass Conclusion, a truncated version of the final TV series). Keir gets excellent support, though, from James Donald, Barbara Shelley, and Julian Glover (as an Army officer who must rationalize what his mind cannot grasp). It’s refreshing to see Shelley’s scientist avoid the usual sci fi female stereotype (i.e., not have an active role in the plot). Indeed, it is Shelley’s character that gets the best—and most quotable—line in the film.

Rarely shown today, Quatermass and the Pit (also known as Five Million Years to Earth) may have few fans, but they are staunch ones. If you count yourself among them, please leave a comment. And, for the record, Kneale picked the name Quatermass by opening the London phone book and randomly placing his finger on a page!

31 Days of Halloween (Bonus 2nd Feature!): The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas

In October of 1957, the British Board of Film Censors stated: “This is to certify that The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas has been passed as more suitable for exhibition to adult audiences.” The maturity required for this film, however, has nothing to do with sex or violence. Known in later releases simply as The Abominable Snowman, this British Hammer film production is nothing like its name implies – no monsters here, nor cheesy sci-fi effect. This film requires the maturity to appreciate the poetry of a haunting story of great depth.

The always wonderful Peter Cushing stars as Dr. Rollasan, a British botanist sent to Tibet to study rare plants. Cushing’s mere presence lends dignity to the story of a creature with which his interests really lie, what the Tibetans call the Yeti. Neither beast nor man, the legend of the Yeti says that they live in the high frozen Himalayan mountains. Huge footsteps are the only evidence ever seen by man. Dr. Rollasan believes that the Yeti may be a third branch of the great evolutionary split between ape and man. He wants to find the Yeti for his own knowledge and for the sake of science.

The great Himalayans are like a living entity in this film. The film makers used the Pyrenees mountains in France during winter to double for the long shots of the mountain range. The overwhelming vastness of the Himalayans is captured cleverly by cinematographer Arthur Grant, as well as the art and set directors, smoothly blending the real location shots with some of the most realistic studio sets I’ve ever seen. We are inexorably drawn into the feeling of howling winds, cold, exhaustion and fear of the climbing group led by Dr. Rollasan.

The other members of the expedition have their own unique reasons for searching for the Yeti. Forrest Tucker is excellent as Tom Friend, a domineering carnival barker-type of man whose interest in the Yeti is far from scientific. We watch Friend evolve during the film from bullying greed to fear to an acceptance of destiny. Tucker’s performance stands strongly beside Cushing’s always outstanding acting. Ed Shelley, played by Robert Brown, is Tom Friend’s companion, whose talents are specific to Friend’s intentions. Scottish actor Michael Brill is McNee, whose fearful search for the Yeti is a personal quest. In the course of the expedition, each man finds himself faced with the deepest, sometimes primitive, parts of his psyche.

The supporting case complements the story beautifully, with special mention for Arnold Marle as the High Lama of the Buddhist lamasery from which the expedition commences. He is mysterious, cunning, other-worldly, possessed with strange powers of knowledge.

Director Val Guest makes the most of a small budget and delivers a movie that is poetic in nature and haunting in style. When you meet the Yeti, it will not be in a way you might expect. I have never forgotten it, and I suspect you won’t either.