The Quatermass Xperiment [SEP] based on
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The Quatermass Xperiment


The Quatermass Xperiment (a.k.a. The Creeping Unknown in the United States) is a 1955 British science fiction horror film drama from Hammer Film Productions, based on the 1953 BBC Television serial "The Quatermass Experiment" written by Nigel Kneale. The film was produced by Anthony Hinds, directed by Val Guest, and stars Brian Donlevy as the eponymous Professor Bernard Quatermass and Richard Wordsworth as the tormented Carroon. Jack Warner, David King-Wood, and Margia Dean appear in co-starring roles. The film's storyline concerns three
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The Quatermass Xperiment


in 1956 were horror films: "X the Unknown", "Quatermass 2" and "The Curse of Frankenstein". The enormous success of the latter of these cemented Hammer's reputation for horror and the company became synonymous with the genre. Michael Carreras later said, "The film that must take all the credit for the whole Hammer series of horror films was really "The Quatermass Xperiment"". "The Quatermass Xperiment" was released in 2003 by DD Video on Region 2 DVD. It contained a number of
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The Quatermass Xperiment


soundtrack, in this case supplied by James Bernard who never wrote a more unnerving, jangly score". Bernard went on to become Hammer's most prolific composer, scoring 23 Hammer films between 1955 and 1974. Several cues from "The Quatermass Xperiment" were released on CD in 1999 by GDI Records on a compilation titled "The Quatermass Film Music Collection". As expected, "The Quatermass Xperiment" received an ‘X’ Certificate from the BBFC, restricting admission to persons over the age of sixteen. It was only
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The Quatermass Xperiment


Stephen King praised the film as one of his favourite horror movies from between 1950 and 1980 in his non-fiction book "Danse Macabre" (1991). The film director John Carpenter, who later collaborated with Nigel Kneale on the film "" (1982), has claimed that "The Quatermass Xperiment" "had an enormous, enormous impact on me – and it continues to be one of my all-time favourite science-fiction movies." The success of "The Quatermass Xperiment" came at an opportune
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Quatermass and the Pit (film)


Quatermass and the Pit (in the United States, Five Million Years to Earth) is a 1967 British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, a sequel to the earlier Hammer films "The Quatermass Xperiment" and "Quatermass 2". Like its predecessors, it is based on a BBC Television serial "Quatermass and the Pit", written by Nigel Kneale. It was directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir in the title role as Professor Bernard Quatermass, replacing Brian Donlevy who played the role in the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


subsequent re-releases, the film reverted to the title "The Quatermass Experiment". "The Quatermass Xperiment" premièred on 26 August 1955 at the London Pavilion on Piccadilly Circus. The supporting feature was "The Eric Winstone Band Show". It performed extremely well during its West End run, taking £3,500 a week at the box office. Timed to coincide with the broadcast of the television sequel, "Quatermass II", the film went on general release in the United Kingdom on 20 November 1955 in a double
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The Quatermass Xperiment


control of his creation. Nevertheless, the film went ahead, as "X the Unknown" (1956), again capitalising on the 'X' Certificate in its title and featuring a newly created scientist character, very much in the Quatermass mould, played by Dean Jagger. Quatermass did eventually return to cinema screens in "Quatermass 2" (1957) and "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967), both of which had screenplays written by Nigel Kneale and based on serials originally written by him and presented by BBC
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Quatermass 2


"The Quatermass Xperiment", but does not appear in the television version. The character of Sheila the barmaid also appears only in the film version. Other actors appearing in the film include Charles Lloyd-Pack, Tom Chatto, John Van Eyssen, Percy Herbert and Michael Ripper. Val Guest, who had directed "The Quatermass Xperiment", returned for "Quatermass 2". Guest once again sought to create a film that felt as real as possible, using many cinema vérité techniques such as hand-held cameras.
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The Quatermass Xperiment


" (1957) but was replaced by Andrew Keir in the third film, "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967). Inspector Lomax was played by Jack Warner, who appeared by arrangement with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, with whom he was contracted. At the time, he was best known as the star of "Here Come the Huggetts" (1948) and its sequels. Shortly after finishing "The Quatermass Xperiment", he made his first appearance on television in the role he is most associated with:
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The Quatermass Xperiment


to build the suspense essential in this kind of film . . . Val Guest's direction is heavy with cliches." Among the critics and film historians who have reviewed "The Quatermass Xperiment" in the years since its release have been John Baxter who said, in "Science Fiction in the Cinema" (1970), "In its time, "The Quatermass Experiment" was a pioneering sf film... Brian Donlevy was stiff but convincing... Much of the film is saved, however, by Richard Wordsworth... one of
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The Quatermass Xperiment


them synonymous with the genre. "The Quatermass Xperiment" is regarded as the first of these "Hammer Horrors". "The Quatermass Experiment" was originally a six-part TV serial broadcast by BBC Television in 1953. Written by Nigel Kneale, it was an enormous success with critics and audiences alike, later described by film historian Robert Simpson as "event television, emptying the streets and pubs". Among its viewers was Hammer Films producer Anthony Hinds, who was immediately keen to buy the rights for a film version
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Quatermass 2


Quatermass 2 (a.k.a. Enemy From Space in the United States) is a 1957 black-and-white British science fiction horror film drama from Hammer Film Productions, produced by Anthony Hinds, directed by Val Guest, that stars Brian Donlevy, and co-stars John Longden, Sid James, Bryan Forbes, Vera Day, and William Franklyn. "Quatermass 2" is a sequel to Hammer's earlier film "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955). Like its predecessor, it is based on the BBC Television serial
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Brian Donlevy


