The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1955
Running Times: 78 mins (USA)     82 mins (Canada/UK)
Length: 7372 ft
Format: black and white     35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono

DIRECTION

Director: Val Guest

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Hammer Films
Producer: Anthony Hinds, Robert L. Lippert (uncredited)
Production Manager: T.S. Lyndon-Haynes (uncredited)

SCRIPT
Script: Richard Landau, Val Guest
TV Serial: Nigel Kneale

DIRECTION
Assistant Director: Bill Shore
2nd Assistant Director: Aida Young (uncredited)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Jimmy (Walter?) Harvey
Camera Operator: Len Harris
Sound Camera Operator: Don Alton (uncredited)
Focus: Harry Oakes (uncredited)
Stills: John Jay (uncredited)

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: James Needs
Assistant Editor: Henry Richardson (uncredited)

MUSIC
Music: James Bernard
Music Conductor: John Hollingsworth

SOUND
Sound Recording: H.C. Pearson, John Woodiwiss (uncredited)
Boom Operator: Percy Britten (uncredited)

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up: Phil Leakey
Hair: Monica Hustler
Wardrobe: Molly Arbuthnot

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Les Bowie

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: J. Elder Wills

OTHER CREW
Continuity: Renee Glynne
Production Secretary: Dora Thomas (uncredited)

LOCATIONS
Locations: Bray Studios, Berkshire, England, UK; London, England, UK

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks To: BBC Television Service; The Air Ministry; Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company; The British Interplanetary Society; The Port of London Authority; General Radiological Ltd

CAST

Brian Donlevy (Quatermass)
Jack Warner (Lomax)
Margia Dean (Judith Carroon)
Richard Wordsworth (Victor Carroon)
Thora Hird (Rosie)
Gordon Jackson (TV producer)
Harold Lang (Christie)
Lionel Jeffries (Blake)

UNCREDITED CAST

Maurice Kaufmann (Marsh)
Gron Davies (Green)
Stanley Van Beers (Reichenheim)
Frank Phillips (BBC announcer)
Arthur Lovegrove (Sgt Bromley)
John Stirling (Major)
Eric Corrie (young man)
Margaret Anderson (Maggie)
Henry Longhurst (Maggie's father)
Michael Godfrey (fireman)
Fred Johnson (inspector)
George Roderick (local policeman)
Ernest Hare (fire chief)
John Kerr (laboratory assistant)
John Wynn (Best)
Toke Townley (chemist)
Bartlett Mullins (zoo keeper)
Molly Glessing (mother at zoo)
Mayne Lynton (zoo official)
Harry Brunsing (night porter)
Barry Lowe (Tucker)
Jane Aird (Mrs Lomax)
Sam Kydd (station sergeant)
Arthur Gross (floor boy)
James Drake (sound engineer)
Edward Dane (station policeman)
Basil Dignam (Sir Lionel Dean)
Betty Impey (first nurse)
Marianne Stone (second nurse)
Jane Asher (girl)

PLOT SUMMARY

A space mission overseen by Professor Bernard Quatermass ends when the rocket crashlands in the English countryside. Two of the crew have mysteriously disappeared and the third, Victor Carroon, has been infected by an alien organism and is undergoing a painful metamorphosis. Driven by the need to consume lifeforce from other living creatures, Carroon escapes and goes on the rampage before, finally evolving into a giant, plant-like creature, he is cornered in Westminster Abbey.

One of the key British SF/horror films of the 1950s, The Quatermass Experiment was responsible for initiating the boom in British genre films that was to last well into the middle of the next decade. It was also the movie that helped to establish Hammer Films as a major creative force in the world's movie marketplace. Even today, the film remains a powerful and often moving exercise in paranoia and alienation.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Exclusive
Video Distributor: Walton Film and Video; DD Video (DD06156)
DVD Distributor: DD Video (DD06157)

USA
Theatrical Distributor: United Artists
Video Distributor: Sinister Cinema; MGM-UA Home Entertainment Inc

UK
Rating: X

1953
July
Saturday 18: UK - the original BBC TV serial begins broadcasting

1954
October
14: Location shooting at Chessington Zoo
18: Principal photography begins

December
Day Unknown: Principal photography finishes

1955
June
Day Unknown: BBFC award the film an 'X' certificate

August
24: UK - trade show at Studio One, London
26: UK - London premiere (London Pavilion, Piccadilly Circus)

September
28: UK - theatrical release (on the ABC cinema circuit)

October
7: Denmark - theatrical release

November
28: UK - theatrical release on the ABC circuit

1956
March
Day Unknown: USA - distribution rights sold to United Artists

June
21: USA - theatrical release

November
6: USA - Variety reports that a 9 year old boy, Stewart Cohan, died of a ruptered artery while watching the double bill of The Creeping Unknown and The Black Sleep (1956)

1980
June
20: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

1983
November
24: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1985
May
24: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1988
November
25: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1990
September
21: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1993
May
21: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

1996
August
4: UK - shown at the Barbican, London as part of the Hammer at the Barbican season

2003
March
31: UK - video release (DD Video (DD06156)); DVD release (DD Video (DD06157))

Astronave atomica del dottor Quatermass - Italian title
Creeping Unknown, The - US title
Experimento del Dr Quatermass, El - Spanish title
Monstre, Le - French/French Belgian title
Monstro do Espaço, O - Portuguese title
Quatermass - Finnish title
Schock - West German title
Xperiment Q - Danish/Swedish title

REMAKE OF
The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

SEQUELS
Quatermass 2 (1957)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Quatermass (1978)

SEE ALSO
Quatermass II (1955)
Quatermass and the Pit (1958)

PERIODICALS

Dark Terrors no.3 p.15 (UK)
illustrated production notes

Dark Terrors no.8 (April 1994) pp.20-33 (UK)
illustrated production notes

Dark Terrors no.12 (June 1996) p.30 (UK)
illustrated article

Film Review Special no.53 (Alien vs Predator) pp.64-68 (UK)
illustrated interview with Val Guest, James Bernard and Nigel Kneale (Retrospective: The Quatermass Experiment by Howard Maxford)

Filmfax no.61 (June/July 1997) pp.54, 55 (USA)
illustrated credits, review (by Richard A. Ekstedt)

Hammer Horror no.7 p.21 (UK)
credits

The House That Hammer Built no.1 (February 1997) pp.26-31 (UK)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review

Journal of Popular Film and Television vol.30 no.3 (Autumn 2002) pp.158-165 (USA)
illustrated bibliography, article ("Bring something back" - The strange career of Professor Quatermass by Dave Robinson and Nick Cooper)

Kine Weekly 25 August 1955 p.19 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.22 no.261 (October 1955) p.150 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review (by uncredited)

Sight and Sound vol.13 no.8 (August 2003) p.69 (UK)
DVD review (by Geoffrey Macnab)

Starburst no.299 (May 2003) p.64 (UK)
illustrated DVD review (by Jan-Michael Rudzki)

Today's Cinema vol.85 no.7335 (22 August 1955) p.8 (UK)
note (An Xploitable Thing comes from Space)

Today's Cinema vol.85 no.7336 (23 August 1955) p.8 (UK)
credits, review (by D.R.)

Variety 7 September 1955 p.6 (USA)
credits, review (by Myro)

BOOKS

The Hammer Story pp.16-17
credits, illustrated article

Video Source Book (13th edition) 1992 p.2102
US video data

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

aliens, space travel, transformations, westminster abbey, london, zoos, astronauts, scientists

Last Updated: 11 April, 2010