The Five Best Movies That Start With "Q"

I know it's quazy, but what if you're in the mood to watch a movie with a title that starts with "Q"? We pondered this question and came up with five quick picks:

Andrew Keir as Quatermass.

1. Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) - Construction workers uncover the ancient skulls of “ape men” and a large metallic-like object while working in a deserted underground subway station in the Hobbs End area of London. Are the ape men the earliest known ancestors of humans? Is the metallic-like object a bomb or perhaps 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”?  Nigel Kneale's ingenious mix of science fiction and horror makes for a one-of-a-kind film. It was adapted from his earlier British television serial, which is pretty good in its own right.

2. The Questor Tapes - Robert Foxworth stars as the title character, an android assembled by a team of scientists from plans designed by Dr. Emil Vaslovik, a scientific genius who has suddenly disappeared. When Questor fails to function due to missing programming code, the project is abandoned. Later that day, the android "comes to life," completes its design (e.g., adding facial features and hair), and escapes from the laboratory--determined to find its creator. Gene Roddenberry produced this aborbing made-for-TV film, which doubled as a pilot for series that never materialized.

Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr.

3.  Quo Vadis - This elaborate MGM spectacle stars Robert Taylor as a Roman military commander who falls in love with a Christian woman (Deborah Kerr) during the reign of Nero (Peter Ustinov). The studio spared no expense on the the film--and it shows with the elaborate sets, detailed costumes, and rich color cinematography. The standouts among its fine cast are the always marvelous Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov as the megalomaniacal Nero. At various points prior to production, Clark Gable and Gregory Peck were considered for Taylor's role and Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn as the female lead.

4.  Quackster Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx - A young man (Gene Wilder) makes a living in Dublin by scooping up horse dung and selling it as garden fertilizer. He becomes smitten with an American student (played by the late Margot Kidder). This offbeat Irish comedy was made before Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein made Wilder a star. It's been decades since I've seen it, but the faded memories of it are still strong enough to earn a place on this list.

Eeck! A winged serpent!

5.  Q--The Winged Serpent - A giant winged serpent is terrorizing the skies of New York City, killing window washers and snatching sunbathers from rooftops. Well, technically, it's an Aztec god called Quetzalcoatl and it's also indirectly responsible for a recent spate of human sacrifices. The film's "hero" (an excellent Michael Moriarty) is a two-bit crook who wants the city to pay him to reveal the location of the monster's lair. Larry Cohen's very quirky cult classic isn't a movie for all tastes, but it's a clever and amusing affair.

Honorable Mentions:  George Segal's spy thriller The Quiller Memorandum; Q Planes, another spy picture about the theft of experimental aircraft; and Queen of Outer Space, a wacky sci fi film with about four male astronauts landing on a planet populated solely by women (including Zsa Zsa Gabor).

3 on 3: Hammer Films

All this month, the Cafe has presented "3 on 3 panels" in which three experts answered three questions on a single classic film topic. For this final week, the Cafe poses three questions on Hammer Films, Britain's "House of Horror" to: Kevin from Kevin's Movie Corner; Alex from Korova Theatre Presents; and Sarkoffagus, the Cafe's resident authority on Hammer.

1. What is your favorite of the Hammer Frankenstein films and why?

Sark: Frankenstein Must be Destroyed. It's one of the few Frankenstein films I've seen (from any country or studio) that has a completely unsympathetic doctor, in lieu of the man simply being a misunderstood genius. This allows the character to revel in corruption and manipulation, and the more often he crosses the boundaries of good taste, the more he becomes the "monster" of the film. As his severity escalates, so, too, does the intrigue in watching him. Best of all, it's a showcase for Peter Cushing, whose energetic performance makes a lingering impression.

Kevin: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Probably Peter Cushing’s best and most ferocious performance in the series, a haunting turn by Freddie Jones as the creature, one of the greatest shock scenes in Hammer’s filmography (the burst pipe), an intelligent and adult screenplay and a devastating ending. Not one to send the audience out with a smile on their faces. Oh yeah, and Veronica Carlson too. Runner-up: Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), one of the saddest horror movies ever made. Yes, saddest. Just heart-wrenching in parts.

