Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
The Quatermass Xperiment
Collapse
-
- Published: 01-10-2015, 02:01 PM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Quatermass Xperiment, The
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: December 2, 2014
Director: Val Guest
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Margia Dean, Richard Wordsworth, Gordon Jackson, Lionel Jeffries, Jane Asher, David King-Wood
Year: 1955
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
A rocket ship has crashed into the British countryside near the village of Bray. Professor Bernard Quatermass and his assistant arrive to investigate, only to conclude that the rocket is one of their own. The men are members of a secretive space program, which had sent the rocket into space. They had lost contact with the astronauts on board, and now two of those astronauts have disappeared (though their suits remain behind), while the third is in a semi-catatonic state. That astronaut, Victor Carroon, is taken to a nearby hospital, where Quatermass and others perform a variety of tests to find out what is wrong with him. Meanwhile, his wife wants him returned home, so she bribes an orderly to assist in his escape. Little do they know that Carroon is evolving into some sort of Lovecraftian plant-animal hybrid in need of food.
The Quatermass Xperiment is not, as is commonly believed, Hammer's first flirtation with the horror genre. The British Studio, which had been formed in the early 1930s, first toyed with the genre as early as 1935, when it had imported Universal star Bela Lugosi for The Phantom Ship. Thanks to his star power, the film—which provided a fictional solution to the real-life mystery of the Mary Celeste, a merchant brigantine found derelict off the coast of Gibraltar in 1872—was a moderate success, though the company ceased production after only a couple more pictures. Hammer wasn't resurrected again until the late 1940s, when it was tasked with supplying the British film industry with “quota quickies,†cheap, short films designed to meet legal requirements that British cinemas screen a certain number of domestically produced films. Several of Hammer's most notable quickies were borderline horror fare, including the Ripper tale Room to Let (1950) and the ghostly comedy Someone at the Door (1951). But it wasn't until the BBC provided the impetus that Hammer produced its first major success in the genre.
In the early 1950s, the BBC hired a young writer by the name of Nigel Kneale to pen original dramas for the network. Kneale was fascinated by science, and in the summer of 1953 the BBC aired a six-part serial he had written, titled The Quatermass Experiment, on Saturday evenings. The serial proved a major hit with audiences, leading Hammer to pick up the rights to adapt the serial to the big screen. Though provisionally treated as a quota quickie (and on an even lower budget than usual for Hammer), the studio hired Val Guest, who had worked as a screenwriter before making the jump to direction, to helm the picture. To give the film greater appeal in North America, where the Quatermass name was unknown, Hammer hired American actor Brian Donlevy to star in the lead role. The film was produced and picked up by United Artists for release in the states, but the title was deemed too obscure. The film was renamed The Creeping Unknown and sent out on a double bill with The Black Sleep (1956). In the United Kingdom, the 'E' in 'Experiment' was dropped to advertise and exploit the film's X Certificate, a rating mostly given to films containing horror content.
The film proved a major commercial success on both sides of the pond, leading Hammer down a new path into science fiction and horror. Not that the man who created the character of Quatermass approved. Kneale took major issue with Donlevy's portrayal of his beloved creation. It may have been a cynical ploy on Hammer's part, but casting a hard-nosed, Irish-born Yank in the role worked. Despite Kneale's complaints, Donlevy was pitch perfect as Quatermass. Gone was the professorial charm of the series' aging Brit scientist, replaced by a brutally frank and cold American not known for his diplomatic skills. His steely determination and single-minded dedication to the pursuit of scientific knowledge leaves no doubt as to how and why Great Britain has moved to the forefront of the space race, at least in the world of Quatermass. It has been alleged that Donlevy was frequently drunk on set, but if so, it never shows on screen. His he-man persona, which had served him well in many film noirs of the 1940s, doesn't fail him here.
