Quatermass 2
Encyclopedia
Quatermass 2 is a 1957 British science fiction
horror film
. Made by Hammer Film Productions
, it is a sequel
to an earlier Hammer film The Quatermass Xperiment
. Like its predecessor, it is based on a BBC Television
serial – Quatermass II
– written by Nigel Kneale
. It was directed by Val Guest
and stars Brian Donlevy
reprising his role as the eponymous Professor Bernard Quatermass
, making him the only actor to play the character on screen twice. John Longden
, Sid James
, Bryan Forbes
, William Franklyn
and Vera Day appear in supporting roles.
The plot concerns Quatermass' investigation of reports of strange meteorite
showers in England. His inquires lead him to a huge industrial plant, strikingly similar to his own plans for a Moon colony
. This top-secret plant is in fact the centre of a conspiracy
involving alien
infiltration of the highest echelons of the British Government. Quatermass struggles to convince a sceptical public of the threat before it is too late.
The first Quatermass film had been a major success for Hammer and, eager for a sequel, they purchased the rights to Nigel Kneale's follow up before the BBC had even begun transmission of the new serial. For this adaptation, Nigel Kneale himself was allowed to write the first draft of the screenplay, although subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Guest. The plot is a condensed but largely faithful retelling of the original television serial. The main difference between the two versions is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass blasts off in a rocket to confront the aliens in outer space
whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, to destroy the aliens' asteroid base. Returning director Val Guest once again employed many cinema vérité
techniques in order to present the fantastic elements of the plot with the greatest degree of realism
. Nigel Kneale was critical of the final film, mainly on account of the return of Brian Donlevy in the lead role. Kneale was unhappy with Donlevy's interpretation of the character and also claimed the actor's performance was marred by his alcoholism
, a claim repudiated by Val Guest.
Although Quatermass 2 was financially successful, its box office performance was eclipsed by the massive success of another Hammer film, The Curse of Frankenstein, which was to be the first of their many Gothic
horror films. As a result, it would be ten years before Hammer adapted the next Quatermass serial for the cinema with Quatermass and the Pit
in 1967. Quatermass 2 was, however, the first film Hammer pre-sold the distribution rights in the United States, a financial model that would quickly become the norm for subsequent Hammer productions.
) struggles to gain Government support for his plans for the colonisation of the Moon, he becomes interested in reports of meteorite
s landing in an area known as Winnerden Flats. Travelling to the area with his colleague, Marsh (Bryan Forbes
), Quatermass is astounded to find a huge complex under construction, apparently based on his plans for a Moon colony. Marsh finds one of the meteorites, which cracks open leaving him injured with a V-shaped mark on his face. Armed guards from the plant, who are sporting similar V-shaped marks, arrive and take Marsh away. Quatermass is knocked down and ordered away by men with machine guns.
Trying to discover what is going on at the plant and what has happened to Marsh, Quatermass contacts Inspector Lomax (John Longden
), the police officer who assisted him in The Quatermass Xperiment. Lomax puts him in touch with Vincent Broadhead (Tom Chatto), a Member of Parliament
who has been trying to uncover the veil of secrecy surrounding Winnerden Flats. Quatermass joins Broadhead on an official tour of the complex, which, he is told, has been built to manufacture artificial food. Slipping away from the visiting party, Broadhead attempts to get inside one of the large domes that dominate the plant's skyline. Quatermass finds him dying, covered in a poisonous black slime.
Shot at by guards as he exits the plant, Quatermass returns to Lomax, explaining that he believes that plant is indeed making food, but not for human consumption. Instead its purpose is to provide a suitable environment for alien creatures that are inside the great domes. Lomax attempts to alert his superiors but when he meets the Commissioner of Police, he notices he too is sporting the V-shaped mark. The aliens have taken control of the government.
Quatermass and Lomax turn instead to the press, in the form of journalist Jimmy Hall (Sid James
). Hall is sceptical of their story and asks to visit Winnerden Flats himself. They visit the local community centre where they receive a hostile reception from the locals employed to do the building work at the plant. However, the mood changes when one of the meteorites crashes through the roof of the building and injures barmaid Sheila (Vera Day). Armed guards from the plant arrive and gun down Hall when he telephones the press about what is going on. The villagers form a mob and march on the plant. Rushing the gates, Quatermass, Lomax and the villagers barricade themselves into the pressure control room.
Realising that the Earth's atmosphere must be poisonous to the creatures, Quatermass sabotages their life support system, pumping oxygen
into the domes. Simultaneously, Quatermass' assistant, Brand (William Franklyn
) sacrifices his life to launch the Quatermass 2 rocket at an asteroid
in Earth's shadow that they believe the aliens are using to stage their invasion. The creatures can amalgamate and create 150-foot high monsters that burst from the domes and run amok. The rocket strikes the asteroid, destroying it in a nuclear explosion
. Their base gone, the giant creatures die and the V-shaped marks disappear from those affected, leaving them with no memory of having been under alien control. Once again Quatermass has saved the Earth from a malign alien intelligence.
