8mm Forum: 'Quatermass Experiment' & 'X, the Unknown'

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Topic: 'Quatermass Experiment' & 'X, the Unknown'

Rob Koeling
Master Film Handler

Posts: 399
From: Brighton, UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 16, 2005 05:37 AM

I have two features for sale: 'The Quatermass Experiment' (Val Guest, 1956, B&W) and 'X, the Unknown' (Leslie Norman, 1956, B&W).

Both features are the slightly edited Derann versions (4 x 400') in very good condition in original Derann boxes. I can take a couple of screenshots if anyone is interested.

A quote from the Allmovie Guide (http://www.allmovie.com/):

"The movie is filled with disturbing, jarringly realistic hand-held camera work, and also utilizes enough actual locations to successfully achieve Guest's goal of a documentary-style thriller. It is made doubly suspenseful and horrific with its depiction of the slow transmutation of Caroon, and its teasing (and mostly, but not entirely) off-camera hints about the final shape of the creature, until the last five minutes of the film. Audiences were so successfully pulled into the movie's mood of suspense and paranoia, and its documentary-style realism, that the denouement ended up as a pounding, spellbinding conclusion. In the late 1980's, the first theatrical showing of The Quatermass Xperiment in New York City in 40-plus years resulted in three days of around-the-block lines and full-capacity crowds at New York's Film Forum, and its subsequent release on videocassette and laserdisc. In the years leading up to that rediscovery, the plot-line of this film also served as the inspiration, if not the actual model, for such varied thrillers as X-The Unknown (a blatant attempt to "fake" Quatermass movie, though a fine film in its own right) and Lifeforce, though it is The X-Files that comes closest to The Quatermass Xperiment's mix of paranoia, horror, mystery, and science fiction elements."

I had both features for some 8 years. They are great fun, but now it is time to move them on and make some space for new stuff.

I'm looking for £60 for Quatermass and £55 for 'X' (+ postage)

Contact me at robk_at_sussex_dot_ac_dot_uk (replace '_at_' and '_dot_') if you're interested.

- Rob

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 16, 2005 02:40 PM

I can tell anyone for you that Quatermass and X are both very good films.....some of the best of that day's British sci fi.
It's interesting. There must have been two 8mm feature versions of the Quatermass Xperiment. ( yes that's how they spelled it). My older Standard 8 sound version from Walton , I think....is absolutely complete and even has the scenes cut out of the American theatrical version called The Creeping Unknown. Print isn't too bad. I wish I could say the same for the super 8 version of Quatermass II.....just a pretty bad editing job to get it to four reels.....and a print that seems to flicker like an old nickelodeon movie...... I'd give anything ...almost..to get my hands on 16mm versions of either or both Quatermass films. Seem to be rare as hounds teeth. ( which , I suppose, is are very rare).

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Steven Sigel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 701
From: Massachusetts
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 16, 2005 03:21 PM

All three of the Quatermass movies are pretty tough to find on 16mm. I've seen a number of prints of "X: The Unknown" come around though...

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Rob Koeling
Master Film Handler

Posts: 399
From: Brighton, UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 18, 2005 04:51 AM

Hi Gary,

You're right about the 4x400' S8 version of Quatermass II. That one wasn't done very well. The first, 'The Quatermass Xperiment' was done much better. I saw the complete version (a 16mm print) just before I bought my S8 print (it was actually the reason to buy it) and without seeing it again, I wouldn't be able to say were the cuts are. Excellent film!

- Rob

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