Quatermass Xperiment" (called "The Creeping Unknown" in the US) for the Hammer Films company, playing the lead role of Professor Bernard Quatermass. The film was based on a 1953 BBC Television serial of the same name. The character had been British, but Hammer cast Donlevy in an attempt to help sell the film to North American audiences. Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale disliked Donlevy's portrayal, referring to Donlevy as "a former Hollywood heavy gone to seed". Nonetheless, the film version was a success and Donlevy
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The Quatermass Xperiment


Them!"", also called for "a couple of cheers for the reassurance that British films can still, once in a while, come quick". On a less positive note, Frank Jackson of "Reynolds News" quipped "That TV pseudo-science shocker "The Quatermass Xperiment" has been filmed and quitermess they've made of it too", before slating the film as "82 minutes of sick-making twaddle". The horror content of the film was mentioned in several reviews: Patrick Gibbs of
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The Quatermass Xperiment


to talking the creature into submission. Having fallen foul of the censors with some of their earlier films, Hammer had an informal agreement to submit scripts in advance of shooting for comment by the BBFC. When the draft script for "The Quatermass Xperiment" was submitted, Board Secretary Arthur Watkins replied, "I must warn you at this stage that, while we accept this story in principle for the ‘X’ category, we could not certificate, even in that category, a film treatment in which the horrific element was
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The Quatermass Xperiment


but also said, "It's an intelligent, taut and well-directed thriller; it showcases Nigel Kneale's ideas well; it's scary and exciting. It was made by people who cared about what they were doing, who were making entertainment for adults. It is still one of the best alien invasion films". Steve Chibnall, writing for the British Film Institute's Screenonline, describes "The Quatermass Xperiment" as "one of the high points of British SF/horror cinema." The horror fiction writer
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Quatermass and the Pit (film)


crane bursts into flames as it discharges the energy, killing Roney. The image and its effect on London disappear, leaving Quatermass and Barbara grieving in the ruins. Professor Bernard Quatermass was first introduced to audiences in two BBC television serials, "The Quatermass Experiment" (1953) and "Quatermass II" (1955), written by Nigel Kneale. The rights to both these serials were acquired by Hammer Film Productions, and the film adaptations – "The Quatermass Xperiment" and "Quatermass 2", both directed by Val
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the title character in "Dixon of Dock Green" (1955–76). Warner plays Lomax in a lighthearted fashion and there is a running joke in the film involving Lomax's futile attempts to find the time to have a shave with his electric razor. Richard Wordsworth was cast by Val Guest as the hapless Victor Carroon because "he had the right sort of face for the part". He was best known at the time for his work in the theatre. His performance in "The Quatermass Xperiment" is frequently compared with
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The Quatermass Xperiment


time for Hammer. By 1955 the deal with Robert L. Lippert had expired and the company produced just one feature film that year, "Women Without Men". Many of the independent cinemas that provided the market for Hammer's films in the UK were struggling in the face of competition from television and faced closure. "The Quatermass Xperiment" gave Hammer a much needed box office hit and was also the first film to bring the company to the attention of a major film distributor, in this case United Artists. From this
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The Quatermass Xperiment


Television. Rival British film companies also tried to cash in with science fiction films of their own, including "Satellite in the Sky", "The Gamma People" and "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" (all 1956). "The Quatermass Xperiment" was Hammer's first film to be adapted from a television drama. Market research carried out by the company showed that it was the horror aspect of the film, rather than the science fiction, that most appealed to audiences. Three of the four films Hammer made
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The Quatermass Experiment


"The Quatermass Xperiment" to emphasise its X-certificate status. In America the film was renamed "The Creeping Unknown" after the title "Shock!" was considered for that territory, and an alternative opening title sequence with that name was prepared. The BBC was also pleased with the success of "The Quatermass Experiment" and in 1955 a sequel, "Quatermass II", was broadcast, with John Robinson in the title role following Tate's death. This was followed in 1958 by "Quatermass and the Pit
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The Quatermass Xperiment


. Her American accent was considered out of place in the film, and so her lines were dubbed in post production. Among the other actors that appear in the film are Thora Hird, Gordon Jackson, David King-Wood, Harold Lang, Lionel Jeffries, and Sam Kydd, many of whom appeared regularly in films directed by Val Guest. "The Quatermass Xperiment" also saw an early role for Jane Asher, who plays the little girl whom Carroon encounters when he is on the run. Val Guest was hired to
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James Bernard (composer)


that when the composer originally scheduled to score "The Quatermass Xperiment" fell ill the job was offered to Bernard. "The Quatermass Xperiment" was scored for strings and percussion only at John Hollingsworth's instruction: "I don't think he trusted me with anything more than a small string orchestra", Bernard later suggested. "At that time John Hollingsworth was one of the chief conductors of the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, so he used players from the Opera House orchestra," Bernard elsewhere
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Bernard Quatermass


Quatermass and the Pit" have been preserved in full. Only the first two episodes of "The Quatermass Experiment" now exist. At roughly the same time as "Quatermass II" was being transmitted by the BBC, Hammer Film Productions released their film adaptation of the first serial in British cinemas. Directed by Val Guest, it was retitled "The Quatermass Xperiment" to capitalise on the British "X" classification and starred American actor Brian Donlevy as part of a deal to help the film find US distribution. Kneale,
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Anthony Hinds


saw that he suggested Hammer buy the big screen rights. They approached the BBC and snapped up the rights. After requesting the new 'X' certificate from the British Board of Film Censors, "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955) was a box-office success and was the first of the three Quatermass cinema films based on the television serials. Hinds came up with the idea of hiring country houses and shooting films in the rooms and grounds of the locations, which saved the cost of kitting out a full studio.
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The Abominable Snowman (film)