Victor Frankenstein confronts his
creature in The Curse of Frankenstein.

Alex: The Curse of Frankenstein is the first of seven films and is undeniably my favorite, though this series is more consistent in quality than Dracula. I like this film for many reasons, specifically the (unintentional?) subtext: "The story becomes a pretext for mankind’s toying in the clockwork of heavenly conception, unwinding the springs of electric impulse and restarting of tick-tock hearts. But it can also be seen as a Cold War parable of unleashing the atom, a power now beyond control, feared knowledge now spread like a virus among political psychopaths."

I don't quite believe it coincidence that the creature resembles a horridly burned victim of radiation, much like those poor souls who perished at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Christopher Lee imbues the creature with a sublime gentleness, mostly reflected in those sad eyes, a victim himself of science gone mad. To hide its face in shame, to be self-aware of its deformity is a pity...and Victor Frankenstein is to blame! He and his Promethean ego.

Terence Fisher's direction is wonderful, structuring the film in flashback and never shying away from the Technicolor gore (though tame by modern standards). I also like the tracking shot when the creature is first revealed, and compare it to John Ford's famous close-up in Stagecoach when he introduces John Wayne! Though Victor's head is eventually placed on the chopping block, nothing in the Hammer universe is ever what it seems.


2. What is your favorite of the Hammer Dracula films and why?

Sark: Brides of Dracula. It takes a consummate film to make viewers forget that the imposing Christopher Lee as Dracula is nowhere to be found. Hammer has always been known for methodically paced, gothic period pieces, but this movie is, at its very basic, a romantic action film. Cushing shines the brightest as Van Helsing, and Yvonne Monlaur is an appealing love interest. Drop in some vampires, and you've got first-class cinema!

Christopher Lee surveys a victim in
runner-up Taste the Blood of Dracula.

Kevin: Have to go with the first, Horror of Dracula (aka Dracula). Not exactly Stoker, but full of unforgettable scenes. In the last 50 years we’ve been inundated with vampires, but I can only imagine what audiences felt when they first saw this in 1958. Even today the close-up of Lee’s shocked face as he opens his eyes and his blood stained lips as he hears his vampire wife being staked is spine chilling. James Bernard’s landmark score, Hammer’s ace production design and that unforgettable climax make this a true classic. Seeing Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee go at it at the end is one of my all time favorite sequences. Runner-up: Taste the Blood of Dracula.

Alex: The first of a series is once again my favorite: Dracula. Though director Terence Fisher cuts Stoker's narrative to the bone, excising exposition and Victorian misogyny, Fisher does create a wonderful action film that is well paced and well bled. I prefer Hammer's version to the classic Universal which is well shot, I've always like Tod Browning's work, but it's too meek and visually reserved. Stoker’s text is rich with sensual delights underscored by some dreaded Freudian fear of women empowered by liberation from chaste cultural mores.

Fisher’s mise-en-scene conveys information so the story can jump cut quickly to the next setup. For example, as Van Helsing searches the castle for his cohort Jonathan Harker, he discovers a shattered picture frame. In one shot we learn the who, what, when, why, and where, of Dracula’s next appearance: he’s in search of the beautiful Lucy and her precious bodily fluids. This is compact storytelling that wastes little time with lengthy establishing shots or obtuse dialogue, and propels the journey towards its candelabra climax!


3. Although Hammer is most famous for its two series above, the studio made plenty of other quality movies...some with monsters and some without. What are some of your other favorite Hammer films and why do they appeal?

Oliver Reed, filmed from underneath
the water, in Paranoiac.

Sark: Paranoiac -- My favorite of Hammer's superb black-and-white thrillers. Thoroughly captivating, plus an exceptionally creepy mask. Blood from the Mummy's Tomb -- Easily the strangest and most unsettling mummy film I've ever seen, the movie is rich in atmosphere and an overall sense of doom. Countess Dracula -- She's no vampire, but Countess Elizabeth Nádasdy craves blood just as much as a fanged creature of the night. Bolstered by a remarkable and tragically underrated performance by Ingrid Pitt, this film is vintage Hammer: gloriously bizarre and undeniably mesmerizing.

