Quatermass and the Pit

The picture concerns about the strange deeds into a London underground . There find a Martian aircraft which probes the humanity is created by a superior civilization . Then arrive Quatermass (Andrew Keir) , an official army (Julian Glover) and two obstinate scientists (James Donald and Barbara Shelley) , all of them discover fantastic events . The plot is developed for continuous discovery , leading a spooky and astounding finale. The movie is an outstanding adaptation from a TV serial exhibited in BBC (1958-59) written by Nigel Kneagle . As protagonist turns up Andrew Keir substituting to Brian Donlevy starring in ¨The Quatermass experiment¨ and ¨Quatermass II¨ , both of them directed by Val Guest , besides John Mills starred the final chapter titled the ¨Conclusion Quatermass¨ directed by Piers Haggard . This 1967 film is one of the greatest British science fiction films and the best of Quatermass trilogy . The great climax film is , of course , the final confrontation between the starring and the weird entity . In the picture appears the usual Hammer technicians and artistic team as cameraman Arthur Grant creating a riveting and colorful cinematography , Bernard Robinson making an awesome production design and ordinary musical conductor Philip Martell . The film is well produced by Anthony Nelson and magnificently directed by Roy Ward Baker . The flick will appeal to science fiction movie enthusiasts and Hammer fans . Rating : Above average and well worth watching .

Originally screened live as a mini-serial in 1958, when I was just an uninformed and impressionable young kid, Nigel Kneale's atmospheric horror drama scared the pants off me. Many, many years on, I got the abridged and edited 3-hour BBC video. To my much more informed, and sceptical mind, there was little to offer. It was long, hammy, contrived, a strings-and-things special-effects package, and in many ways implausible. Some of the set pieces were pretty good for the vintage and evidently limited budget. And that classic 'Quatermass Oscillation' still knocks socks off any other sound effect in the business. But it's strictly for collectors. Remember; by 1953 we'd already had 'War Of The Worlds', an Oscar-winning strings-and-things fest. We'd had the highly-charged and equally atmospheric bug-buster 'Them' in 1954. And of course, there had been the incomparably superior ghost-in-the-machine movie 'Forbidden Planet', from 1956. Admittedly; these were better-financed Hollywood efforts, but they set the effects standard, and should at least have offered some inspiration to the BBC. In 1967, a misguided Hammer attempted to update the mini-serial into this pukka movie on an equally negligible budget. And to say that they failed would be an understatement. To a generation by then watching 'Doctor Who' (1962), 'Thunderbirds' (1965) and 'Star Trek' (1966) on television, any made-for-cinema work that was underfunded, was destined to be stuffed, roasted, and served up for Christmas. I hadn't seen this wretched effort for ages and couldn't quite remember how bad it was (though I had been bitterly disappointed at the time). However, the opportunity came at 02:15 am this morning, and so I compromised my sleep to watch. What can I say? It was actually worse than the abridged video. In 9 years, Hammer had learnt nothing. This effort was a drastically foreshortened version of the original, with sets and excerpts of dialogue lifted en-bloc. No bad thing if they were good enough to transfer, but they barely passed muster in the 1950's. Kneale's original story is long and complex; it just doesn't comfortably reduce to 90mins. And this is evident from the clumsy, hurried editing. As to plot details: a copper almost too scared to enter a 'haunted' house? Gimme a break! An army colonel claiming that ancient artifacts were Nazi propaganda? Even by 1967, forensic science was sufficiently sophisticated as to blow that claim to atoms. Breen would have been a laughing-stock and any politician who supported him would have been an electoral busted-flush. There was no place for a 'Piltdown Martian' in 1967. The subway is a wonderfully atmospheric environment to place a horror and suspense movie. With it's lonely stations tailing abruptly into deep, dark caverns, its endless, echoing labyrinths and the obscure roaring rumble of trains in nearby galleries; it's a creep-fest gold mine. Check out 'Mimic' and several others. Who could possibly make a lash-up of it? Hammer - that's who. The decent original cast led by Andre Morell was replaced by a bunch of largely unknowns. The 'animated apparatus' was even 'stringier' than before. And that blood-curdling 'oscillation' had been abandoned altogether. Now there was a baby thrown out with the bath water. I cannot recommend this movie on any other pretext than as a guide to bad film-making. There is no doubt in my mind that I could do better. This is proof positive that Hammer really was composed largely of Ham. And looking at some of the other comments, praising this twaddle as 'classic', or 'one of the best...' simply convinces me that there are people out there so deluded, they would award 10 stars to a blank screen. Check-out the abridged BBC video. It's long, slow, implausible and stagy, but all the best elements have still been retained. At least it's better than this. Come to that; so is a blank screen. Pleasant dreams.

A lot of nonsense is written about the significance and meaning and quality of Hammer Films, whereas mostly they were pedestrian and derivative. There were some gems in their output and this film is one of them. The science may be wayward but it unfolds plausibly from the initial discovery of the thing in the pit to mayhem and madness in the streets of London. The opening credits are sparse and it goes straight into the story and never lets up. It has a clear narrative and each new discovery pushes the envelope of fear and amazement further out. There is no romantic interest (though I must declare the Miss Judd character is pretty darn attractive) to hold up the driving plot. If there is a fault it is that the story can scarcely contain the wealth of material that Nigel Kneale puts in the script. Presumably there isn't a longer director's cut in some film archive! With limited resources at hand the director, Roy Ward Baker, directs some great scenes, weird and strange and scary. He is served well by the acting of James Donald, Andrew Keir and Barbara Shelley, which is perfect for their roles. As the alien presence become stronger you believe it when it affects the characters. The scene at the pit where Miss Judd has her visions recorded is excellent. The special effects are varied but the green arthropods and the space ship look quite malevolent. The ending is great and somehow disquieting as the closing credits slowly roll. This is a good example of an interesting intelligent film, costing less than the catering budget of the elephantine mega-budget film we have these days, but much more effective and memorable.

source: Five Million Years to Earth

Trailer—Quatermass and the Pit

Quatermass and the Pit

Why a milestone? Because its concept of outside manipulation of human evolution isn't unique to written s.f., but in the realm of movies and TV it's the first of its kind. Echoes of this movie can be seen through Doctor Who, 2001: Space Odyssey, and Babylon 5. Quartermass is a chilling combination of science fiction and Lovecraftian horror, boosted by great performances by Andrew Keir, James Donald, and Julian Glover.

A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people. This is the film that inspired John Carpenter. Okay, so not "the" film, as he also was strongly influenced by the films of Howard Hawks. But you can see this film in "Prince of Darkness", and also in "In the Mouth of Madness". And, of course, it stands on its own. Some of this is a little silly. The alien / arthropod corpses are a bit less than believable as living creatures, but at least they tried to make up for that with goo blood and other touches. And the images from Mars... a bit weird. But, hey, still a fine film.

Brilliant writing motivates a suspenseful sci-fi satire with intelligent, but often over the top, acting. Aliens invaded the earth thousands of years ago, and left behind their hatred and evil as a sort of gift to our race. One of the only films to successfully negotiate the fascinating territory between science fiction and the supernatural -- or, science and religion. Good suspense held up by a fast plot that reveals just enough to keep you interested. Poor production values -- the monsters in the film are truly laughable, which may hurt its reception by the younger crowd.