, packed with terror”. The play was spoofed by "The Goon Show" in the episode "Yehti", broadcast on 8 March 1955. Hammer Films purchased the rights to "The Creature" on 2 November 1956. They had enjoyed success with "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955), an adaptation of the first Quatermass serial and would achieve similar success with "Quatermass 2" (1957), an adaptation of the television sequel. Val Guest, who had directed the two "Quatermass" films, was
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Quatermass like he was on television, a sensitive British scientist, not some American stomping around, but to me Donlevy gave it absolute reality". By this stage in his career, Donlevy was suffering from alcoholism; it was some weeks into the shoot before Guest became aware that the flask of coffee he always carried on set was laced with brandy. Guest found, however, that "Brian was all right, no problem at all once you kept him sober". He reprised the role of Quatermass in "Quatermass 2
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Quatermass 2


all possessed people display”. On the other hand, Bill Warren, in "Keep Watching The Skies!", found "Quatermass 2" to be “one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. It is not notably better than ["The Quatermass Xperiment"], but the story idea is more involving, the production is livelier and there are more events in the unfolding of the story”. Kim Newman in 1986 praised the film as "extraordinary" and, comparing it to "Invasion of
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the personalities of his two fellow astronauts. This change leads to the most significant difference between the two versions: in the television version, Quatermass makes a personal appeal to the last vestiges that remain of the three absorbed astronauts to make the creature commit suicide before it can spore, whereas in the film version Quatermass kills the creature by electrocution. Director Val Guest defended this change believing it was "filmically a better end to the story". He also felt it unlikely that Brian Donlevy's gruff interpretation of Quatermass would lend itself
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The Quatermass Xperiment


was aboard the rocket, and Quatermass, Lomax and Briscoe watch it. The crew are seen for a time pleasantly at their duties; then suddenly, something seems to jar the ship. After that, there is a nightmarish wavering in the air inside the rocket, and the men react as if something frightening, yet not manifestly visible, is there in the cabin with them. One by one they fall, Carroon the last to go. Quatermass and Briscoe determine from the evidence at hand that something living in outer space
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Quatermass 2


then cracks open, releasing a gas, leaving him with an odd V-shaped mark on his face. Black-clad guards from the complex arrive, armed with machine guns and sporting similar V-shaped marks, and take Marsh away, knocking down Quatermass and ordering him to leave. Trying to discover what happened to Marsh, Quatermass contacts Inspector Lomax (John Longden), who had previously assisted him (see "The Quatermass Xperiment"). Lomax puts him in touch with Vincent Broadhead (Tom Chatto),
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The Quatermass Xperiment


title role of Quatermass to provide an interest for American audiences. Donlevy, in his own words, specialised in "he-men roles – rough, tough and realistic". Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Beau Geste" (1939), he was also known for his appearances in "The Great McGinty" (1940) and "The Glass Key" (1942). At the time he appeared as Quatermass, his career was in decline, however. Donlevy's no-nonsense portrayal
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Quatermass 2


1956. BBFC reader Audrey Field commented, “There should be the customary general caution that the sky is not the limit, either in sights or sounds”. The BBFC's main objection was to a scene in which a guard from the Winnerden Flats complex murders a family having a picnic. This scene was omitted from the final film, although it is present in the original television presentation. As with "The Quatermass Xperiment", the screenplay for "Quatermass 2" condenses many of the events of the original. The
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The Quatermass Xperiment


. The screenplay, written by the American B-film scenarist, Richard Landau, and heavily revised by Val Guest, presents a reworked version of the events of the original television serial. Among the plot changes are the elimination of the gangster episode. The most significant plot change, however, occurs at the climax of the film. In the television version, Quatermass appeals to the last vestiges of the creature's humanity and convinces it to commit suicide to save the world. In the film Quatermass kills the creature by massive
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Hammer Film Productions


contract with Robert Lippert, American actor Brian Donlevy was imported for the lead role and the title was changed to "The Quatermass Xperiment" to cash in on the new X certificate for horror films. The film was unexpectedly popular, and led to the popular 1957 sequel "Quatermass 2"again adapted from one of Kneale's television scripts, this time by Kneale and with a budget double that of the original: £92,000. In the meantime, Hammer produced another "Quatermass "style horror film, "X the Unknown",
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Bernard Quatermass


to appear in the story. However, it was not possible to gain copyright clearance to use the character. The 1956 British science fiction horror film, "X the Unknown", made by Hammer Film Productions, was originally intended to be sequel to "The Quatermass Xperiment", but when Kneale refused permission for Quatermass to be used in the movie, the character was changed to Atomic Energy scientist, Dr. Adam Royston (Dean Jagger). In February 1959 the BBC radio comedy series "The Goon Show" broadcast a
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Nigel Kneale