Charles Gray as the dapper villain
of The Devil Rides Out.

Kevin: The Devil Rides Out. Probably my all-time favorite Hammer horror film, despite the embarrassingly bad special effects at the end. (It’s almost like they ran out of money.) But the 1920s atmosphere, a standout performance by Charles Gray, Christopher Lee in heroic mode and a genuine aura of creepiness make this one a winner for me. Never Take Candy From a Stranger (1960): This uncompromising look at the town’s refusal to accept there is a child molester living in their midst is the bravest film Hammer ever made. Scream of Fear (1961): My favorite Hammer mystery thriller with twists I never saw coming. Marvelous lead performance by Susan Strasberg.

Alex: My favorite Hammer film is Roy Ward Baker’s Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth), the third in the BBC series of Professor Quatermass productions. Director Roy Ward Baker films in mostly medium shot and close-up, with urgent dialogue and few establishing shots which create a made-for-television style narrative: most likely because this is an adaptation from a BBC series. A thinking fan’s science fiction film, how delightful!

But there are other standouts that are often overlooked because of the Hammer label, yet have little to do with horror or science fiction. Two great War films Yesterday’s Enemy and The Camp on Blood Island make David Lean’s epic look like melodramatic kids playing at war. Director Val Guest imbues these films with brutal honesty, never shying away from the tough (and unfair) responsibilities that men face during wartime. The Nanny is a great thriller with Bette Davis, owing as much to Hitchcock as to director Robert Aldrich. And it has one of the creepiest kids since Jack Clayton’s The Innocents or Mervyn Leroy’s The Bad Seed!

My 100 Favorite Films: From 40 to 31

This month’s countdown list features a double dose of Sidney Poitier and two very different science fiction films. As always, please keep in mind that these films are not what I'd consider the best 100 movies ever made. They are simply one classic fan's favorites. (An underlined title means there's a hyperlink to a full review at the Cafe.)

40. Out of the Past- My favorite film noir has Robert Mitchum as a man who has put his shady past behind him and found love with a good woman in a small community where he operates a gas station. But, as is often the case in the movies, his past catches up with him when a former acquaintance passes through town. With its contrasts of bright lights and dark shadows, Out of the Past is a visual feast. It’s also a compelling tale of a man pulled back into the shadows of his past—no matter how hard he tries to escape them. Kirk Douglas nails the manipulating villain; too bad he didn’t play more bad guys. Yet, despite the presence of Mitchum and Douglas, the film belongs to Jane Greer, an underrated and under-utilized actress who created one of the genre’s best femme fatales.

39. The Andromeda Strain – This superior science fiction outing pits four dedicated scientists against a microscopic menace capable of destroying all life on Earth. Its critics have labeled it slow-moving and overlong, but I find it intellectually exciting. Its thrills come not from action sequences (though there’s a doozy at the climax), but from the time-sensitive need to determine: What is the Andromeda Strain? How can it be destroyed? Why did a 69-year-old man and a six-month-old baby survive when Andromeda wiped out a New Mexico town of 68 people? Part of the appeal for me is that The Andromeda Strain includes one of my favorite plot devices: the forming of a team in which each member is introduced to the audience.

38. Lilies of the Field – A quiet film that has grown in my affection, Lilies contains my favorite Sidney Poitier performance. His Homer Smith is a stubborn man who is delightfully at odds with himself… and with a savvy Mother Superior. A drifter, Homer stops at a small farm run by nuns in the Arizona desert. He agrees to do a small roof repair and winds up building a chapel. The gentle conflict between Homer and the Mother Superior (wonderfully played by Lilia Skala) forms the heart of the film. But I also love how Lilies captures the flavor of the community, encapsulated in my favorite scene in which some local workers gradually force their assistance on Homer as he builds “his” chapel.