. Kneale refused permission to use Quatermass, however, but the film went ahead nonetheless with a newly created scientist character, very much in the Quatermass mould, played by Dean Jagger
, and was released in 1956. In the meantime, Kneale had written a new Quatermass serial for the BBC, titled Quatermass II, which was broadcast on BBC Television in October and November 1955. Hammer secured the rights to make a film adaptation of Quatermass II in September 1955, before the television version had even been transmitted.
, partly because he received no extra remuneration from the sale of the film rights and partly because of the changes made in the film to his original television script. In the wake of his dissatisfaction, Kneale exerted pressure on the BBC to allow him to be more involved in the sale of the rights to his work. Despite being in the final months of his BBC contract, Kneale was allowed to collaborate with Hammer on the adaptation of Quatermass II. The first draft of the screenplay was written by Kneale with input from producer Anthony Hinds
. Subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Guest, as he had done before on The Quatermass Xperiment. Guest recalled of Kneale's script that there was “lots of philosophising and very down-to-earth thinking but it was too long, it would not have held screenwise. So, again, I had to tailor it and sharpen it and hopefully not ruin it”. The script was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors
(BBFC) in April 1956. BBFC reader Audrey Field commented, “There should be the customary general caution that the sky is not the limit, either in sights or sounds”. The BBFC's main objection was to a scene in which a guard from the Winnerden Flats complex murders a family having a picnic. This scene was omitted from the final film, although it is present in the original television presentation.
As with The Quatermass Xperiment, the screenplay for Quatermass 2 condenses many of the events of the original. The most significant change is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass and his assistant, Pugh, use Quatermass' rocket to travel to the asteroid to take on the aliens on their home turf whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, at the asteroid to destroy it. Several characters from the television version do not appear in the film, most notably Quatermass' daughter, Paula, and his assistant, Leo Pugh. Conversely, the character of Inspector Lomax reappears in the film version, having previously been in The Quatermass Xperiment, but does not appear in the television version. The character of Sheila the barmaid also appears only in the film version.
Other actors appearing in the film include Charles Lloyd Pack
, Tom Chatto
, John Van Eyssen
, Percy Herbert
, Michael Ripper
and John Rae.
, who had directed The Quatermass Xperiment, returned for Quatermass 2. Guest once again sought to create a film that felt as real as possible, using many cinema vérité
techniques such as hand-held camera
s. He was assisted in this respect by the moody, overcast cinematography of director of photography Gerald Gibbs; Gibbs also made extensive use of day for night
photography for the film's climactic scenes. Guest planned each days’ shooting carefully, creating meticulous storyboard
s detailing all the shots he wanted to make that day.
Filming took place between 28 May and 13 July 1956. The film's budget, at £92,000, was much larger than that of The Quatermass Xperiment. The bigger budget was achieved by the advance sale of the distribution rights in the United States to United Artists
. United Artists contributed some £64,000 towards the production of the film as well as Brian Donlevy's $25,000 fee and his airfare to London from the US. The larger budget allowed for greater use of location filming
in the making of the film than had been possible for its predecessor. The key location used was the oil refinery
at Shell Haven
in Stanford-le-Hope
which doubled as the secret Winerton Flats complex. This was the exact same location used in the BBC television production of the story. Despite its size, the plant was run by a relatively small number of personnel; this made Guest's job of making the plant appear eerily deserted easier. Guest was also surprised at how relaxed the plant's management were about allowing him to stage the climactic gun battle at such a potentially flammable location. Focus puller
Harry Oakes recalled, however, that a Newman-Sinclair clockwork
camera had to be used for some scenes because of the danger posed by sparks from electrical equipment. The scenes of Vincent Broadhead emerging from one of the domes covered in the noxious black slime were particularly difficult to realise, necessitating many retakes. Tom Chatto, playing Broadhead, whose wife was a leading casting director, joked after the scene was finally completed, “Remind me to talk to my wife about casting me in this”. The Shell Haven location was further enhanced by the use of matte painting
s created by special effects designer Les Bowie
to add the giant domes within which the aliens were incubated.
Other locations used included the real-life new town
of Hemel Hempstead
, Hertfordshire
, which was under construction at the time and doubled for the fictional new town of Winerton Flats. Other scenes were shot in London
including Trafalgar Square
, where the police agreed to hold up the traffic for just two minutes to allow Guest take shots of trucks ferrying equipment through London to Winnerden Flats, and in the foyer of the House of Lords
for the scene where Quatermass first meets Vincent Broadhead. The climactic scenes of the hurricane caused by the explosion of the Winnderden Flats complex was shot on the South Downs
near Brighton
. A minor mishap occurred during the filming of this scene when the wind machines blew Brian Donlevy's toupee
off his head and the crew had to chase after it. As well as shooting on location, Guest and his crew made use of Stages 2 and 5 of the New Elstree Studios, the first Hammer production to shoot there. This was production designer Bernard Robinson
's first film for Hammer; he went on to become their regular set designer, working on many Hammer films.
, following on 24 May 1957. It went on general release, with supporting feature And God Created Woman
on 17 June 1957. The film received an ‘X’ Certificate from the BBFC. It was released in the United States under the title Enemy From Space.
Quatermass 2 received mixed reviews on release. Campbell Dixon, in The Daily Telegraph
found the film “all good grisly fun, if this is the sort of thing you enjoy”. The reviewer in The Times
remarked, “the writer of the original story, Mr Nigel Kneale, and the director, Mr Val Guest, between them keep things moving at the right speed, without digressions. The film has an air of respect for the issues touched on, and this impression is confirmed by the acting generally”. On the other hand, Jympson Harman of the Evening News wrote, “Science-fiction hokum can be convincing, exciting or just plain laughable. Quatermass II [sic] fails on all these scores, I am afraid”. Similarly, the reviewer in the Daily Herald felt, “The whole thing is daft and full of stilted dialogue. [...] At the end a detective says: “How am I going to make a report on all this?” I felt the same way”.
(broadcast December 1958 to January 1959), Hammer did not acquire the rights until 1961 and the film version
did not appear until 1967. Quatermass 2 is notable, however, for being the first film Hammer pre-sold to a major US distributor, in this case United Artists. This new finance and distribution deal would become the norm for subsequent Hammer films and led to them eventually winding down their own distribution arm, Exclusive Films, in the mid-1960s.
Critical opinion of Quatermass 2 in the years since its release remains divided. Writing in Science Fiction in the Cinema, John Baxter
found the film “a faithful but ponderous adaptation of Kneale's TV sequel. There are effective sequences, director Guest and cameraman Gerald Gibbs shooting with light lancing up through the shadows in a manner reminiscent of Jacques Tourneur
's Night (or Curse) of the Demon
. Otherwise the film is indifferent”. Similarly, John Brosnan
, in his book The Primal Screen wrote, “Quatermass 2 isn't as good as the first one, despite a bigger budget. Again the theme is possession (all four Quatermass stories are variations on the same theme) with Kneale again cleverly mixing sf with the supernatural. The alien invasion may be sf but it is presented with the trappings of traditional horror, such as the V-shaped “mark of the devil” that all possessed people display”. On the other hand, Bill Warren
, in Keep Watching The Skies! found Quatermass 2 to be “one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. It is not notably better than [The Quatermass Xperiment], but the story idea is more involving, the production is livelier and there are more events in the unfolding of the story”. Kim Newman
in 1986 praised the film as “extraordinary” and, comparing it to Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1956), Newman notes that while Don Siegel
’s film is “a general allegory” about dehumanisation and conformity, Quatermass 2 is “a specific attack on the Conservative Government
of the time, down to the inclusion of several characters obviously based on real political figures”.
The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, mentions on the DVD commentary for the First Series, that during the scene where Benjamin phones Barbara to arrange an exit from Royston Vasey, two workmen who have been abducted by Tubs and Edward escape, covered in tar, was inspired by a scene during which Vincent Broadhead is covered in "Synthetic Food" from one of the storage tanks.
by DD Video in 2003. It contained a number of extra features including a commentary by director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale as well as an interview with Val Guest and a trailer from the United States for Enemy From Space, as the film was known there.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
. Made by Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
, it is a sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to an earlier Hammer film The Quatermass Xperiment
The Quatermass Xperiment
The Quatermass Xperiment is a 1955 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions, it was based on the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment written by Nigel Kneale. It was directed by Val Guest and stars Brian Donlevy as the eponymous Professor Bernard...
. Like its predecessor, it is based on a BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
serial – Quatermass II
Quatermass II
Quatermass II is a British science-fiction serial, originally broadcast by BBC Television in the autumn of 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel Kneale, and the first of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives...
– written by Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter from the Isle of Man. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Film Award for Best Screenplay...
. It was directed by Val Guest
Val Guest
Val Guest was a British film director, best known for his science-fiction films for Hammer Film Productions in the 1950s, but who also enjoyed a long, varied and active career in the film industry from the early 1930s up until the early 1980s.-Early life and career:He was born Valmond Maurice...
and stars Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...
reprising his role as the eponymous Professor Bernard Quatermass
Bernard Quatermass
Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist, originally created by the writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading up the British Experimental Rocket Group...
, making him the only actor to play the character on screen twice. John Longden
John Longden
John Longden was a West Indian-born English film actor. He appeared in 84 films between 1926 and 1964, including five films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.-Biography:...
, Sid James
Sid James
Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
, Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...
, William Franklyn
William Franklyn
William Leo Franklyn was a British actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973...
and Vera Day appear in supporting roles.
The plot concerns Quatermass' investigation of reports of strange meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
showers in England. His inquires lead him to a huge industrial plant, strikingly similar to his own plans for a Moon colony
Colonization of the Moon
The colonization of the Moon is the proposed establishment of permanent human communities on the Moon. Advocates of space exploration have seen settlement of the Moon as a logical step in the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth. Recent indication that water might be present in noteworthy...
. This top-secret plant is in fact the centre of a conspiracy
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
involving alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
infiltration of the highest echelons of the British Government. Quatermass struggles to convince a sceptical public of the threat before it is too late.
The first Quatermass film had been a major success for Hammer and, eager for a sequel, they purchased the rights to Nigel Kneale's follow up before the BBC had even begun transmission of the new serial. For this adaptation, Nigel Kneale himself was allowed to write the first draft of the screenplay, although subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Guest. The plot is a condensed but largely faithful retelling of the original television serial. The main difference between the two versions is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass blasts off in a rocket to confront the aliens in outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, to destroy the aliens' asteroid base. Returning director Val Guest once again employed many cinema vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
techniques in order to present the fantastic elements of the plot with the greatest degree of realism
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
. Nigel Kneale was critical of the final film, mainly on account of the return of Brian Donlevy in the lead role. Kneale was unhappy with Donlevy's interpretation of the character and also claimed the actor's performance was marred by his alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, a claim repudiated by Val Guest.
Although Quatermass 2 was financially successful, its box office performance was eclipsed by the massive success of another Hammer film, The Curse of Frankenstein, which was to be the first of their many Gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
horror films. As a result, it would be ten years before Hammer adapted the next Quatermass serial for the cinema with Quatermass and the Pit
Quatermass and the Pit (film)
Quatermass and the Pit is a 1967 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions it is a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors it is based on a BBC Television serial – Quatermass and the Pit – written by Nigel Kneale...
in 1967. Quatermass 2 was, however, the first film Hammer pre-sold the distribution rights in the United States, a financial model that would quickly become the norm for subsequent Hammer productions.
Plot
As Quatermass (Brian DonlevyBrian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...
) struggles to gain Government support for his plans for the colonisation of the Moon, he becomes interested in reports of meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
s landing in an area known as Winnerden Flats. Travelling to the area with his colleague, Marsh (Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...
), Quatermass is astounded to find a huge complex under construction, apparently based on his plans for a Moon colony. Marsh finds one of the meteorites, which cracks open leaving him injured with a V-shaped mark on his face. Armed guards from the plant, who are sporting similar V-shaped marks, arrive and take Marsh away. Quatermass is knocked down and ordered away by men with machine guns.
Trying to discover what is going on at the plant and what has happened to Marsh, Quatermass contacts Inspector Lomax (John Longden
John Longden
John Longden was a West Indian-born English film actor. He appeared in 84 films between 1926 and 1964, including five films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.-Biography:...
), the police officer who assisted him in The Quatermass Xperiment. Lomax puts him in touch with Vincent Broadhead (Tom Chatto), a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
who has been trying to uncover the veil of secrecy surrounding Winnerden Flats. Quatermass joins Broadhead on an official tour of the complex, which, he is told, has been built to manufacture artificial food. Slipping away from the visiting party, Broadhead attempts to get inside one of the large domes that dominate the plant's skyline. Quatermass finds him dying, covered in a poisonous black slime.
Shot at by guards as he exits the plant, Quatermass returns to Lomax, explaining that he believes that plant is indeed making food, but not for human consumption. Instead its purpose is to provide a suitable environment for alien creatures that are inside the great domes. Lomax attempts to alert his superiors but when he meets the Commissioner of Police, he notices he too is sporting the V-shaped mark. The aliens have taken control of the government.
Quatermass and Lomax turn instead to the press, in the form of journalist Jimmy Hall (Sid James
Sid James
Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
). Hall is sceptical of their story and asks to visit Winnerden Flats himself. They visit the local community centre where they receive a hostile reception from the locals employed to do the building work at the plant. However, the mood changes when one of the meteorites crashes through the roof of the building and injures barmaid Sheila (Vera Day). Armed guards from the plant arrive and gun down Hall when he telephones the press about what is going on. The villagers form a mob and march on the plant. Rushing the gates, Quatermass, Lomax and the villagers barricade themselves into the pressure control room.
Realising that the Earth's atmosphere must be poisonous to the creatures, Quatermass sabotages their life support system, pumping oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
into the domes. Simultaneously, Quatermass' assistant, Brand (William Franklyn
William Franklyn
William Leo Franklyn was a British actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973...
) sacrifices his life to launch the Quatermass 2 rocket at an asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
in Earth's shadow that they believe the aliens are using to stage their invasion. The creatures can amalgamate and create 150-foot high monsters that burst from the domes and run amok. The rocket strikes the asteroid, destroying it in a nuclear explosion
Nuclear explosion
A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion based weapons have used a fission device...
. Their base gone, the giant creatures die and the V-shaped marks disappear from those affected, leaving them with no memory of having been under alien control. Once again Quatermass has saved the Earth from a malign alien intelligence.
Origins
The Quatermass Xperiment had been a major success for Hammer Films upon its release in 1955, becoming the company's biggest grossing film up to that time. Hammer quickly moved to capitalise on this success with a sequel. They approached Quatermass' creator, Nigel Kneale, with a proposal for a new Quatermass story to be titled X the UnknownX the Unknown
X the Unknown is a British science-fiction / horror film made by the Hammer Films company and released in 1956.-Production:The film was originally intended by Hammer to be a sequel to the previous year's successful The Quatermass Xperiment, but writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the...
. Kneale refused permission to use Quatermass, however, but the film went ahead nonetheless with a newly created scientist character, very much in the Quatermass mould, played by Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
, and was released in 1956. In the meantime, Kneale had written a new Quatermass serial for the BBC, titled Quatermass II, which was broadcast on BBC Television in October and November 1955. Hammer secured the rights to make a film adaptation of Quatermass II in September 1955, before the television version had even been transmitted.
Writing
Nigel Kneale had been unhappy with Hammer's adaptation of The Quatermass ExperimentThe Quatermass Experiment
The Quatermass Experiment is a British science-fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television in the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it tells the story of the first manned flight into space, overseen by...
, partly because he received no extra remuneration from the sale of the film rights and partly because of the changes made in the film to his original television script. In the wake of his dissatisfaction, Kneale exerted pressure on the BBC to allow him to be more involved in the sale of the rights to his work. Despite being in the final months of his BBC contract, Kneale was allowed to collaborate with Hammer on the adaptation of Quatermass II. The first draft of the screenplay was written by Kneale with input from producer Anthony Hinds
Anthony Hinds
Anthony Hinds , aka Tony Hinds, aka John Elder, is a British screenwriter and producer. He is the son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions, William Hinds.-Early life:Tony Hinds was educated at St Paul's School...
. Subsequent drafts were worked on by director Val Guest, as he had done before on The Quatermass Xperiment. Guest recalled of Kneale's script that there was “lots of philosophising and very down-to-earth thinking but it was too long, it would not have held screenwise. So, again, I had to tailor it and sharpen it and hopefully not ruin it”. The script was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
(BBFC) in April 1956. BBFC reader Audrey Field commented, “There should be the customary general caution that the sky is not the limit, either in sights or sounds”. The BBFC's main objection was to a scene in which a guard from the Winnerden Flats complex murders a family having a picnic. This scene was omitted from the final film, although it is present in the original television presentation.
As with The Quatermass Xperiment, the screenplay for Quatermass 2 condenses many of the events of the original. The most significant change is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass and his assistant, Pugh, use Quatermass' rocket to travel to the asteroid to take on the aliens on their home turf whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, at the asteroid to destroy it. Several characters from the television version do not appear in the film, most notably Quatermass' daughter, Paula, and his assistant, Leo Pugh. Conversely, the character of Inspector Lomax reappears in the film version, having previously been in The Quatermass Xperiment, but does not appear in the television version. The character of Sheila the barmaid also appears only in the film version.
Casting
- Brian DonlevyBrian DonlevyBrian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...
as Quatermass: Donlevy reprised his role as the eponymous professor, much to the despair of Nigel Kneale, who had heavily criticised his interpretation of the role in The Quatermass Xperiment. As had been the case on The Quatermass Xperiment, Donlevy's alcoholismAlcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
presented challenges for the production. Nigel Kneale recalled visiting the set one day: “He [Donlevy] was so full of whiskey he could hardly stand up. He staggered over to the set and looked dazedly around. They held up an idiot boardCue cardCue cards, also known as note cards or idiot cards, are cards with words written on them that help actors and speakers remember what they have to say. They are typically used in television productions where they can be held off-camera and are unseen by the audience...
with his lines on and he said, “What's this movie called?” and they said, “Well, it's called Quatermass 2”. He said, “I've got to say all that? There's too much talk. Cut down some of the talk”. He tried to read it and he had to have go after go after go, so crippled with drink he hardly knew who he was”. Val Guest has refuted Kneale's claims saying, “So many stories have been concocted since, about how he was paralytic [drunk]. It's absolute balls, because he was not paralytic. He wasn't stone cold sober either, but he was a pro and he knew his lines”. Guest also recalled, “By after lunch he would come to be and say “Give me a breakdown of the story so far. Where have I just been before this scene?” We used to feed him black coffee all morning but then we discovered he was lacing it. But he was a very professional actor and very easy to work with”.
- John LongdenJohn LongdenJohn Longden was a West Indian-born English film actor. He appeared in 84 films between 1926 and 1964, including five films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.-Biography:...
as Inspector Lomax: The role of Lomax had originally been played by Jack WarnerJack Warner (actor)Jack Warner OBE was an English film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played until the age of eighty....
in The Quatermass Xperiment. When Warner proved unavailable for the sequel, the role was recast and the part given to John Longden. Longden had been a major star of British silent filmSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s and had also appeared in several early Alfred HitchcockAlfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
films including BlackmailBlackmail (1929 film)Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard, and featuring Donald Calthrop, Sara Allgood and Charles Paton. The film is based on the play Blackmail by Charles Bennett, as adapted by Hitchcock, with dialogue by...
(1929), Elstree CallingElstree CallingElstree Calling is a film directed by Andre Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, and Alfred Hitchcock at Elstree Studios. The film, referred to as "A Cine-Radio Revue" in its original publicity, is a lavish musical film revue and was Britain's answer to the Hollywood revues which had been produced...
(1930) and The Skin Game (1931). Nigel Kneale greatly preferred Longden's authoritative take on the character to Jack Warner's more comedic “breezy sergeant” in the first film.
- Sid JamesSid JamesSid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
as Jimmy Hall (credited as "Sydney James"): At the time, James was known as a character actor, specialising mainly in “tough guy” roles, with credits in films such as No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948), The Lavender Hill MobThe Lavender Hill MobThe Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T.E.B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass...
(1951) and Hell DriversHell Drivers (film)Hell Drivers is a 1957 British film directed by Cy Endfield starring Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan and Sean Connery, produced by the Rank Organisation and Aqua Film Productions.-Plot:...
(1957). James plays the character of Jimmy Hall in a much more comedic manner than Roger DelgadoRoger DelgadoRoger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto was an English actor, best known for his role as the first Master in Doctor Who....
's interpretation of the journalist in the television version; Guest cast James in order to “lighten the story a bit”. He later went on to enjoy widespread fame in many comedy roles including Hancock's Half HourHancock's Half HourHancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy, series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr...
(1956–60), the Carry On series of films and sitcoms such as George and the Dragon (1966) Two In CloverTwo In CloverTwo in Clover is a British sitcom that ran for two series from 1969 to 1970. It starred Sid James and Victor Spinetti and was written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, and produced and directed by Alan Tarrant...
(1969–70) and Bless This House (1971–76).
- Bryan ForbesBryan ForbesBryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...
as Marsh: Forbes had appeared in a number of supporting roles in films, including The Small Back RoomThe Small Back RoomThe Small Back Room is a film by the British producer-writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring David Farrar and Kathleen Byron and featuring Jack Hawkins and Cyril Cusack. It was based on the novel of the same name by Nigel Balchin...
(1949), An Inspector Calls (1954) and The Colditz StoryThe Colditz StoryThe Colditz Story is a 1955 prisoner of war film starring John Mills and Eric Portman and directed by Guy Hamilton.It is based on the book written by P.R...
(1955). However, he later became best known as a director with films such as Whistle Down the WindWhistle Down the Wind (film)Whistle Down the Wind is a 1961 British film, directed by Bryan Forbes, screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, from the novel by Mary Hayley Bell.-Plot:...
(1961), The L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama film, directed by Bryan Forbes, which tells the story of a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a London boarding house, befriending a young man in the building...
(1962) and The Stepford WivesThe Stepford Wives (1975 film)The Stepford Wives is a 1975 science fiction–thriller film based on the 1972 Ira Levin novel of the same name. It was directed by Bryan Forbes with a screenplay by William Goldman, and stars Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman and Tina Louise...
(1975) among his best known credits. Forbes later recalled of the film: “I was one of the people attacked by the alien pods. This pod exploded and I ended up with what was supposed to be a terrible alien growth on my face. Come lunchtime and we all went off to the pub. Of course, I couldn't take this stuff off, the makeup was too complex; the landlord refused to serve me.”
- William FranklynWilliam FranklynWilliam Leo Franklyn was a British actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973...
as Brand: Franklyn later became well known for his voiceoverVoiceOverVoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...
s for a series of advertisements for Schweppes tonic waterTonic waterTonic water is a carbonated soft drink in which quinine is dissolved. Originally used as a prophylactic against malaria, tonic water usually now has a significantly lower quinine content and is consumed for its distinctively bitter taste...
. In 2004, he took over from the late Peter JonesPeter Jones (actor)Peter Jones was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster.-Early life and career:Jones was born in Wem, Shropshire and he was educated at the Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College. He made his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory...
as the Voice of the Book in the radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
. He died in 2006.
- Vera DayVera Day-Selected filmography:* Dance Little Lady * The Crowded Day * It's a Great Day * Quatermass 2 * Hell Drivers 1957)* The Prince and the Showgirl * Too Many Crooks * And the Same to You...
as Sheila: Vera Day was first spotted by Val Guest in the musical Wish You Were HereWish You Were Here (musical)Wish You Were Here is a musical with a book by Arthur Kober and Joshua Logan and music and lyrics by Harold Rome. The musical was adapted from Kober's 1937 play, Having Wonderful Time, and revolves around a summer camp for adults.-Synopsis:...
at the London HippodromeHippodrome, LondonThe Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survivors...
. He subsequently cast her in Dance, Little LadyDance, Little LadyDance, Little Lady is a 1954 British film directed by Val Guest, and starring Terence Morgan, Mai Zetterling, Guy Rolfe and Mandy Miller.-Cast:* Terence Morgan as Mark Gordon* Mai Zetterling as Nina Gordon* Guy Rolfe as Dr. John Ransome...
(1955) and then Quatermass 2. She later appeared in Guest's Up the CreekUp the Creek (1958 film)Up the Creek is a 1958 British comedy film written and directed by Val Guest which starred David Tomlinson, Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Lodge and Lionel Jeffries.-Plot synopsis:...
(1958).
Other actors appearing in the film include Charles Lloyd Pack
Charles Lloyd Pack
Charles Lloyd-Pack was a British film, television and stage actor.He was born in London, England. He was seen in several horror movies produced by the Hammer Studios including Dracula, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, The Revenge of Frankenstein and The Reptile and Quatermass 2, the film version of...
, Tom Chatto
Tom Chatto
Tom Chatto was a British actor. He made some 28 appearances between 1957 and his death. Chatto appeared mostly in films, including Oscar Wilde in which he played the Clerk of Arraigns ....
, John Van Eyssen
John Van Eyssen
John Van Eyssen was a South African born actor, agent and executive...
, Percy Herbert
Percy Herbert (actor)
Percy Herbert was an English character actor who often played soldiers, most notably in The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Geese and Tunes of Glory. However, he was equally at home in comedies and science fiction...
, Michael Ripper
Michael Ripper
Michael Ripper was an English character actor born in Portsmouth.He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. He played one of the two murderers in Richard III. Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions...
and John Rae.
Filming
Val GuestVal Guest
Val Guest was a British film director, best known for his science-fiction films for Hammer Film Productions in the 1950s, but who also enjoyed a long, varied and active career in the film industry from the early 1930s up until the early 1980s.-Early life and career:He was born Valmond Maurice...
, who had directed The Quatermass Xperiment, returned for Quatermass 2. Guest once again sought to create a film that felt as real as possible, using many cinema vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
techniques such as hand-held camera
Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow...
s. He was assisted in this respect by the moody, overcast cinematography of director of photography Gerald Gibbs; Gibbs also made extensive use of day for night
Day for night
Day for night, also known as nuit américaine , is the name for cinematographic techniques used to simulate a night scene; such as using tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or with special blue filters and also under-exposing the shot to create the illusion of darkness or...
photography for the film's climactic scenes. Guest planned each days’ shooting carefully, creating meticulous storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
s detailing all the shots he wanted to make that day.
Filming took place between 28 May and 13 July 1956. The film's budget, at £92,000, was much larger than that of The Quatermass Xperiment. The bigger budget was achieved by the advance sale of the distribution rights in the United States to United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. United Artists contributed some £64,000 towards the production of the film as well as Brian Donlevy's $25,000 fee and his airfare to London from the US. The larger budget allowed for greater use of location filming
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
in the making of the film than had been possible for its predecessor. The key location used was the oil refinery
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
at Shell Haven
Shell Haven
Shell Haven was a port on the north bank of the Thames Estuary at the eastern end of Thurrock, Essex, England and then an oil refinery. The refinery closed in 1999 and the site was purchased by DP World who received planning consent in May 2007 for the new London Gateway deep water container port...
in Stanford-le-Hope
Stanford-le-Hope
Stanford-le-Hope is a town and Church of England parish situated in the county of Essex, England. The town is within the unitary authority of Thurrock and located 23.8 miles east of Charing Cross in London...
which doubled as the secret Winerton Flats complex. This was the exact same location used in the BBC television production of the story. Despite its size, the plant was run by a relatively small number of personnel; this made Guest's job of making the plant appear eerily deserted easier. Guest was also surprised at how relaxed the plant's management were about allowing him to stage the climactic gun battle at such a potentially flammable location. Focus puller
Focus puller
A focus puller, or 1st assistant cameraman, is a member of a film crew’s camera department whose primary responsibility is to maintain image sharpness on whatever subject or action is being filmed....
Harry Oakes recalled, however, that a Newman-Sinclair clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
camera had to be used for some scenes because of the danger posed by sparks from electrical equipment. The scenes of Vincent Broadhead emerging from one of the domes covered in the noxious black slime were particularly difficult to realise, necessitating many retakes. Tom Chatto, playing Broadhead, whose wife was a leading casting director, joked after the scene was finally completed, “Remind me to talk to my wife about casting me in this”. The Shell Haven location was further enhanced by the use of matte painting
Matte painting
A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit. Historically, matte painters and film technicians have used various techniques...
s created by special effects designer Les Bowie
Les Bowie
Les Bowie was a Canadian-born special effects artist working mainly in Britain.Bowie began his career as a matte painter at in 1946...
to add the giant domes within which the aliens were incubated.
Other locations used included the real-life new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
of Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, which was under construction at the time and doubled for the fictional new town of Winerton Flats. Other scenes were shot in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
including Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
, where the police agreed to hold up the traffic for just two minutes to allow Guest take shots of trucks ferrying equipment through London to Winnerden Flats, and in the foyer of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
for the scene where Quatermass first meets Vincent Broadhead. The climactic scenes of the hurricane caused by the explosion of the Winnderden Flats complex was shot on the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
near Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. A minor mishap occurred during the filming of this scene when the wind machines blew Brian Donlevy's toupee
Toupee
A toupée is a hairpiece or partial wig of natural or synthetic hair worn to cover partial baldness or for theatrical purposes. While toupées and hairpieces are typically associated with male wearers, some women also use hairpieces to lengthen existing hair, or cover partially exposed scalp...
off his head and the crew had to chase after it. As well as shooting on location, Guest and his crew made use of Stages 2 and 5 of the New Elstree Studios, the first Hammer production to shoot there. This was production designer Bernard Robinson
Bernard Robinson (production designer)
Bernard Robinson was born in Liverpool, England in 1912 and died in 1970. He designed sets for several of Hammer's films in their heyday, including The Curse of Frankenstein , Dracula , Curse of the Werewolf , The Phantom of the Opera , The Gorgon and Quatermass and the Pit...
's first film for Hammer; he went on to become their regular set designer, working on many Hammer films.