. Kneale was inspired in writing the serial by contemporary fears over secret UK Ministry of Defence research establishments such as Porton Down, as well the fact that as a BBC staff writer he had been required to sign the Official Secrets Act. Almost simultaneously with the transmission of "Quatermass II" in the autumn of 1955, Hammer Film Productions released "The Quatermass Xperiment", their film adaptation of the first serial. Kneale was not pleased with the film, and particularly disliked the casting of Brian Donlevy as Quatermass, as he
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film by the British Board of Film Censors. Upon general release in 1955, the film formed one half of the highest grossing double bill in the UK. It was the first Hammer production to attract the attention of a major US distributor, in this case United Artists, who distributed the film under the title "The Creeping Unknown". Its success led to Hammer producing an increasing number of horror films, including two sequels "Quatermass 2" (1957) and "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967), making
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The Quatermass Xperiment


of Quatermass is very different from that of Reginald Tate in the television version. It was not to Nigel Kneale's liking, who said, "I may have picked Quatermass's surname out of a phone book, but his first name was carefully chosen: Bernard, after Bernard Lovell, the creator of Jodrell Bank. Pioneer, ultimate questing man. Donlevy played him as a mechanic, a creature with a completely closed mind”. Responding to Kneale's criticisms, Val Guest said, "Nigel Kneale was expecting to find
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The Quatermass Xperiment


been absorbed, and a trail of slime leading back out into the community. Among the bushes, Quatermass and Briscoe also find a small but living remnant of what was once Victor Carroon, and take it back to their laboratory. From his examination of this remnant, Quatermass concludes that some kind of alien life has completely taken over and will eventually release reproduction spores, endangering the entire planet. The remnant eventually dies of starvation, locked in a glass cage. On a tip to police from Rosie Wrigley, a vagrant tippler
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The Quatermass Xperiment


, Lomax and his men track the main mutation to Westminster Abbey, where it has crawled high up on a metal work scaffolding inside. It now is a gigantic shapeless mass of combined animal and plant tissue with eyes, distended nodules, and tentacle-like fronds filled with spores. Quatermass arrives, arranges for electric cables being used by a BBC company broadcasting from within the Abbey, to be attached to the scaffolding. By having all the power in London diverted through the cables and into the scaffolding, Quatermass succeeds in cremating
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the Carroon-creature by electrocution, just as it has entered the final phase before release of its spores. The threat eliminated, Quatermass quickly walks out of the Abbey, preoccupied by his thoughts. He ignores all who ask questions. Marsh, his assistant, approaches and asks "What are we going to do?" Never breaking stride, Quatermass offhandedly replies, "We're going to start again." He leaves Marsh behind, walking into the London night, and sometime later a second manned rocket roars into space
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The Quatermass Xperiment


. In the process Landau played up the horror elements of Kneale's original teleplay. Aware that the film would be co-funded by American backers, Landau added a transatlantic dimension to the script: Quatermass's "British Rocket Group" became the "British-American Rocket Group" and the character of his assistant, Briscoe, was rewritten as a US Air Force flight surgeon. Quatermass himself was demoted to a doctor and written much more as an action hero than the thoughtful scientist created by Nigel Kneale. Some characters from
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Bernard Quatermass


who had little involvement with the film, was unimpressed with this casting. "I may have picked Quatermass's surname out of a phone book, but his first name was carefully chosen: Bernard, after Bernard Lovell, the creator of Jodrell Bank. Pioneer, ultimate questing man. Donlevy played him as a mechanic, a creature with a completely closed mind." Val Guest has praised Donlevy's performance, saying that "he gave it absolute reality." Despite Kneale's reservations about the casting, "The Quatermass Xperiment
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London in film


Quatermass Xperiment" (1955) ends with Professor Quatermass cornering an alien monster in Westminster Abbey, while "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967) begins with an alien space craft being discovered during the construction of a new London Underground station. The John Wyndham novel "The Day of the Triffids" was made into a film in 1962 which also features scenes in London, while the much-derided 1985 film "Lifeforce" involved vampires from space taking over the city. The 1950 thriller "Seven Days to Noon" featured
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The Quatermass Xperiment


astronauts that have been launched into space aboard a single stage to orbit rocket. The returning spacecraft, designed by Professor Quatermass, crash lands with only one of its original crew aboard, Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth). Something has infected him during the spaceflight, and he begins mutating into an alien organism which, if it spawns, will engulf the Earth and destroy humanity. When the mutating Carroon escapes from custody, Quatermass and Scotland Yard's Inspector Lomax (Jack Warner), have just hours to track it down and
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The Quatermass Xperiment


a strangely disfigured place on his shoulder, and notices changes in his face which suggest some sort of mutation of the underlying bone structure. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard Inspector Lomax has undertaken investigation of the other two men's disappearance and, having surreptitiously fingerprinted Carroon as a suspect, alerts Quatermass that the prints are nothing like a human's. At Judith's insistence that Briscoe is not helping her husband, Quatermass agrees to have Carroon transferred to a regular hospital, under guard. Meanwhile, Marsh has developed film from a camera that
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The Quatermass Xperiment


, which was on release at the time. Because Quatermass was unknown in the US, Lippert had renamed the film "Shock!". Unable to secure a sale, he retitled it again, this time to "The Creeping Unknown". United Artists eventually acquired the distribution rights in March 1956 for a fee of $125,000. "The Creeping Unknown" was packaged in a double bill with a Gothic horror movie called "The Black Sleep", starring Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Bela Lugosi. Four
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Quatermass 2


by Kneale with input from producer Anthony Hinds. Subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Guest, as he had done before on "The Quatermass Xperiment". Guest recalled of Kneale's script that there was “lots of philosophising and very down-to-earth thinking but it was too long, it would not have held screenwise. So, again, I had to tailor it and sharpen it and hopefully not ruin it”. The script was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) in April
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The Quanderhorn Xperimentations


