Quatermass and the Pit 1967 - Movie Review with Spoilers (AKA Five Milli...

From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.

Today I'll be reviewing the movie Quatermass and the Pit released in 1967.  This movie is also known as Five Million Years To Earth.

Starring:

James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley

Directed by:

Roy Ward Baker

Genre:

Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating:

Approved

Budget:

£275,000 (estimated)

Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:

7.0

The Synopsis is:

Rocket scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass discovers that an ancient race of aliens may be influencing humanity’s destruction.

Story:

Unbeknownst to those outside of the United Kingdom, there was a franchise of 3 BBC television series and movies that were centered around the character Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group and his chronicles of saving the earth from various alien attacks.

Behind Sherlock Holmes and The Doctor, Quartermass was one of Britain’s most legendary intellectual fictional characters.  BBC News Online proclaimed him as Britain's first television hero.

He was created by Nigel Kneale for BBC Television in 1953, when he was assigned to create a six-part serial.  

He chose the protagonist’s first name, Bernard, in honour of the astronomer Bernard Lovell, founder of the Jodrell Bank observatory.

Originally his last name was going to be Charlton, but Kneale decided he wanted something more unique, something that would stand out to an audience.  He went looking in the London telephone directory and picked it.  

The first series was The Quatermass Experiment (1953) starring Reginald Tate in the titular role for six television episodes.  It was about a surviving astronaut from a mission on one of Quatermass’ rockets, who is slowly being absorbed by a plant like alien that will eventually release its spores and destroy the earth.  Of course, Quatermass is there to save the day.

Since that went over well, the BBC decided to create a sequel to the first series, Quatermass II (1955) with John Robinson playing Quatermass.  This was also another six episode installment.  This time hundreds of mind control gas-filled meteorites land in a specific area, taking over citizens and the government officials.  Quatermass, after being turned down for his moon base designs, finds that his idea has been repurposed by aliens starting their own colony on earth.  Quatermass and his allies defeat the aliens before their impending invasion.

The idea struck them to create a feature film remaking the first series.  That was when The Quatermass Xperiment  was released in 1955 starring Brian Donlevy as the professor, produced by  Hammer Film Productions.  If you’ve never heard of this movie, or any of the Quatermass films, it’s because it was determined that no one outside of the U.K. would be familiar with the name Quatermass, so it was named “The Creeping Unknown” in the United States. 

Since the formula of producing a film from the series worked so well for The Quatermass Experiment, The film Quatermass II was released in 1957 by Hammer film Productions acting as a remake of the 1955 series of the same title.  It also starred Brian Donlevy and also went by an alternate title, Enemy From Space.  It was the first movie to boast the number 2 in the title.

It was now time for a third, six episode television series, Quatermass and the Pit which aired from 1958–59.   It is also referred to as Quatermass III among the fans.  This time, the part of the professor was played by André Morell.

As with the other two series, Quatermass and the Pit was next to be turned into a film.  However, it was not as easy this time around.   Nigel Kneale completed the script in 1961 and director Val Guest, and actor Brian Donlevy from the first two films were slated to return for a release in 1963.  This would have been great to continue the connections throughout the three movies.

Some time in 1957 Hammer Films collaborated with Columbia Pictures to help with distribution and funding.  Unfortunately, Columbia was not interested in the Quatermass film due to their unfamiliarity with the franchise when it was pitched and the project was shelved for a long time.

In 1966 Hammer fell out with Columbia and got into a new deal with Seven Arts, ABPC, and Twentieth Century Fox, who then green-lit the film immediately.

Val Guest and Brian Donlevy were too busy with other projects by then to work on the third film.  Hammer got one of their frequent directors, Roy Ward Baker to step in to take charge and actor Andrew Keir was chosen to play the titular role.  Baker was best known for directing A Night to Remember (1958) which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959.  This is a film that many of you have suggested that I review and that will indeed happen eventually. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about that movie.

Roy Ward Baker felt that his background on that movie and The One That Got Away 1957 gave him the experience he needed to bring Quatermass and the Pit to life. He thought that Nigel Kneale's screenplay was so good, that all he had to do was cast it and shoot it. As well he enjoyed the fact that Hammer studio was small and made the decision making process fast and simple.

