A big hit for Hammer Films, The Quatermass Xperiment was
part of the studio’s science fiction cycle in the 50s before turning its eye to
the Gothic horror films that made it world famous, starting with 1957’s Curse
of Frankenstein. In an unfortunate
bit of casting, American Brian Donlevy plays the title role, (though with little
screen time), presumably wedged into the production at the demand of fearful
distributors concerned for the foreign market.
It seems strange today how absolutely vital it once was for films around
the world to cast American stars – [i.e. Raymond Burr in Godzilla (1956)
or Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964)] – because now it is
more often a film’s authentic native qualities that make it interesting, not
the fact that audiences may be soothed to know that a film has some connection,
however remote, to Hollywood production values.
In any case, in this first of several Quatermass films by Hammer, the
intractable scientist chairs a project sending the first man into space. When the subject returns, he has been
effected by an encounter with a mysterious nebulous life form that slowly and
painfully absorbs any organic life with which it comes in contact; kind of like
the Blob. Val Guest was a fine director
and didn’t make nearly enough features for Hammer, and his arresting set-ups
and visuals here tend to compensate for the silly or primitive symptoms of the
film’s budget; as in the scene where doctors are spouting exposition but rather
than having to stare at them talk, we see instead through a glass door into the
next room, where the comatose astronaut is shown getting up and crossing the
room; a great demonstration of suspense similar to the famous playground scene
in Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963).
Guest directed a sequel, Quatermass 2, the following year. Hammer returned to the Quatermass franchise
for the last time with Quatermass & the Pit in 1967, definitely the
best of the series and a favorite of John Carpenter.
No comments:
Post a Comment