The Quanderhorn Xperimentations is a science fiction comedy radio series written by Andrew Marshall and Rob Grant. It was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4 in 2018. The series has elements that pastiche Nigel Kneale's Professor Bernard Quatermass. The series follows the adventures of Professor Darius Quanderhorn, a brilliant, but crazy, scientific genius who creates fantastic devices, and has assembled a team of assistants, including his part-insect "son", a recovering amnesiac, a brilliant scientist with a half-clockwork brain,
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The Quatermass Xperiment


electrocution. Nigel Kneale was critical of the changes made for the film adaptation, and also of the casting of Brian Donlevy, whose brusque interpretation of Quatermass was not to his liking. To make the film's plot convincing to audiences, Guest employed a high degree of realism, directing the film in a style akin to a newsreel. The film was shot on location in London, Windsor, Bray, and at Hammer's Bray Studios. Carroon's transformation was effected by makeup artist Phil Leakey, who worked in conjunction with
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The World Of Hammer


1957) / Quatermass and the Pit (1967) / The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) / Spaceways (1953) / X the Unknown (1956) 8. MUMMIES, WEREWOLVES & THE LIVING DEAD Initial Broadcast Date: 30 September 1994 Over the course of three decades, Hammer Films redefined the classic legends of the mummy, the werewolf and the zombie. More than mere "monster movies," these films were frightening new takes on familiar tales, complete with chilling scares, startling violence and the one-of-a
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Rififi


"Rififi" films based on le Breton's stories. These films include "Du rififi chez les femmes" (1959), "Du rififi à Tokyo" (1963), and "Du rififi à Paname" (1966). On its United Kingdom release, "Rififi" was paired with the British science fiction film "The Quatermass Xperiment" as a double bill; this went on to be the most successful double-bill release in UK cinemas in all of 1955. The film was offered distribution in the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


Earth, crashing into an English country field. Quatermass and his assistant Marsh arrive at the scene, along with the local emergency services, Carroon's wife Judith, Rocket Group physician Dr. Briscoe, and Blake, a Ministry official who chides him repeatedly for launching the rocket on impulse and without official permission. The rocket's hatch is finally opened, and the space-suited Carroon stumbles out; inside, there is no sign of the other two crew members. Carroon is in shock, only able to say the words "
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The Quatermass Xperiment


but Gilliat was reluctant to buy the rights as he felt any film adaptation would inevitably receive an ‘X’ Certificate from the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), restricting admission to persons over the age of sixteen. Hammer was not so reticent, deciding from the outset that they would deliberately pursue an ‘X’ Certificate. Hammer's offer met some resistance within the BBC, with one executive expressing reservations that "The Quatermass Experiment" was not suitable material for the company, but the rights were nevertheless sold for
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The Quatermass Xperiment


planner, he created storyboards for every shot and mounted them on a blackboard so as to brief the crew for each day's scenes. As a consequence, some members of the crew found Guest's approach to be too mechanical. Principal photography began on 12 October 1954 with a night shoot at Chessington Zoo and continued from 18 October 1954 into December. The budget was £42,000, low even by the standards of Hammer at the time. Special effects technician Les Bowie recalled, "We did "Quatermass" on a budget
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The Quatermass Xperiment


US critics found Brian Donlevy's gruff Quatermass a breath of fresh air from the earnest hero scientists of American science fiction films, such as Gene Barry's character in "War of the Worlds". Other US trade reviews were mixed. "Harrison's Reports" felt, "the story is, of course, quite fantastic but it has enough horrific ingredients to go over with those who enjoy scary doings." "Film Bulletin" was not impressed. "Its strong point is an eerie atmosphere . . . but fails
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X the Unknown


X the Unknown is a 1956 British science fiction horror film directed by Leslie Norman and starring Dean Jagger and Edward Chapman. It was made by the Hammer Film Productions company and written by Jimmy Sangster. The film is significant in that "it firmly established Hammer's transition from B-movie thrillers to out-and-out horror/science fiction" and, with "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955) and "Quatermass 2" (1957), completes "an important trilogy containing relevant allegorical threads revealing Cold War anxieties
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X the Unknown


Puzzled, the team continues approaching the crack, presumably to make further tests, as the film comes to an end. The film was originally intended by Hammer to be a sequel to the previous year's successful "The Quatermass Xperiment", but writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass to be used. The original director of the film was Joseph Losey, working under the name Joseph Walton – Losey was an American director who had moved to the UK after being placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Although Losey
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The Quatermass Xperiment


prevent a catastrophe. Like its source TV serial, the film was a major success in the UK and brought public attention to Hammer Film Productions' name around the world. The film's US release was as a double feature with "The Black Sleep". The British Rocket Group, headed by the taciturn Professor Bernard Quatermass, launches its first manned rocket into space. Shortly thereafter, all contact is lost with the rocket and its three person crew: Carroon, Reichenheim, and Green. The large rocket later returns to
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The Quatermass Xperiment


him in 1967, in recognition of his creation of Quatermass. The film was co-produced by Robert L. Lippert, an American film producer and distributor. Hammer had entered into an arrangement with Lippert in 1951 under which Lippert provided finance and supplied American stars for Hammer's films and distributed them in the United States. In return Hammer's distribution arm, Exclusive Films, distributed Lippert's films in the United Kingdom. Quota laws in the UK meant that US films had to have a British supporting feature, so it was
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the television version, such as the journalist James Fullalove, are omitted altogether. Judith Carroon's role in the film version is reduced to little more than that of the stricken astronaut's anxious wife, whereas in the television version she is also a prominent member of Quatermass's Rocket Group. A subplot involving an extramarital affair between her and Briscoe is also left out of the film version. Kneale was particularly aggravated by the dropping from his original teleplay the notion that Carroon has absorbed not only the bodies but also the memories and
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The Quatermass Xperiment


so exaggerated as to be nauseating and revolting to adult audiences”. The BBFC were particularly concerned with the violence in the scenes where Carroon escapes from hospital and with how graphic the depiction would be of Caroon's transformation into the alien creature. The script was refined further by director Val Guest, who cut 30 pages from Landau's script. One of Guest's key script contributions was to tailor the dialogue to suit the brusque style of star Brian Donlevy. With an American actor cast as Quatermass, Guest reverted Briscoe to a
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The Quatermass Xperiment