The story for Quatermass and the Pit was very similar to the television series, which I described in the synopsis.  One stark difference is that the film was less complicated but had much more cinematic punch for the short time it had on screen.  This is a brilliant intellectual story that just keeps ramping up until we get a knock down drag out massacre by the end of the film.  Wow!  I loved it.  It’s amazing and we’ll get into the details as the review continues.

Pacing:

At 1 hour and 37 minutes, one thing I love about older movies is that they are typically short and sweet.  A lot of heavy stuff happens in such a short time and it really takes multiple views to catch all of it.  These guys were telling a story that was originally much longer in the series, with enough time to let the content breathe a little.  This doesn’t.  You go from one thing to the next, so you’ve got to drink a cup of Joe, get a pad and pen to take notes.  You may have to pause the film and Google some things from time to time.  It’s that intense.

Challenge:

The challenge in the story are the aliens that are slowly revealed to us about 25 minutes into the film.  

Let me explain how it happens.  While extending the train line at the Hobbs End station on Hobbs Lane, workers discover a fossilized skull that attracts the attention of archeologist Doctor Roney and his assistant Barbera Judd.   They dug up 6 skeletons more than 5 million years old.

Over 5 million years ago hideous locusts-looking insectoid aliens from Mars realized that their planet was slowly dying and so they planned to colonize earth. But, there was a snag in the plan.  They could not physically live on earth so they planned to live on through humanity. 

They came to planet earth and took primitive people from all over the globe to their home world to perform experiments.   Of all the many expeditions, this one got buried in this pit and was preserved for 5 million years.

The successful expeditions released the prehistoric subjects on earth, thus influencing human evolution and the development of human intelligence.  These prehistoric men passed on their genes to most of the population and within these humans are the memories of Martian life which mainly consisted of massive wars to cleanse their hives.  These memories are difficult for humans to withstand and are deeply imbedded into the psyche.  The aliens have devised a way that the memories can only be released with a trigger.

As well some of the aliens can appear to humans and have been perceived as horrifying apparitions or demons that thrive off of human energy. Sometimes individuals can become possessed, exhibit psychic abilities and telekinesis.

The film also associates the aliens with the history of paganism, religion, the devil, demons, goblins, and gargoyles. I love this because, if you think about it for too long, it may give you the creeps especially when the film tells you that this nearly deserted street that all of this takes place on, Hobbs Lane, was originally Hobs Lane, spelled with one “b”, which is actually The Devil’s Lane.

As the alien spacecraft is revealed in the pit, more strange happenings occur until finally we get a large crowd of people gathered around the vehicle and it becomes alive.  Yes, the alien spacecraft is a living organism that feeds off human energy and the more people interact with it, the stronger it gets.  Once powerful enough, it creates a psychic trigger for those who are in the area that have descended from the prehistoric men the aliens implanted on earth so long ago.  This trigger turns the descendants into mindless killing drones with the memories and instincts of the insectoid Martians who had a regularity of cleansing their hives on Mars. Those who are not born with the prehistoric gene became the targets of extermination.  

This is all so very terrifying and reminds me so much of the movie Life Force released in 1985, which I reviewed, wherein the aliens were also connected to a lore.  That time it was about vampire tales throughout history.  There is also an eerie similarity to the utter pandemonium that occurs at the end of the film, where Londerners were killing each other. 

It was theorized that this violent part of the story line was inspired by the horrific real life events of a series of racially motivated riots that took place in Notting Hill, England, between August and September in 1958. Mobs of massive numbers of people were attacking the houses of West Indian families.  

That is so horrifying.  Imagine being in your home and there is an angry mob of people at your door for some random reason you have no control over.   

This is where I give so much credit to the writing here because it was cleverly used to connect the idea that real life can be applied to the story that is being told. Clearly Nigel Kneale wanted the audience to have a conversation about this, or at least consider moments in history where humans choose violence in the name of race, religion, tribe or country.

