Quatermass and the Pit

Hammer Films have a lot to thank writer Nigel Kneale and his most popular character Bernard Quatermass for. When the BBC originally broadcast The Quatermass Experiment to a terrified audience, Hammer producer Anthony Hinds saw the potential for a movie adaptation and quickly snapped up the rights. At the time, Hammer were enjoying modest success making low-budget second features, but 1955's The Quatermass Xperiment (named so to highlight the X rating dished out by the BBFC), known as The Creeping Unknown in the U.S., became a hit and put the company's name on the cinematic map. Quatermass 2 (a.k.a. Enemy From Space) followed shortly after, and the rest is history.

It seems like they were saving the best for last, and waited a whopping 10 years to deliver it. When skeletal remains are dug up during an extension to the London Underground, Palaeontologist Dr. Mathew Roney (James Donald) is called in, who concludes that the remains are that of an ancient race of 'apemen', possibly from 5 million years ago. Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) disagrees however, and when further digging reveals a large metallic object, he believes it may be of alien origin. Colonel Breen (Game of Thrones' Julian Glover) insists that it is an unexploded bomb from World War II, and refutes Quatermass' claims. As the mystery unfolds, the discovery may lead to shocking revelations regarding man's evolution, and one that we are not ready to face.

Quatermass and the Pit may feature some incredibly dated effects, but this is sci-fi as complex and intellectual as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); a film it is often compared to. Based on the six- part series, Pit's main issue is the difficulty in condensing hours' worth of material into a 98-minute movie, hitting the audience with one theory and revelation after another. But great sci-fi is primarily built on a singular great idea, and this is up there with the best. While the twists and turns are often a struggle to keep up with, the frantic pace created by the lack of running time means that we're kept on the edge of our seats for the duration. Keir is also an improvement on American Brian Donlevy (who played the professor in the previous two films), infusing Quatermass with warmth and a distinct Britishness.

Roy Ward Baker directed this belated(10 years later) third entry in the Quatermass saga, this time casting a proper British actor to play British rocket group scientist Bernard Quatermass, called in to investigate a skeleton found near a presumed undetonated German bomb in the London underground being excavated for a new subway line, that turns out to be an alien spacecraft with Martian insect-humanoids aboard. James Donald plays Professor Roney, in charge of the dig, and one of the few unaffected by the Martian attempt to use their human descendants to purge all those not part of the hive... Intelligent, ambitious, and audacious science fiction story may have some off-putting elements, and primitive model F/X, but remains a prime example of how to do this kind of story right. Based on the Nigel Kneale miniseries, this is by far the best of the trilogy.

The picture concerns about the strange deeds into a London underground . There find a Martian aircraft which probes the humanity is created by a superior civilization . Then arrive Quatermass (Andrew Keir) , an official army (Julian Glover) and two obstinate scientists (James Donald and Barbara Shelley) , all of them discover fantastic events . The plot is developed for continuous discovery , leading a spooky and astounding finale.

The movie is an outstanding adaptation from a TV serial exhibited in BBC (1958-59) written by Nigel Kneagle . As protagonist turns up Andrew Keir substituting to Brian Donlevy starring in ¨The Quatermass experiment¨ and ¨Quatermass II¨ , both of them directed by Val Guest , besides John Mills starred the final chapter titled the ¨Conclusion Quatermass¨ directed by Piers Haggard . This 1967 film is one of the greatest British science fiction films and the best of Quatermass trilogy . The great climax film is , of course , the final confrontation between the starring and the weird entity . In the picture appears the usual Hammer technicians and artistic team as cameraman Arthur Grant creating a riveting and colorful cinematography , Bernard Robinson making an awesome production design and ordinary musical conductor Philip Martell . The film is well produced by Anthony Nelson and magnificently directed by Roy Ward Baker . The flick will appeal to science fiction movie enthusiasts and Hammer fans . Rating : Above average and well worth watching .

This film is not your usual sci-fi monster from the deep or outer space but a story based on comprehensible logic - the suggestion that the human mind and it's psychic and sixth sense qualities was the result of alien intervention with our ancestral primates millions of years ago. Andrew Keir plays a fine role as the tweedy dressed sometimes gruff gentleman professor, Bernard Quatermass who teams up with equally amiable James Donald as Dr.Mathew Roney and his attractive female assistant Barbara Shelley as Barbara Judd to solve the riddle of a strange craft and several ape like skeletons unearthed during the reconstruction of an underground London railway station. At first thought to be an unexploded second world war missile an Army demolition team is brought in to disarm it, led by the bombastic single minded military thinking Colonel Breen played by Julian Glover who scoffs at the theories of the two scientists that this could be anything more than a German V weapon. The finding of large insect like creatures preserved within the hull of the craft and an analysis of their physical attributes leads Quatermass and Roney to conclude that they are Martians who along with their ape like passengers were killed as a result of a crash landing five million years beforehand. Quatermass also speculates that the apes had been previously taken from Earth to Mars and altered in order to give them Martian thinking characteristics which were then inherited by their human descendants. Breen dismisses the insect creatures as fakes and convinces his government superiors that the missile is safe, against the advice of Quatermass, Roney and Judd who have already discovered sinister awakenings within the craft after a workman dismantling his drill therein is seized upon by an invisible propelling force along with terrifying mental images. When the public and press are admitted to the site the craft comes to life generating a ghostly devil looking apparition, along with the now mind affected local population banding into groups and unleashing a killing spree on their own kind. Quatermass and Roney must now pool their scientific expertise to neutralize the menace and restore order. Nigel Kneale's compelling screenplay is sheer brilliance and gives this film a distinct and special uniqueness in the world of science fiction. A must see for the serious minded movie watcher.

This is a thoughtful science fiction/horror movie from the 1960s that doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewers. Instead of relying on CGI to enthrall a clueless audience, this movie relies on something rather novel – a real story. Filmed on a budget, this Hammer Film's special effects are good enough to advance the story. Some IMDb reviewers have criticized the film for its "corny" special effects or its "ridiculous" story. They simply don't appreciate the movie's effects in their context. Further, I would disagree that the story is ridiculous. The story unfolds as the characters and viewers discover the secret in Hobbs End. If you don't know what the movie is about, you will enjoy this bit of discovery. Instead of so many contemporary films where the viewer is simply told what happens, as if he or she is slack-jawed imbecile, in Five Million Years to Earth the viewer is part of the discovery process. Finally, the sense of horror builds from a vague sense of unease to a real sense of loathing and fear. I've seen this movie at least a half dozen times and continue to enjoy it as much as the first time.