Reception
Quatermass 2 received its first public airing at a trade show on 22 March 1957 with its première, at the London PavilionLondon Pavilion
The London Pavilion is a building located on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street on the north-east side of, and facing, Piccadilly Circus in London...
, following on 24 May 1957. It went on general release, with supporting feature And God Created Woman
And God Created Woman (1956 film)
And God Created Woman is a French drama film directed by Roger Vadim and starring Brigitte Bardot. Though by no means her first film, it is widely recognized as the vehicle that launched Bardot into the public spotlight and immediately created her "sex kitten" persona, making her an overnight...
on 17 June 1957. The film received an ‘X’ Certificate from the BBFC. It was released in the United States under the title Enemy From Space.
Quatermass 2 received mixed reviews on release. Campbell Dixon, in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
found the film “all good grisly fun, if this is the sort of thing you enjoy”. The reviewer in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
remarked, “the writer of the original story, Mr Nigel Kneale, and the director, Mr Val Guest, between them keep things moving at the right speed, without digressions. The film has an air of respect for the issues touched on, and this impression is confirmed by the acting generally”. On the other hand, Jympson Harman of the Evening News wrote, “Science-fiction hokum can be convincing, exciting or just plain laughable. Quatermass II [sic] fails on all these scores, I am afraid”. Similarly, the reviewer in the Daily Herald felt, “The whole thing is daft and full of stilted dialogue. [...] At the end a detective says: “How am I going to make a report on all this?” I felt the same way”.
Legacy
Although commercially successful, Quatermass 2’s release was largely overshadowed by the box-office record breaking performance of Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein, which was also released in May 1957. For this reason, although Nigel Kneale had written a new Quatermass serial for the BBC, Quatermass and the PitQuatermass and the Pit
Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial, originally transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials, although the character would reappear in a 1979 ITV production simply entitled Quatermass...
(broadcast December 1958 to January 1959), Hammer did not acquire the rights until 1961 and the film version
Quatermass and the Pit (film)
Quatermass and the Pit is a 1967 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions it is a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors it is based on a BBC Television serial – Quatermass and the Pit – written by Nigel Kneale...
did not appear until 1967. Quatermass 2 is notable, however, for being the first film Hammer pre-sold to a major US distributor, in this case United Artists. This new finance and distribution deal would become the norm for subsequent Hammer films and led to them eventually winding down their own distribution arm, Exclusive Films, in the mid-1960s.
Critical opinion of Quatermass 2 in the years since its release remains divided. Writing in Science Fiction in the Cinema, John Baxter
John Baxter (author)
John Baxter is an Australian-born writer, journalist, and film-maker.Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel...
found the film “a faithful but ponderous adaptation of Kneale's TV sequel. There are effective sequences, director Guest and cameraman Gerald Gibbs shooting with light lancing up through the shadows in a manner reminiscent of Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur was a French-American film director.-Life:Born in Paris, France, he was the son of film director Maurice Tourneur. At age 10, Jacques moved to the United States with his father. He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk...
's Night (or Curse) of the Demon
Night of the Demon
Night of the Demon is a 1957 British horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. An adaptation of the M. R...
. Otherwise the film is indifferent”. Similarly, John Brosnan
John Brosnan
John Raymond Brosnan was an Australian writer of both fiction and non-fiction works based around the fantasy and science fiction genres. He was born in Perth, Western Australia, and died in South Harrow, London, from acute pancreatitis...
, in his book The Primal Screen wrote, “Quatermass 2 isn't as good as the first one, despite a bigger budget. Again the theme is possession (all four Quatermass stories are variations on the same theme) with Kneale again cleverly mixing sf with the supernatural. The alien invasion may be sf but it is presented with the trappings of traditional horror, such as the V-shaped “mark of the devil” that all possessed people display”. On the other hand, Bill Warren
Bill Warren
William Bond Warren , better known as Bill Warren, is an American film historian and critic generally regarded as one of the leading authorities on science fiction, horror and fantasy films....
, in Keep Watching The Skies! found Quatermass 2 to be “one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s. It is not notably better than [The Quatermass Xperiment], but the story idea is more involving, the production is livelier and there are more events in the unfolding of the story”. Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
in 1986 praised the film as “extraordinary” and, comparing it to Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 film)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 US-American science fiction film directed by Don Siegel, starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers...
(1956), Newman notes that while Don Siegel
Don Siegel
Donald Siegel was an influential American film director and producer. His name variously appeared in the credits of his films as both Don Siegel and Donald Siegel.-Early life:...
’s film is “a general allegory” about dehumanisation and conformity, Quatermass 2 is “a specific attack on the Conservative Government
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
of the time, down to the inclusion of several characters obviously based on real political figures”.
The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, mentions on the DVD commentary for the First Series, that during the scene where Benjamin phones Barbara to arrange an exit from Royston Vasey, two workmen who have been abducted by Tubs and Edward escape, covered in tar, was inspired by a scene during which Vincent Broadhead is covered in "Synthetic Food" from one of the storage tanks.
DVD release
Quatermass 2 was released on region 2 DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by DD Video in 2003. It contained a number of extra features including a commentary by director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale as well as an interview with Val Guest and a trailer from the United States for Enemy From Space, as the film was known there.