The story has an additional challenge in the film in the character of Colonel Breen who is in opposition with Quatermass.  Breen thinks that Quatermass is holding on to the novelty of his ideas but not willing to use them for military supremacy to protect the nation.  However, Quatermass says that Breene is out of touch with his humanity and not respecting the responsibility of the consequences of using science in the way he plans to.  It’s a compelling argument and the beautiful part about their disputes is that his views doesn’t make him a bad guy.

He is added to the alien story when the diggers find something that appears to be a pipe.  After digging more, they uncover the tip of a massive object that they believe may be what they called a “Satan”bomb which is referring to the SC 1800 Satan was one of the largest bombs used  in World War 2 by the Germans.

Colonel Breen is called in to take a look at things because he is an ex bomb specialist and Professor Quatermass tags along.  After assessing the situation and seeing all of the strange things in the pit, including the very unique and obvious spacecraft, Breene concludes that the whole thing is a propaganda relic from the Germans as a result of them knowing that they were losing the war.  

He’s unwilling to believe that there is more to it and all of the strange events and things found were all manufactured according to his expertise.  He conducts a gathering of the press to the ship, arrogantly trying to prove his theory that it is of no danger.  In the process, he accidentally aids in unleashing the trigger and the alien spirits to attack London.

Every good sci-fi mystery needs a Colonel Breen.  Even Though the character is a cliché, he is most enjoyable and a formidable challenge because he is always looking for the practical answer, which is in direct contrast to Quatermass who accurately surmised the unexpected theories he does.

These are excellent challenges.

Empathy:

The empathy takes a little while to build as the film takes it’s time to set up the plot.  There is a lot happening so you don’t get to know the characters very much.  However, if you are very familiar with Professor Quatermass and his other media productions, you are already predisposed to empathy because you are aware that he has been through so much with aliens in his past and he knows things about them that most people wouldn’t connect.  

For first time viewers of anything with Quatermass in it, it’s a bit tougher.  But we do learn when we meet him that he has some moral high ground because he doesn’t want his work to be used for war.  

Up until then it was a little uncertain who the main character was because the film unfolds the mystery of the aliens as if we were one of the characters in the film, learning new things as we go along.  I really like that kind of storytelling because I want to be immersed in the story.  I want to make friends with the characters and struggle with them and I feel as if I got to do that with this.

Quatermass is a very straightforward character in the film.  He’s serious and all about his work.  There’s a lot of pretty incredibly whacky set of events happening all through this film so his dedication to being serious was a heavy dose of credibility for me.  That was cherry on top because he is our rock in all of this.  

He delivers a lot of exposition, but again, he knows a lot about aliens because he has battled them before.

He is the man of the hour with all of the answers but the other two heroes of the film, Doctor Roney and Barbara Judd, round out empathy.  

Barbara Judd is actually a pretty incredible character digging up Hobbs Lane news articles of supernatural events and tying them to the pit.  Even Quartermass didn’t think her contribution was important until she insisted he consider it.  She has a wonderful sense of excitement for her work and solving this mystery.  Again, credibility was the anchor here and I think that is why I enjoyed this character so much.  She actually cares about her work and sticks to Quatermass like glue because she wants answers and he’s the only one who's got a clue.

I also loved the fact that she was a character that had no stereotypes.  You could change her gender or race and nothing would fundamentally change about the story.

She is a beautiful woman and there is some incredible chemistry going on between the Quatermass and Judd.  It’s easy to imagine them in a romantic way, but it’s not explored in the film which I liked a lot.  I think this is also due to Quatermass’ intensity.  His character wouldn’t engage in such nonsense as romance while there was such a threat to humanity.  I wish more films had taken such a serious tone, when it comes to life and death situations and I really appreciated the focus these characters have.  I believed their situation and I rooted for them.

Their working relationship is very comfortable as a team, splendidly combining their efforts to uncover what is going on.  That was so well done as each one gets a chance to shine on their own to affect the story.

Doctor Roney is an important character that seems like a side character in the beginning.   He is instrumental in telling us a lot about the skeletons that were found but he fades into the background by the middle of the film.  

Later, when the aliens activate all of the humans with their psychic trigger to cleanse the hive, he pops up, saves Quatermass from being swept up in the massacre, he comes up with the idea to use iron to kill the mega alien spirit that emerges in the end, he devises a way to do it with a crane, and he sacrifices his life to save London… and perhaps the world.  