Donlevy's isn't the only great performance in the film. Richard Wordsworth is just as captivating as Victor Carroon. Though he doesn't say a word throughout the proceedings, his face and eyes contain a great deal of emotional expression, particularly during the scene in which he assimilates a cactus and again when he encounters a little girl near the canals. He goes for long spans of time without blinking and barely breathing, and the scene in which his eyes follow the movement of the flowers his wife holds is chilling. Phil Leakey's make-up appears realistic but restrictive, yet it never hampers Wordsworth's abilities. (Leakey went on to create the frightening visage of the monster in Hammer's groundbreaking The Curse of Frankenstein two years later). Wordsworth provided a similarly great performance at the beginning of The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and became a fixture on British television.
Other actors who have important but relatively small roles in The Quatermass Xperiment include Lionel Jeffries (The First Men in the Moon, 1964), Gordon Jackson (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1969), and Jane Asher (The Masque of the Red Death, 1964).
The film moves at a breakneck pace, yet it never sacrifices characterization for thrills. Instead, it mixes the two into a beautifully controlled amalgamation of drama, science fiction, horror, and investigative procedural, done up in cinéma vérité fashion. The camera treats people as if they are documentary subjects, and the dialogue frequently overlaps. Perhaps it was this realistic approach that resulted in a boy suffering from a ruptured artery during a screening of the film in the United States, leading a doctor to rule the film's extreme tension as the cause of death. The incident landed Hammer in the Guinness Book of World Records as producing the only film to ever scare a person to death.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Kino Lorber offers The Quatermass Xperiment on Blu-ray in an MPEG-4 AVC encode. The film is presented in 1.66:1 aspect ratio in 1080p high definition. The grain level is nicely maintained without being obstructive of detail, which remains fairly high, especially in facial close-ups and external shots. Quatermass's office desk, the rocket's interiors, the zoo's many cages, and the city's brick buildings provide a terrific showcase for the Blu-ray format's visual capabilities. There is very little crush, with most of the darker scenes maintaining a strong level of detail and shades of gray. There is a limited problem with print damage, speckling, a few scratches, and occasional flicker, though these flaws are never too distracting and some viewers will appreciate that they contribute to a more film-like experience.
The audio is presented in DTS-HD MA 2.0. Conversations are clear and crisp, while the accompanying score is appropriately bombastic in action sequences without ever overpowering the dialogue.
Kino's BD features a number of extras. First up is an audio commentary by director Val Guest and hosted by Marcus Hearn. Hearn steers the conversation where it needs to go without ever dominating Guest, who is provided ample opportunity to reminisce and shares a number of anecdotes as well as background information about the film's cast and crew. There are also two separate featurettes with Guest: “The Quatermass Xperiment: From Reality to Fiction†and an interview. The former is in high definition and runs almost 12 minutes in length, while the latter is in standard definition and runs approximately eight minutes in length. It, too, is hosted by Hearn. There is a degree of repetition between the two interviews and the commentary, with Guest understandably reciting some of the same stories. One of the most entertaining extras is an interview with director John Carpenter (Halloween, 1977; The Thing, 1981). Carpenter discusses his first viewing of the film and just how influential it was on him, which can best be seen in his intelligent science fiction-horror hybrid Prince of Darkness (1987); the director even credited his script for that film to “Martin Quatermass.†Running just shy of seven minutes in length, “Comparing the Versions†is an on-screen comparison of the British and American cuts, revealing just what was deleted for the film's U.S. release. Filmmaker Ernest Dickerson (Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, 1995) provides a short commentary over images from the film's trailer in a segment of the online series “Trailers from Hell," which lasts approximately two and a half minutes. And finally, the film's original American trailer is included, as is the alternate U.S. opening credit sequence.
The Final Word:
The Quatermass Xperiment is one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. It started the ball rolling for Hammer Film Productions, whose name became synonymous with horror over the next two decades. The performances are excellent, and Val Guest's direction is a revelation. Kino Lorber's BD release is worth a purchase, thanks to a solid transfer with nice image reproduction and a healthy rather than obtrusive level of grain. There are also numerous interesting extras worth any film fan's undivided attention.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -