It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We have a great movie to check out this time, one that I saw when it came out. The Quatermass series is one of my favorites, there are four titles... THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN, QUATERMASS II aka ENEMY FROM SPACE, QUATERMASS AND THE PIT aka FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH and QUATERMASS, all written by Nigel Kneale. Three of the titles were also TV mini-series. Interesting, the TV versions are 4 hours in length, over twice as long as the movies, so, in QUATERMASS II Professor Quatermass has time to go into space! QUATERMASS (takes place after a nuclear war) was never made into a movie. The story's about a mysterious object unearthed during work on a London underground subway station, the authorities try to explain it away as an unexploded German weapon from WWII, but, Professors Quatermass & Dr. Rowney discover that it's actually of very ancient origin and has a threatening potential.
Eegah!! sent us over a very cool lil' soundclip for our listening satisfaction, soooo, go ahead and push the big red 'GO' button located directly across from the thingamajigger, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's music and more from... FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH!
This is where all the trouble starts, Hobbs End, a place with a long history of weird events and happenings... 
During the digging, a worker uncovers a freakin' skeleton! 
James Donald plays Dr. Mathew Roney, expert on prehistoric man, here he is commenting on the find. We remember James from THE GREAT ESCAPE. 
The Army takes over the digging operation and the troopers come across a five million year old spaceship with dead Martians inside! Not that that's what they think it is, though. 
They quickly take the creatures back to the lab to try and save as much as they can, but, they're turning into a big pile o' yetch! You'd probably hurl if you actually imagined what that putrid stench must smell like!.. Green fluids, eek! 
Julian (BLOOD FIEND) Glover plays Colonel 'by the book' Breen, he's convinced it's a 'terror weapon' used by the Nazis near the end of the war, and, the Martian insects are fake. Andrew Keir plays Professor Quatermass, he was also in DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS and DALEKS INVASION EARTH: 2150 A. D., Brian Donlevy will always be the professor for me. 
They find out that the doctor's helper, Barbara, is the most receptive so they hook her up to the mental image recorder. Later, they play a tape of what she had recorded, that's so cool! Barbara (BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE) Shelley plays the helper. 
The images show thousands of marching insects as they appeared on Mars five million years ago! The viewers are totally bewildered. 
Back at the ranch the ship's starting to glow and all Hell's breaking loose!! Just check out old Colonel Breen, there. 
Then, the image of a huge Martian devil demon appears in the sky, causing most people to go totally insane, running aimlessly through the streets as the gate to Hell seems to have been thrown open! 
Dr. Roney is one of the few people that are not affected by the monster, so, he comes up with a clever plan to end the insanity... 
He gives his life as he careens the crane into the thing, short circuiting it and ending it's evil influence!
3 comments:
The final mini-series "Quatermass", starring John Mills, was edited into a feature film called "The Quatermass Conclusion".
Both versions are available on the DVD set, but for years only the feature film version was available in the US.
This is one of my fave Hammer movies! I saw it on tv in the early '70s and it blew me away!
Hey, didn't they talk about population control on Mars, and this (the demon causing them to run amok, suicide) was the method of thinning the herd, or some such thing? Been watching this movie for decades now, but only since the DVD could we sort it out... Thanks for the great read.
anon
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