My only criticism about the character is that I would have loved it if we had more of him throughout the film. He’s a courageous and sophisticated character that captivated some of the best scenes in the film.  

More Doctor Roney please!

Technical:

The production had 3 months of filming at MGM Borehamwood studio instead of Hammer studios because they were all booked.  The crew had full access to the facilities of MGM and extensively used the backlot for the exteriors of the Underground station because there were no other movies being filmed there at the time.

This is where all of the underground train tunnel scenes were shot.  The set design was excellently done and gave the film a great deal of authenticity.  The streets of the lot were used for the destruction of Hobbs Lane and it surprised me as to how good it looked, giving the scenes a feel of massive destruction.  Spliced in there were some really awesome miniatures, which I absolutely loved seeing in this, detailing London’s destruction even further.  

The ideas for the alien design were pretty good and the quality of the props were definitely a product of its time.  For 1967, it was pretty good and extremely creative.  The first visual of the aliens on their ship in their crystalline quadrants was very unique and bold for the time.  I loved it.

During the film, the ship triggers Barbara Judd’s ancient gene memories, in which Quatermass and Doctor Roney hook her up to a machine to record them.  This visual scene of her memories was of an army of insectoid aliens carrying out a raid on a competing hive on Mars.  

I love this kind of stuff and I thought it was brave for the filmmakers to attempt to visually tell this part of the story.  I am sure many small kids seeing this movie in the 1960’s might have been totally freaked out by this and it speaks of much more innocent times.  It’s great.

I also loved the fact that it was cloaked by glitches and video static giving it a freaky realism.  Again, so clever and creative.  This was so well done.

We can thank special effects supervisor Les Bowie for this scene, using a combination of puppets and actual live locusts.

I also enjoyed a lot of the low tech effects like the giant spirit alien at the end of the film looming over the buildings.  It was so simple and the audience understood what was happening.  It’s wild and freaky, but it reads accurately.  Yes, there is a spirit of the alien energy looming over the city as it’s controlling the chaos!

Tristram Cary provided the unique score for Quatermass and the Pit using a mixture of orchestral melodies and electronic music that was only about 30 minutes in total.  There was a lot of silence for the audio background in the film.  

Cary became interested in electronic music while serving in the Royal Navy as an electronics expert working on radar.

Cary said of his work on this movie, "The main use of electronics in Quatermass, I think, was the violent shaking, vibrating sound that the "thing in the tunnel" gave off ... It was not a terribly challenging sound to do, though I never played it very loud because I didn't want to destroy my speakers—I did have hopes of destroying a few cinema loudspeaker systems, though it never happened".

The music was reminiscent of the "electronic tonalities" used in the movie Forbidden Planet 1956, in the way it was abstract and alarming.

There were moments where the mood could be described as anxious, unyielding, and agitated.  Many critics mentioned how it was unpleasant, but I enjoyed it, knowing exactly what kind of tone it was building.

Performances:

Hammer regular and Scottish actor Andrew Keir was chosen to carry the film playing Quatermass. Andrew was incredible in the role, centering the events with credibility.  He really made me a fan of Quatermass and curious about this character.  

Notwithstanding getting along well with the crew, during the entire shoot, Andrew was under the belief that the director wanted a different actor for the role and it ruined his experience on the project.  

Ever the professional, no one knew of this on set and we don’t see it on screen.

When asked about this, Roy Ward Baker said he had no idea of this and praised his performance. 

Nevertheless, he was outstanding and as a result, this is Nigel Kneale’s favorite "Quatermass" film, because of Andrew's performance. 

 Andrew went on to  reprise the role of Quatermass for BBC Radio 3 in The Quatermass Memoirs (1996).

Barbara Shelley gave an incredible performance as Barbara Judd.  Wow!  She was fantastic, giving Judd an endearing professional intensity.  She gave Judd a heart of kindness and you can see it in the way she nurtures the other characters.  She also had to play a wide array of emotions of being horrified by the alien visions and then later being a drone under their control.  Not to mention how physical she was in the film to perform much of the action. Her character at one point had to be punched in the face by Quatermass.  I really hope that was faked.