British character and reinstated Quatermass's title of professor. Guest also adapted some sections of the script in response to the concerns of the BBFC. Further stylistic changes were sought by the BBC, who retained a script approval option after the sale of the rights and asked Nigel Kneale to work on their suggested changes, much to his indignation, . Kneale was tasked with rewriting any scenes featuring BBC announcers to match the BBC's news reporting style. Irish-American actor Brian Donlevy was brought in by Robert L. Lippert to play the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


he had made his name perfecting an improved technique for matte painting, called the delineating matte, and formed a company with Vic Margutti that specialised in matte effects. Bowie provided a number of matte paintings to enhance the scale of certain key shots in the film, including the crashed rocket, the Westminster Abbey set, and the shot of Quatermass walking away from the Abbey at the climax of the film. Partly because of the concerns raised by the BBFC and partly on account of the low budget, Val Guest kept the creature
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Quatermass 2


He was assisted in this respect by the moody, overcast cinematography of director of photography Gerald Gibbs, who also made extensive use of day for night photography for the film's climactic scenes. Guest planned each day’s shooting carefully, creating meticulous storyboards detailing all the shots he wanted to make that day. Filming took place between 28 May and 13 July 1956. The film's budget, at £92,000, was much larger than that of "The Quatermass Xperiment". The bigger budget was achieved by the advance sale of
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The Quatermass Xperiment


Help me". Inside the rocket, Quatermass and Marsh can find only the completely-fastened spacesuits of the other two crewmen. Carroon is taken to Briscoe's office for care, on the grounds that conventional hospitals and doctors would have no idea how to evaluate or treat the world's first returned astronaut suffering from some sort of adverse event while in space. But even with Briscoe's care, Carroon remains mute, generally immobile, but alert with his eyes which now have a feral and cunning aspect. Briscoe also discovers
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the man to be found by police. Quatermass theorizes that Carroon has used select chemicals taken from the shelves to "speed up a change going on inside of him." After hiding out on a river barge, Carroon encounters a little girl the next morning, leaving her also unharmed through sheer force of willpower. That night finds Carroon at a zoo, barely visible amongst some shadowed bushes with far less of his human form remaining. In the morning, twisted corpses of zoo animals are found, their life forces having all
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The Quatermass Xperiment


point onward, Hammer was increasingly able to deal directly with the major distributors and no longer needed intermediaries like Lippert. This ultimately spelt the end for Exclusive Films, Hammer's own distribution company, which was wound down in the late 1950s. Hammer quickly sought to capitalise on its good fortune with a sequel. Staff member Jimmy Sangster pitched a story about a monster emerging from the Earth's core. However, when the company asked Nigel Kneale for permission to use the character of Quatermass, he refused, not wanting to lose
14978013
Gordon Jackson (actor)


, appearing in "Seagulls Over Sorrento". In the 1950s and 1960s he appeared on television in programmes such as "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "ABC of Britain", "Gideon's Way" and "The Avengers". In 1955 he had a small part in "The Quatermass Xperiment", the film version of the BBC TV serial. He later had supporting roles in the films "The Great Escape", "The Bridal Path" and "The Ipcress File". In 1969, he
143708
Creature Features (1969 TV series)


Productions, like The Quatermass Xperiment - under the US title "The Creeping Unknown"", "The Curse of Frankenstein", "", "The Phantom of the Opera", "The Curse of the Werewolf", and "The Hound of the Baskervilles". Also Amicus Productions, and Tigon British Film Productions films such as "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors", and "The House That Dripped Blood". But what became most well known about "Creature Features" is the airing of all the
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The Stone Tape


of "The Caves of Steel" and "Wuthering Heights" for the BBC and "Taste the Blood of Dracula" and "Hands of the Ripper" for Hammer. Cast as Peter Brock was Michael Bryant, who had starred in the BBC's 1970 adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's "Roads to Freedom" and had a reputation for playing "bad boy" roles. Jane Asher, playing Jill Greeley, had, as a child, appeared in Hammer's "The Quatermass Xperiment", the film adaptation of
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The Quatermass Xperiment


direct the film. He began his career co-writing comedies such as "Oh, Mr Porter!" (1937) and "Ask a Policeman" (1939) before moving into directing with "Miss London Ltd." (1943). His first directing job for Hammer was on "Life with the Lyons" (1954) and he went on to direct their first two colour features: "The Men of Sherwood Forest" (1954) and "Break in the Circle" (1954). Guest had little
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the "Daily Telegraph" said the film "gives the impression that it originated in the strip of some horror comic. It remains very horrid and not quite coherent" while the reviewer in the "Daily Mirror" found the film to be "a real chiller thriller but not for the kids" and Dilys Powell of "The Sunday Times" found the film "exciting but distinctly nauseating". Another unimpressed critic was François Truffaut, who wrote in "Cahiers du cinéma" that "This one is very, very bad
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the finest such performances since Karloff's triumphs of the Thirties.” This view was echoed by John Brosnan in "The Primal Screen" (1991): "One of the best of all alien possession movies", he wrote, "Not since Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster has an actor managed to create such a memorable, and sympathetic, monster out of mime alone". Bill Warren in "Keep Watching The Skies!" (1982) found that "the buildup is slightly too long and too careful"
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The Quatermass Xperiment


