Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10204 in VHS
• Released on: 2000-12-05
• Rating: Unrated
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Customer Reviews

The Quatermass Experiment aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN
Fans of Doctor Who, Blake 7, and later BBC ventures will love this older U.K. science fiction. Unfortunately the British were not very good about recording their television programs, or keeping the tapes afterwards, and thus we will not be seeing the televised original for this story. The original live six-part 1953 TV production went some 200 minutes. The Quatermass author, Nigel Kneale, was not too happy about the new version's reduction to 82 minutes. Most who saw the TV version thought that it was superior to the movie.

Kneale wrote a number of TV programs that were eventually adapted to film. However, he will always remain famous for Quatermass. The movies would parallel a series of TV productions: Quatermass II (1955) and Quatermass and the Pit (1958-9). Kneale would conclude the series with Quatermass/The Quatermass Conclusion (1979).

The UK theatrical remake of The Quatermass Experiment (1955) was directed by Val Guest and the screenplay was written by Val Guest and Richard Landau. The part of Professor Bernard Quatermass was played by Brian Donlevy. Donlevy was chosen because it was thought an American in the role would give the film more box office appeal in the U.S. However, in hindsight, it was a little like giving the role of Doctor Who to an obvious Texan or person from the Bronx. Sometimes accents are important. Donlevy did a professional job, although a few cast members complained that he had a drinking problem.

The experimental rocket Q1 crashes in England. Quatermass, the somewhat reckless creator of the ship races to the site. Only one of the three astronauts is found alive, Victor Carroon (played by Richard Wordsworth). The other men have vanished.

This mystery drives the first part of the film. Later it becomes clear that Carroon is not only sick but dangerous. Something has come back with him, something that absorbs the flesh of living creatures and appropriates it into itself. The second half of this film is a somewhat typical man turned into monster drama.

It grows and goes on a rampage of destruction. Can it be caught? How will they stop it?

This early Hammer Film, and their first international success, was filmed in black-and-white. While the film has been released as one of MGM's Midnight Movies, it is only available on VHS. This is quite unfortunate given the fact that the later films are available on DVD. However, the transfer to video is excellent.

Would you believe that this film was given a British "X" rating certificate? There are no sexual situations, no romance, and no nudity. The language is fairly tame. Even the supposedly horrific scenes of mayhem from the monster are a mild PG by today's standards.

While it lacks some of the intensity of the later films, it is a good story. I would recommend it for fans of science fiction, British or not.

Frightening 50's British sci-fi
I saw this movie when it was released and it scared the hell out of me at the age of 10. Richard Wordsworth's silent terror still scares me. The bleak black and white scenes and loud, shrill string music add to the grim story of a returning astronaut slowly being dissolved and transformed into an alien which entered his spaceship. The complete alien at the end is disappointing but up to that point it's a frightening story of a slow, terrible death.

Initial entry in the greatest science fiction series ever
There's simply no equal to the Quatermass films in the effects-driven "science fiction" foisted on today's public. These films, adapted from much longer BBC television "miniseries", rely on intelligent plot development and attention to detail that is notably lacking in anything done in the genre lately.

In this film, the first of the series, Quatermass's experimental rocket crashes to Earth after having been out of contact. Three people went up - but there's only one person aboard now. The others.....? Ah, that would be telling!

Originally titled "The Quatermass Xperiment", the movie played on its "X" rating from the (remarkably timid) British film review board and helped open the door for Hammer Films' later bloody epics. There's nothing here that you couldn't see on television today, but the horrific *implications* of the plot are what give you the shivers. Special effects are crude by today's standards - a remake would surely improve on that aspect of the film, but the writing more than makes up that.

Brian Donlevy really makes a poor Quatermass, but he's all we have. He seems to confuse bullying and shouting with projecting authority and confidence, and you end up somewhat surprised no one decks him. (Andrew Keir's interpretation in "Quatermass and the Pit" is a lot more palatable.)

But that said - see this one. One of the true greats of the genre.