The Creeping Unknown is how this film is known in the U.S. but here’s the thing; I’m in the U.S. and I’ve never seen this referred to it as that. For me it’s always been The Quartermass Experiment. I guess the name change comes from the fact that in the U.S. the TV show this is taken from (and under the same name) never aired here. I’m guessing so keep that in mind. The original Quartermass Experiment was a British TV series from 1953 that the movie is of course based on. For this review I will be only discussing the movie and similarities are not intended.
Starring here is Brian Donlevy (Destry Rides Again and Kiss of Death) as Professor Quartermass, Richard Wordsworth who had small roles in both The Curse of the Werewolf and The Revenge of Frankenstein is Victor Carroon. Carroon is the sole survivor of a manned rocket sent into space to orbit Earth. Quartermass is the man behind the new rocket hence the title of the film. After the rocket crash lands back onto Earth the only astronaut still on board is Carroon. The other two men on board are missing. Soon after crashing, Carroon begins to mutate into a horrible looking alien.
Also starring here is Jack Warner (The Ladykillers and Scrooge) as Inspector Lomax from Scotland Yard who is investigating the disappearance of the other astronauts. Margia Dean (The Baron of Arizona and Ambush at Cimarron Pass) is Carroon’s wife Judith. Lionel Jeffries (Chitty Chitty Bang Band and Stage Fright) stars as Quartermass main detractor, Blake. And the last I will mention here is Maurice Kaufmann (Fanatic and Man of Violence) is Quartermass’ assistant Marsh.
Historic in that this is the first Hammer Horror movie ever made. Directing here is Val Guest who also directed Casino Royal and The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. The original TV show was written by Nigel Kneale who also wrote the screenplays for Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer. Writing here is Val Guest pulling double duty and Richard Landau who was a prolific writer of TV shows for over 25 years. The Quartermass Experiment is campy, no doubt about it but it doesn’t detract from it as it’s done well. The movie isn’t the same as the TV show, a fact that Kneale didn’t like but the TV show was of course a lot longer and involved than allotted in a film with a run time of less than 90 minutes.
In the past I have given this four out of five but for some reason I wasn’t into it as much as I have been before. One of the things that really bothered me this time (and not so much every other time I’ve watched it) was the dubbing of the voice over for Dean’s character Judith. She was possibly hired because she was a girlfriend of a studio exec or something like that, I don’t care so much about that. All of her lines are dubbed because she had an accent that Guest didn’t like (in fact he didn’t really want her in the film at all) and he thought she couldn’t act even a little bit. I also felt like (this time anyway) I was watching an early Doctor Who episode. Maybe that’s just due to the fact that it was an early BBC science fiction TV show. Or it could be because the special effects, which were cutting edge then, feel like some bad rubber suit monster type of effects today.
No matter what the cause of the lowering of the rating this is still a very good film. Don’t get me wrong on that account, I still recommend this one. I will only take a half of a star off from my normal score and go with three and a half smashed cactuses out of five for this early ‘50s sci-fi classic.
You dunderhead!
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