the twelfth film to receive the certificate since its introduction in 1951. Whereas most other studios were nervous of this new certificate, Hammer, who had noticed the success of the similarly ‘X’-rated "Les Diaboliques" (1954), chose to exploit it by dropping the "E" from "Experiment" in the title of the film. "X is not an unknown quantity" was the tagline Exclusive Films used to sell the picture to cinema managers, urging them to "Xploit the Xcitement" of the film. On
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The Quatermass Xperiment


called it "one of the best essays in science fiction to date" Film historian Bruce G. Hallenbeck notes a degree of national pride in some of the positive reviews. For instance, Paul Dehn in the "News Chronicle" said, "This is the best and nastiest horror film I have seen since the War. How jolly that it is also British!". Similarly, William Whitebait in the "New Statesman", who found the film to be "better than either "War of the Worlds" or "
14978003
David King-Wood


and the Worthing Repertory Company and the 1937 season at the "Regent's Park Open Air Festival". He was also a regular performer with the Shakespeare Festival. His film credits include "The Blakes Slept Here" (1953) "The Men of Sherwood Forest" (1954) "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955) and "Jamboree" (1957) among others. During the Second World War, his fluency in five languages, including Japanese, was used to the fore, but at the expense of his theatrical
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Val Guest


persuaded to do so by his wife, the American actress Yolande Donlan. Guest shot "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955) as though it was a television documentary. Its success led the Hammer company changing its direction. He followed it with a drama "They Can't Hang Me" (1955) and musical "It's a Wonderful World" (1956). Republic Pictures hired him to make the thriller "The Weapon" (1956) and he directed a comedy, "Carry On Admiral" (1957)
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The Quatermass Xperiment


that of Boris Karloff in "Frankenstein" (1931). Guest, aware of the risk of an actor going over the top with the part, directed Wordsworth to "hold back just a mite of what you're feeling". Summing up Wordsworth's performance, film critic Bill Warren said, "All Carroon's anguish and torment are conveyed in one of the best mime performances in horror and science fiction films... A sequence in which he is riding in a car with his wife is uncanny: only the alien is
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The Quatermass Xperiment


" film, shot "as though shooting a special programme for the BBC or something". Influenced by Elia Kazan's "Panic in the Streets" (1950), Guest employed a cinéma vérité style, making extensive use of hand-held camera, even on set, an unusual technique for the time which horrified several of the technicians employed on the film. To inject pace and add further realism into the story, Guest directed his actors to deliver their lines rapid-fire and to overlap the dialogue. A meticulous
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The Quatermass Xperiment


great glob of something hanging about on the scaffolding. And they had put in the best music they could and put the best effects on it, but it meant nothing as far as I was concerned … absolutely nothing at all". An eye was added to the model of the monster and a human scream added to the soundtrack to give the creature some semblance of humanity in its final moments. Models were also used for the rocket blasting off in the film's final shot. John Hotchkis was originally hired to compose the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


before letting me loose with a full orchestra". The score runs to 20 minutes and uses a rising and falling three-note semitone throughout. Bernard's biographer, David Huckvale, argues that Bernard's use of atonal strings to create a sense of menace predates Bernard Herrmann's score for "Psycho" (1960), which is usually cited as the first film to employ the technique. Remarking on the effectiveness of the score, the film critic John Brosnan said, "Of prime importance, is the contribution of the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


minutes, mainly of expository material, were cut from the runtime of the film. It opened in US theatres in June 1956 and was so successful that United Artists offered to part-fund a sequel. According to a report in "Variety", published on 6 November 1956, a nine-year-old boy died of a ruptured artery at a cinema in Oak Park, Illinois during a showing of this double bill. The "Guinness Book of Records" subsequently recorded the incident as the only known case of an
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The Quatermass Xperiment


. Mr. Jack Warner, representing Scotland Yard, is indeed a comfort to have at hand when Things are on the rampage." Positive reviews also came from Peter Burnup in the "News of the World", who found that "with the added benefit of bluff, boisterous Brian Donlevy… all earnest addicts of science fiction will undoubtedly love every minute of it" while the reviewer in "The Manchester Guardian" praised "a narrative style that quite neatly combines the horrific and the factual" and "Today's Cinema"
14978002
Aida Young


1962 on the romantic film "Light in the Piazza". She had to stand open discrimination against her because she was female before she worked for Hammer Films. She was a second assistant director on the Hammer's success with The Quatermass Xperiment. Young was production managers of "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" for British television. The took the same role on "The Adventures of William Tell" in 1958 and on "The Invisible Man" the following year. In 1964 she was finally credited as "Producer"
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Jane Asher


