Background, Personnal Review & UK Pressbook
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Background
From left to right: Left: Victor Carroon (Duncan Lamont) in the 1953 serial 'The Quatermass Experiment'(BBC). Middle: Victor Carroon, this time played by Richard Wordsworth in the 1955 film 'The Quatermass Xperiment'(Hammer). Right: The 1956 Quad Poster for 'X The Unknown'(Hammer).
Hammer films approached the BBC before the 'Quatermass II' TV serial had aired, & snapped up the rights to Nigel Kneale's story. Hammer had previously tried to barter with Kneale to use the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass in their own venture, titled 'X The Unknown', but were told by Kneale that they could not use the character, probably due to the fact that Kneale was still extrememly annoyed that the BBC had sold the rights to his first serial 'The Quatermass Experiment', without his consent, & the fact that he had receieved nothing at all for his work.
'Quatermass 2' however would see a lot of changes in Nigel Kneale's life. Firstly it would be his first foray into the film world, & also before it was made, Kneale would be out of contract with the BBC, leaving all manner of work avenues for the writer to tread. Hammer asked Kneale if he would do the screenplay for 'Quatermass 2', & he accepted. When he had completed his script, it was handed to producer Anthony Hinds who in turn handed it to director Val Guest, who then had the task of editing the running time down further, with further re-writes added to the screenplay.
Nigel kneale was further distressed to find out that Hollywood actor Brian Donlevy would reprise his role as the Professor, & would thereafter speak of Donlevy as though he was an out of control drunk, who walked into walls etc, none of which are true according to director Guest, who stood by Donlevy & his acting ability. He would regularly laugh in interviews about Donlevy's toup'ee taking off in the wind, during filming, but he would always say that Donlevy gave a good solid performance.
Apparently the budget for this film was very small (92,000), even with a cash injection from United Artists, the budget was still miniscule, & some scenes had to be omitted altogether. Another major issue with this film, was that a script had to be submitted to the BBFC before Hammer could even start to film. Fortunately they were only objectionable to one scene in the original script - the family picnic scene. This was rather strange considering that the BBC had been able to transmit their untouched version the previous year, with the scene intact even after a repeat 2 days after the original airing.
Upon release Kneale still had a deep rooted dislike for the film, but no film could ever uproot his original TV serial, as that had been 3 hours long, & so certain plot elements had to go in order to keep backsides on cinema seats. Also 1 or 2 characters from the serial went along the way. The film was released as a double bill with '....and God, created woman' on it's initial run on the ABC circuit of cinemas in 1957, a truly bizarre pairing if ever there was one.
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Personnal Review
From left to right. Left: The death of Ward (Derek Aylward) in the 1955 serial 'Quatermass II'(BBC). Middle: Peter Cushing in the 1955 TV play 'The Creature'(BBC). Right: Broadhead (Tom Chatto) dies covered in slime in the 1957 film 'Quatermass 2'(Hammer).
'Quatermass 2' was up until it's 1999 release on VHS, & it's 2000 release on the DVD format by US release company Anchor Bay, probably the least known of the Quatermass films. The DVD brought to a whole new generation of fans into the arena. The film has now been released in various countries around the world on the DVD format, this includes it's country of origin, the UK.
As late as 1979, I read an interview with writer Nigel Kneale, in which he stated quite catagorically that the rights had reverted to him, & as far as he was concerned it would never be seen again, but apparently this did not include TV viewings, as there were a number of broadcasts of the film in the 1980s. In the early 1980s 'Walton Films', a distribution company of films onto the VHS format released 'The Quatermass Xperiment' & 'The Abominable Snowman' on to VHS, but not 'Quatermass 2'. Word got out at that time that Kneale had refused it's release, even though the film made it's USA debut onto video in 1984 on the corinth label.
By 1998 Kneale seemed to have relaxed his views on the film enough to allow the film to be released onto Laserdisc (For the second time in the USA), even sharing commentary duties with director Val Guest. Kneale gives a good solid thoughtful commentary, always interesting & never dull, although his dislike of Donlevy as the troubled Scientist does often come to the fore.
I first saw 'Quatermass 2' in 1975, when it was a part of the 'Horror Double Bill' season shown on BBC2 TV for around 6 or 7 years. Every summer there would be around 6 weeks of horror movies shown late on a Saturday night. 'Quatermass 2' happened to be on, & I remember watching transfixed - totally hooked in fact. However with the ball of string plot slowly unravelling before my eyes, I was quite unprepared for what would happen next. The Broadhead death scene, quite literally gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards. So then, why would I then come to love/like this film so much? You may well ask! The answer is 'I don't know?', I bet if you asked someone why they love 'Casablanca' or 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' you would get the same reply. I suppose there is just something magical about the film that I cannot capture with mere words, you have to be me to understand it I suspect.
The other Quatermass films I like too (I much prefer 'The Quatermass Xperiment' of the 2 though). 'Quatermass 2' is often slated by some critics, which I have no problem with, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion no matter what. However I do find it ironic that 'Quatermass and the Pit'(1967) is always picked out as the best of the films, why I don't know, for one thing the film is totally studio bound & it shows (Although the TV serial of the same story was filmed in a studio, it is never quite as obvious). 'Quatermass and the Pit' is probably singled out as the best for 2 reasons I can think of, 1. There is no Donlevy, many UK genre officianados find Donlevy quite bullish, by comparison to Andrew Keirs softly spoken Scottish Professor. 2. It's in COLOUR. How many people I have talked to that cannot under any circumstances watch anything minus colour, where would these people have been in the B/W days on TV? Some people will even put the film over the TV version of the same story (Which is light years ahead in my view, in terms of story, cast, SPFX etc, oh, & atmosphere...), sadly because of the colour issue.
So what makes 'Quatermass 2' work so well, the answer is probably Val Guest. Although Kneale's TV version is a very close second for me, the film works much better, it is faster paced. You barely have time to catch your breath, & there is another shock awaiting you. I believe it's all thanks to Val Guests direction & the trimming of the original story, also rewriting material that would have dogged down a 90 minute film, & giving it a terrific sense of danger. Instead of being just another Quatermass film, 'Quatermass 2' is given the look & feel of an early 'James Bond' film, with terrific location work, amazing Camera work by Len Harris, & action scenes that would give any Sean Connery 'Bond' a run for his money.
Although some of the final scene SPFX in 'Quatermass 2', can look a little ropey at times to a modern day viewer, you have to bear in mind that these were state of the art 51 years ago, & still don't look enormously bad. What really gives the film it's edge is undoubtedly it's story, a nail biting, nerve jangling little film made on a shoestring budget, with a great score by James Bernard to move it along. 'Quatermass 2' I'm sure you will find will at least give you 'Food for thought', even if you don't particularly like old movies/films.
From left to right: Left: The 1957 British Quad Poster for 'The Abominable Snowman'(Hammer). Middle: Professor Quatermass (Andre Morell) & Roney (Cec Linder) from the 1958-59 serial 'Quatermass and the Pit'(BBC). Right: Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir) inspects a dead Martian in the 1967 film 'Quatermass and the Pit'(Hammer).
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UK Pressbook Images
Above, Below & Right: Various images from the UK Pressbook.
Stephen Reed. 2008.
