8mm Forum: THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT Super 8MM Sound b/w on 1x1200 ft reel

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Posted by Brian Paul Cook (Member # 1946) on September 08, 2010, 11:10 PM:

Val Guest did a remarkable job in bringing the Quatermass British television series to the screen with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, or THE CREEPING UNKNOWN as it is titled stateside. I think because it does happen to be a British film that it gets negatively lumped together with other British sci-fi efforts of the decade and is almost completely overlooked except by critics. It is rarely shown, wasn’t on DVD for years, and is not something that turns up with any regularity on television.

Brian Donlevy is not a likable leading actor, never was. He is particularly cold and nasty in this film and would and possibly does contribute to the film’s lack of popularity. Fortunately, it has so much going for it in every other department that you soon forget how unappealing his character is. Most people are familiar with the plot, but for those who are not, I will provide a brief synopsis. A manned rocketship crashes to earth near London. It is the result of years of scientific development funded by independent means with Quatermass at the head. Only one of the astronauts survives the trip, the others have mysteriously evaporated in their spacesuits prior to landing. Richard Wordsworth gives a brilliant performance in the role of the ill-fated Victor Caroon, the expedition’s lone survivor. He is a gaunt and physically frail actor who really is believable and terrifying as he slowly begins to deteriorate mentally and physically. He is ushered by Quatermass to a remote lab so that they may study him and determine what has happened to his fellow travelers. He doesn’t remain in the lab long however, and, in an especially eerie scene, becomes infatuated with a potted cactus that is in his hospital room. He seems to be unable to stop himself from thrusting his hand into the cactus. The next thing we know…he has assimilated the cactus and it has now become his hand. He uses it like a spiked club to kill and drain the life energy from any living thing he comes across. After several gruesome murders where the corpses are found to be just dried-up shells, he makes for a whole zoo full of animals and starts to mutate into the creatures he kills there. Cut to Westminster Abbey and a now gigantic slime beast with one of the animals eyes still intact. Quatermass determines that they must electrocute the monster in order to destroy him before he keeps splitting into more little monsters and takes over the countryside. They re-route all of London’s power to generators at the Abbey and fry him to a small starfish-like piece of charred whatever.

Some of the scenes of Wordsworth roaming the countryside are very reminiscent of Karloff in Frankenstein. His performance elicits some of the same reactions as those of the monster that didn’t ask to be brought into this world. He even stumbles upon a little girl at one point, but rather than tossing her into the nearby lake, he instead focuses on the little girls doll and gives her the old cactus-hand treatment, decapitating her in the process. The film is full of interesting visual treatments and plot elements, all supported by a fine musical score, an early effort of one of Hammer Film’s James Bernard. He went on to give us one great score after another with the Hammer horror films of the sixties and seventies as well as providing us with a really interesting score for another often overlooked Val Guest film, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN.

The film is great, so what about the print. Well, it is like so many British film prints that I have seen, in that it is somewhat contrasty. This is a minimal problem though and the picture and sound quality are really excellent. The film supposedly was mastered by Derann Films, although there is no indication of that. It barely fits on a 1200 foot reel, so it is cut by a few minutes, minutes of footage I can’t quite recall, so it is an extremely well-edited version of the original. I highly recommend giving this film another look… no matter what format it is in. It was of course more fun to watch in Super 8mm than on DVD. If you have the chance to catch it or pick up a print (which is pretty rare), I think you will really enjoy it if these types of films are your ‘cup of tea’?

Posted by Mark Williams (Member # 794) on September 09, 2010, 04:36 AM:

Great review Brian,Derann actually released this full length on Standard 8mm a few years prior to this release,the print quality was far better too.

Now the Std 8 print is a very rare find these days!!

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on September 09, 2010, 12:10 PM:

Yes...I had that standard 8 print and it was complete....even with the small amount of footage that was cut from the American release version. The quality was much superior to the Super 8 print that i've seen. I have replaced the reg 8 version with a nice 16mm original...but it's the American "Creeping Unknown" version. The Derann super 8 of Quatermass 2....is , in my opinion, horrid. The picture is not only contrasty , but flickers like bad dupe of a 1916 Chaplin film.....and the editing is ,also in my opinion, not well done. The entire pre-credit sequence in which Quatermass encounters the young couple and acquires the meteorites is gone. So when he refers to the event later...it barely makes sense. Unlike the Castle editors...who took time and effort to carefuly trim individual scenes and dialog to save time and footage.... this one was basically done very quickly..by finding a few spots and hacking them out. I've been collecting films since 1959 ( I was 10) and 16mm since 1972 and I have been looking ..and looking ..and looking for a 16mm print of Q2.....and have never ever seen it on any list anywhere. I'd sure like to find a print. Oh well, I'm rambling out of the topic.

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on September 09, 2010, 06:14 PM:

Classic films...I used to think of them as fun 50's sci-fi when I was a kid but they get more disturbing the older you get. Some really shocking images within those movies.

Story goes that Mr. Donlevy was quite literally "hammered" by the time it came to each afternoon's filming and resorted to yelling his lines with the aid of an idiot board! Not that it shows [Roll Eyes]

.

"X The Unknown" was supposed to be Hammer's third Quatermass film but author of the original TV series Nigel Kneale objected. It is a lesser film but retains some of that Quatermass feel.

And who can forget Hammer's "...and The Pit"? Another classic relaeased in various forms by our friends in the West Midlands. [Smile]

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on September 10, 2010, 05:32 AM:

Gary - I'm afraid the Quatermass 2 print you mention must be faulty; I've seen at least 3 copies, none of which have the flicker, so the quality is similar to 'The Quatermass Xperiment'.

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