37. In the Heat of the Night - This racially-charged mystery, 1968’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, has aged gracefully over the years. The secret to its success can be attributed to its many layers. Peel back the mystery plot and you have a potent examination of racial tension in the South in the 1960s. Peel that back and you have a rich character study of two lonely police detectives, from completely different backgrounds, who gradually earn each other’s respect. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger shine in the lead roles and Sidney delivers one of my all-time favorite lines of dialogue.

36. Executive Suite - The president of Tredway, the nation’s third-largest furniture manufacturer, dies unexpectedly in the opening scene. With no successor named, the company falls into the hands of five vice-presidents with equal authority. Since Wall Street viewed Tredway as a one-man company, the VPs realize the criticality of naming a a new president over the weekend—thus creating a high stakes battle for company control. The all-star cast (which includes Holden, March, and Stanwyck) is in fine form. However, it’s the film’s theme of quality vs. profit that always intrigued me. Indeed, I first saw this film in a college business course. It’s often compared to Rod Serling’s Patterns, another corporate drama made in the 1950s. It’s very good, with a killer ending, but Executive Suite is more entertaining.

35. To Kill a Mockingbird – For many fans, this film’s appeal lies with its literary origins and Gregory Peck’s powerhouse performance. While that’s also somewhat true for me, my favorite part of Mockingbird is its portrait of a time and a place through the eyes of a child. I don’t think any movie has done a better job of that (my runner-up is the French two-part film My Father’s Glory/My Mother’s Castle). Additionally, Mary Badham and Phillip Alford give incredibly naturalistic performancea as the children. Badham was equally good in This Property Is Condemned. Mockingbird is full of magical moments, with my favorite being Atticus’s formal introduction of Boo Radley.

34. Von Ryan’s Express - Released in 1965, just two years after The Great Escape, Von Ryan’s Express also tells the tale of a daring escape from a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. While both films split their running times between scenes inside the camp and outside the fence (once the prisoners break out), the similarity ends there. A near-perfect blend of suspense, intense action sequences, and occasional humor, Von Ryan’s Express takes off when the prisoners hijack a German train. OK, I admit I’m a sucker for train movies—but this one is a gripping thriller with a flawed hero well-played by Frank Sinatra. I always thought Sinatra was an odd star, capable of excellent performances (here and in The Manchurian Candidate) and truly awful ones (The Detective).

33. Picnic – William Holden stars as a handsome drifter who wanders into a small town to see old chum Cliff Robertson…and inadvertently steals his girlfriend Kim Novak. Based on William Inge’s play, Picnic is about taking chances, whether it’s in the pursuit of passion (and perhaps love) or whether it’s two lonely middle-aged people willing to take a chance on each other. I know film buffs who may cringe when I say it, but Picnic is at heart a big screen soap opera—and that’s not a bad thing. My Mom loved this genre and when I watched these soaps with her as a kid, I called them “people stories”—apparently because characters talked a lot instead of engaging in swordfights, hunting vampires, etc.

32. The Leopard Man – Set in a small New Mexico town, this fascinating Val Lewton-produced suspense film concerns a black leopard that escapes during a foolish publicity stunt. When a young girl is found clawed to death, the leopard is blamed—but was it the killer? Leopard Man is justly famous for what Exorcist director William Friedkin once called "one of the greatest horror sequences ever filmed." However, it’s more than a one-trick pony. I’m surprised that film critics rarely note its complex, interweaving narrative structure in which the plot sometimes zigs and zags as the characters interact. I can’t think of many other films like it, except for La Ronde, in which the narrative device is much more obvious.

31. Quatermass and the Pit – Construction workers uncover the ancient skulls of “ape men” while working in a deserted underground subway station in the Hobbs End area of London. A scientist dates the ape men’s remains as five million years old, making them the earliest known ancestors of humans. His work comes to a sharp halt, though, when the 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”? Writer Nigel Kneale hatched this incredibly inventive melding of science fiction and horror, the third film in the Quatermass series. Too many films are labeled “one of a kind,” but this little gem truly fits the definition.

Next month, I’ll count down the next ten, which include a gimmicky mystery, the greatest color film ever made, and a whole lotta dogs.

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!