The Quatermass Xperiment

The Quatermass Xperiment is a 1955 British science-fiction / horror film, based on the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment by Nigel Kneale.

Related Topics:
1955 - British - Science-fiction - Horror - 1953 - BBC Television - The Quatermass Experiment - Nigel Kneale

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This feature film version was adapted (and probably largely scripted in its final form) by the director, Val Guest, working with American screenwriter Richard Landau. It was produced by the Hammer Film Productions Ltd. company, who changed the title to The Quatermass Xperiment, with the strange spelling, in order to play on the film's British X-certification (adults only) status, claiming that it was the first British-made movie to have received such a classification. In America, the film was released under the title The Creeping Unknown in 1956, distributed by United Artists as the b-film to the American-made The Black Sleep. Some prints screened on British television have used the conventional spelling of "Experiment".

Related Topics:
Director - Val Guest - Richard Landau - Hammer Film Productions Ltd. - X-certification - America - United Artists - B-film - The Black Sleep

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The film starred American actor Brian Donlevy as Professor Bernard Quatermass, the lead role having gone to him in an attempt to appeal to the North American audience, probably at the insistence of Robert L. Lippert who helped finance the film, as he had many of Hammer's earlier films with the same casting stipulation (Lippert would distribute the British Hammers in the USA, in exchange for the Hammer distribution arm, Exclusive Films Ltd., handling Lippert's films in the UK). Other actors starring included included future Dixon of Dock Green star Jack Warner as Quatermass nemesis, Police Inspector Lomax; David King-Wood as Quatermass' space medicine specialist, and Richard Wordsworth in a memorable performance as the film's central figure, Carroon, an astronaut whose body has been invaded by an alien life-form and is being transformed into something unearthly and dangerous. Also appearing were, in a small cameo as a local drunk, Dame Thora Hird (surprisingly given fifth billing); Lippert's girlfriend Margia Dean as Carroon's wife; and Lionel Jeffries as a British bureaucrat. Jane Asher also made an uncredited appearance as a small child, her first screen role.

Related Topics:
American - Brian Donlevy - Bernard Quatermass - Robert L. Lippert - Exclusive Films Ltd. - Dixon of Dock Green - Jack Warner - David King-Wood - Space medicine - Richard Wordsworth - Thora Hird - Margia Dean - Lionel Jeffries - Jane Asher

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The film was quite popular at the time, successful enough for Hammer to produce adaptations of the following two Quatermass serials, releasing them to the cinema as Quatermass 2 (1957) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967). It is also of special interest today as a complete copy of the original BBC television version of the story no longer exists, although Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale did not like the film version and was particularly displeased with Donlevy's performance in the lead role.

Related Topics:
Quatermass 2 - 1957 - Quatermass and the Pit - 1967 - BBC - Nigel Kneale

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~