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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: October 12, 2011
Director: Val Guest
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Margia Dean, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth
Year: 1955
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The Movie:
Directed by Val Guest and following hot on the heels of the popular British television mini-series featuring the same character, 1955's The Quatermass Xperiment begins when a pair of young lovers is out in the field about to indulge in some make out time. All of a sudden something comes hurtling out of the sky at them and they take solace inside the farm house where the young woman lives. As it turns out, a rocket ship has landed right near the house, and the man behind the space mission that sent it into the wild blue yonder in the first place, Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy), soon arrives to instruct the first responders on how to deal with this.
The hose down the ship to bring the temperature down and open the door to find that one man, Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth), has survived the crash, the other two astronauts apparently having vanished into thin air leaving only their empty space suits where their bodies once were. Carroon is taken to the hospital, his wife (Margia Dean) at his side, to heal but it soon turns out that he's not only been stricken mute but his right arm is starting to mutate. After some detective work, Quatermass figures that Carroon is hosting an alien, the same alien that likely took care of the two missing astronauts and which will probably do off with the Earth's population just as easily. He and Inspector Lomax (Jack Warner) wind up having to chase Carroon down after his wife helps him escape from the hospital, and as they track him down, he begins to very quickly lose whatever humanity he may have had left.
Better known in these United States under the alternate title of The Creeping Unknown, the film lets Donlevy bring a no-nonsense toughness to the Quatermass character (he'd bring it with him in his second stint as the character in the sequel, Quatermass II: Enemy From Space made in 1957, also directed by Val Guest). While it might seem a bit odd seeing the surly tough guy from Kiss Of Death zipping around England trying to solve a mystery originating from outer space, Donlevy is fun in the role even if he maybe doesn't come across a the most believable professor to ever grace the silver screen. The supporting cast are also good, with Jack Warner working alongside Donlevy well and with Wordsworth giving an excellent (and basically silent) performance as the increasingly off kilter infectee. He uses his body language very well here, really delivering a sense of increasing dread and hopelessness on the part of his character.
Slapped with an X by the BBFC in 1954 (now the title makes sense, right?), the film is quite a bit darker than a lot of other science fiction pictures made around the same time, giving this film plenty of crossover appeal and ensuring that those who dig Hammer for their horror pictures will enjoy this just as much as those who appreciate the studio's dipping its collective toes into other genres. There are some great make up effects on display here, a fun and fairly thrilling finale that takes place at one of England's most recognizable landmarks, and it's easy to see how this picture's almost instantaneous popularity encouraged the studio to head into darker and more macabre territory shortly after the film struck box office gold.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Quatermass Experiment looks surprisingly great in this 1.33.1 fullframe transfer which appears to preserve the film's original aspect ratio (at least if the compositions are anything to go by) and presents it in black and white as it should be. Contrast looks solid, blacks are nice and deep and detail is very strong. Some very minor print damage shows up now and then do what look like chemical burns or emulsion marks of some kind but this is nitpicking, the movie looks great here.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono track is of pretty good quality, offering up clear dialogue that's easy to understand and which is properly balanced against the sound effects and the score.
Extras include a theatrical trailer for the film and the standard static MGM Limited Edition menus with chapter stops.
The Final Word:
The Quatermass Experiment probably would have been better served with a commentary and some proper extras give its popularity and its influence over the years but you've got to give MGM credit for doing right by the audio and video quality on this disc. The movie looks and sounds great and it holds up well as a smart, well made and tense work of science fiction.