. Asher attended Queen's College in Harley Street, London and is the elder sister of Clare Asher, a radio actress and school inspector. Asher's elder brother is record producer and manager Peter Asher, who started his career as Peter of Peter and Gordon. Asher was a child actress who appeared in the 1952 film "Mandy" and the 1955 science fiction film "The Quatermass Xperiment". She also played the title role in dramatised versions of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" in
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The Quatermass Xperiment


has entered the ship, dissolved Reichenheim and Green in their sealed spacesuits, and evidently entered Carroon's body, which is now in the process of being changed by this unknown entity. Not knowing any of this, Carroon's wife, Judith, hires a private investigator, Christie, to break her husband out of the secured hospital. The escape is successful, but not before Carroon smashes a potted cactus in his hospital room, fuses it into his flesh, then kills the private investigator and absorbs all the forces of life
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The Quatermass Xperiment


cinematographer Walter J. Harvey to accentuate Wordsworth's naturally gaunt features to give him an increasingly menacing, yet tragically in-pain, appearance. Special effects, including a model of the fully mutated creature seen at the climax, were provided by Les Bowie. The music was composed by James Bernard, the first of many scores he wrote for Hammer. Hammer marketed the film in the United Kingdom by dropping the "E" from "Experiment" in the title to emphasise the adults-only 'X' Certificate given to the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


in the American studios' interests to fund these features to recover a greater proportion of the box office receipts. The first draft of the screenplay was written by Richard Landau, an American who had worked on six previous Hammer productions, including "Spaceways" (1953), one of the company's first forays into science fiction. Landau made significant changes in condensing the action to less than half the length of the original teleplay. The opening thirty minutes of the television version are covered in just two minutes in the Hammer film
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The Quatermass Xperiment


visible for a long moment". Wordsworth went on to appear in three more Hammer films: "The Camp on Blood Island" (1958), "The Revenge of Frankenstein" (1958), and "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961). He remained known predominantly as a stage actor, among other things devising and starring in a one-person show dedicated to his great-great grandfather, the poet William Wordsworth. Another American star provided by Robert L. Lippert was Margia Dean, who played Judith
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The Quatermass Xperiment


so low it wasn't a real budget. I did it for wages not as a proper effects man who gets allocated a certain budget for a movie". The shots of the emergency services rushing to the rocket crash site at the beginning of the movie were filmed in the village of Bray, Berkshire, where Hammer's studios were located. The scenes with the crashed rocket were shot in a corn field at Water Oakley, near Bray. It was originally intended to make the crash site look more spectacular by setting fire
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The Quatermass Xperiment


to the field but bad weather interfered. Guest used a wide-angle lens for these shots to convey a feeling of vastness to the scene. Carroon's encounter with the little girl was filmed at the East India Docks in London. A second unit, under cameraman Len Harris, conducted additional location shooting around London for the montage scenes of the police search for Carroon. For the shot of the lights of London going out when the electricity is diverted to Westminster Abbey, an agreement was made with one of the engineers at
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The Quatermass Xperiment


Battersea Power Station to turn off the lights illuminating the outside of the station; however the engineer misunderstood and briefly cut all the power along the River Thames. Most of the remaining location shooting was done in the Windsor area. The rest of the film was shot at Hammer's Bray Studios, with the New Stage there housing the sets for the hospital and the interior of Westminster Abbey. Michael Carreras had written to the Abbey seeking permission to film there but was refused. The rooms of Down Place, the former country house
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The Quatermass Xperiment


of an arthritis victim, enlarged and exaggerated by Leakey. The rest of the arm was built up using latex and rubber and, inside, had a series of plastic tubes through which fluid was pumped to give the effect of the arm swelling. A large sponge-rubber prosthetic was used for a brief scene in the zoo showing Carroon's mutation had advanced further. The shrivelled corpses of Carroon's victims, glimpsed from time to time in the film, were also made by Leakey. Les Bowie provided the special effects:
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The Quatermass Xperiment


largely off-screen for much of the film, feeling that audiences' imaginations would fill in the blanks more effectively than he and the special effects team could deliver on-screen. For the climactic scenes at Westminster Abbey, however, Bowie created a monster from tripe and rubber and photographed it against a model of the Abbey. Sparks and fireworks were used for the shots of the creature being electrocuted. Michael Carreras felt something was missing when he viewed the first cut of this scene: he said, "There was this
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The Quatermass Xperiment


music but, when he fell ill, Anthony Hinds asked conductor John Hollingsworth to recommend a replacement. Hollingsworth suggested James Bernard, with whom he had worked on a number of BBC radio productions. Bernard sent Hinds a tape of the score of one of these productions, an adaptation of "The Duchess of Malfi", and was duly hired. Bernard watched the film a number of times, stopping after each reel to make notes and discuss where the music would be needed. Val Guest was not involved in any of the
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The Quatermass Xperiment


bill with the French film "Rififi". This became the most successful double bill release of 1955 in the UK. In some parts of the UK, the Watch Committees of local councils demanded certain scenes, mainly close-up shots of Carroon's victims, be removed before allowing the film to be exhibited in their jurisdictions. In the United States, Robert L. Lippert attempted to interest Columbia Pictures in distributing the film but they felt it would be competition for their own production, "It Came From Beneath The Sea"
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The Quatermass Xperiment


, far from the small pleasure we get, for example, from the innocent science fiction films signed by the American Jack Arnold... The subject could have been turned into a good film, not lacking in spice; with a bit of imagination... None of this is in this sadly English film”. Upon its release in the United States "Variety" praised the film as an "extravagant piece of science fiction. Despite its obvious horror angles, production is crammed with incident and suspense". According to Hallenbeck, many
14978006
Richard Wordsworth


film career included a standout performance as the monstrous astronaut in "The Quatermass Xperiment", which launched Hammer Film Productions’ famous run as the UK’s foremost producers of horror movies. Later he played a scene as a sinister taxidermist with James Stewart (whom he described as 'a perfect gentleman') in Alfred Hitchcock's second version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much". He also played leading parts in British TV dramas such as "Huntingtower" and "The Tripods". In the final decades of his
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