I am not surprised to learn that Shelley appeared in many Hammer films in the 1950’s and 1960’s, with this film being her last film with the studio.  I am also not surprised that Baker mentioned that he was in love with her as they would waltz on set on occasion.  In fact after seeing some pretty cool behind the scenes photos of her, she seemed to have a wonderful energy of joy.

Julian Glover plays Colonel Breen.  We may be more familiar with seeing him in movies like Star Wars:Empire Strikes Back 1980 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989.  In all of these movies he’s playing the same type of military straight man.  He’s just so good at it, but of all the roles I mentioned, he was really able to flesh out this character a little more.  Colonel Breen thinks he’s saving the world and doing the best thing for his nation.  He’s incorrect, but he doesn’t know it and there is something about that kind of villain that you can feel just a little sorry for.  

One of my favorite scenes he’s in is during his first encounter with Quatermass where they are pretty much bantering back and forth.  As a peace offering Breen smiles and invites Quatermass to dinner.  I was really impressed with how he delivered that line and how he can shift the mood in just seconds.

What a great performance with so much nuance!

Enjoyment:

The television series ends with Quatermass giving earthlings a warning.  However, this film ends with a very bizarre image of Quatermass and Judd silently stunned by the events that have just transpired as the credits roll. The two of them barely want to make eye contact as the city ruins are splayed about.  It’s a tragically awkward moment, but also appropriate for what they just endured.

Quatermass and the Pit premiered on November 9, 1967 and was also put in a double feature with Circus of Fear for many of the showings.  The film had good reviews when it opened and still, to this day, gets good reviews by modern reviewers, which is really rare.  Most people seem to like it.

The film was a success for Hammer and the Quatermass legacy continued on with Quatermass (1979) in a four-part TV series, and The Quatermass Conclusion (1979) movie version of that TV series.

Out of new ideas, there was a remake of the 1953 TV series, The Quatermass Experiment (2005).

The series has also been responsible for inspiring many creatives such as writer Stephen King, Tobe Hooper and the film director John Carpenter.

It was also among the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in the year 2000 by the British Film Institute.

I really wouldn’t even be reviewing this movie because I didn’t know it existed.  I have one of my awesome Patreon supporters and YouTube subscribers, Peter, to thank for introducing me to this.  He was the first person to suggest it to me.  Peter, thank you so much!  

Then a few subscribers mentioned it to me like Luke and Thrashpondo Pons.  I hope I am pronouncing that correctly, but forgive me if I am not.  Thank you so much.  I am enlightened and I enjoyed the journey of learning about the existence and history of the Quatermass legacy.

Being American, I had never heard of Quatermass and this fascinates me that there are so many movies that I have yet to learn about.  Quatermass impresses me  because this character is a lot like Indiana Jones. I can totally see a juiced up modern day version of him fighting aliens in a more modern film as a combination of James Bond and Neil deGrasse Tyson globe-trotting around the world with his invented gadgets saving the world.  I nominate Ewan McGregor or Idris Elba.  What do you think about that?

In this film, what is striking about Quatermass is his sincerity and passion for his work.  I am astounded by his knowledge and theories about the aliens he encounters.

When I saw this for the first time it was so satisfying to see a psychological sci-fi thriller that was so efficient and had such a wide scope.  I was in love immediately because the implications of the storyline was specifically broad, diving into real life historical references.  That opens up so much more behind the story than what you see in the film.

The aliens are the real star of the film terrorizing these poor people with their excellent 5 million year master plan to take over the planet.  Talk about thorough.  Their life on Mars and culture of war is also another avenue of depth that the film only touches upon, leaving so much more to the imagination. 

The way the story is written, the audience is taken for a wild ride of events and legitimately creepy concepts that are likely to keep you up all night being freaked out by every strange sound or flicker of light.

Yeah, it is powerful in that way, without using jump scares.  This kind of scare is gradual, as the mind begins to race with thoughts in a dark bedroom.  

This was a real retro treat for me.

My Rating:

8.9

That sums up my review.  I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!

Take care movie lovers!  I'm off to the next review!

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