Oct 101957
 
three reels

With his moon rocket project’s funding cut, a distraught Professor Quatermass’s (Brian Donlevy) finds mysterious meteorites, a victim burned by an unknown substance, and his domed moon station constructed near the site of a destroyed town. It all means that something is wrong, and the source is outer space. When he tries to alert the authorities, he finds that the highest levels of government are involved and it is up to him, Inspector Lomax (John Longden), and a drunken news reporter (Sid James) to discover what is going on and stop it, before it is too late.

Professor Quatermass, the wise but arrogant scientist, was a sensation in ’50s and ’60s Britain.  After the huge success of the BBC teleplay The Quatermass Experiment, the newly formed Hammer Films bought the rights for a big screen version, which subsequently was a hit under the title The Quatermass Xperiment, and launched the studio into genre filmmaking. So, when the BBC aired Quatermass 2, Hammer was happy to do the feature film honors again, bringing back Brian Donlevy to repeat the lead role. The result is a better film than the first, and an important one in cinema history, but one that still suffers from the problems of the first.

This time out, the pace is rapid, never giving the viewer a chance to catch his breath.  Even before the opening credits we get an out of control car speeding over a rough road, an injured and crazed man, a near accident, a crash, strange burns, and a meteorite. It keeps at that pace for half the film, and then speeds up. No one is likely to get bored.  The story is a mystery, and while the answers are obvious now, in 1957 (and particularly 1955 when the BBC production played) this was new material. There are strange meteors streaking over an abandoned town, a secret research facility that matches Quatermass’ rejected plans for a moon colony, zombie like guards, and a government cover-up of the whole thing.

Quatermass 2 can be considered England’s entry into the paranoid, anti-communist sci-fi movement of the ’50s, but as it is from across the Atlantic, it has a different take on the situation. While U.S. versions tended to be either everyone versus you (there’s no one you can trust), or us versus them (we’re all in this together), the British version was more suspicious of its own government, and more ready to blame its own people, not for being spies or unprepared, but for being stupid. In Quatermass 2, there are “others” coming from the outside, but the real threat is from the government. It is elected officials and their minions that aren’t to be trusted. And one of the biggest threats is secrecy. While anti-communist zealots in the U.S. were yelling for more secrecy, in Britain, which didn’t (and still doesn’t) have the same level of freedom of speech or the press, it was secrecy which could allow a take over. (It should be noted that, unlike here, there actually turned out to be a number of high level “red” spies in the English government.)  The “people” are represented by a town of yokels who have been bribed not to think. They have been given jobs by the government (this isn’t a socialist friendly film) at a top secret instillation, and they are all more than happy to delude themselves that everything is OK.  When Quatermass questions the locals, he is directed to a posted sign which reads: “Remember, Secrets Mean Sealed Lips.”

Action-packed, complex, and with a substantial subtext that could keep a political science class busy for a semester, Quatermass 2 has everything to be a sci-fi classic, along side Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but it can’t overcome its lowly production values or its miscasting of Donlevy. The effects are poor throughout the film, but it is at the end, when things begin to look like a bad kids show, that they can no longer be ignored.  While the characters take the situation seriously, any viewer will have a hard time not giggling. Rubber has rarely been used so poorly.

Donlevy, known for his parts in American gangster films, is too brusque, too loud, and to quick-talking for the role of Quatermass.  He rattles off his lines with one generic tone and strides in and out of scenes like he’s searching for a restroom. Script writer Nigel Kneale hated the lack of subtlety Donlevy brought to his character and has stated that the actor was often drunk on set.  Considering the performance, that seems likely.  Still, Donlevy does a much better job than he did in the first film, making Quatermass someone I can bear. In The Quatermass Xperiment, I was rooting for the monster to eat him.

The movie was re-titled Enemy from Space for release in the U.S.

It was followed by 1967’s Quatermass and the Pit (Five Million Years to Earth in the U.S.), and 1979’s The Quatermass Conclusion.

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