Quatermass and the Pit (1967) - film review

Whilst workmen are building an extension to the London Underground, a prehistoric human skull is discovered.   Palaeontologist Matthew Roney is called in and he concludes that the skull is over five million years old.  Further excavation uncovers a strange metal object which Roney mistakes for an unexploded bomb.  A military unit turns up, led by Colonel Breen, to defuse the bomb.  Breen is accompanied by Professor Quatermass, his colleague in the British Experimental Rocket Group, who immediately realises that mysterious object is no bomb but an alien artefact.  The material of which the object is made proves resistant to any cutting device but, suddenly, an opening appears – revealing a chamber containing a number of large insect-like creatures.  Whilst Roney is examining these monstrosities, Quatermass pursues his own investigation and learns that the area around the building site has a history of mysterious occurrences dating back hundreds of years, with numerous reports of demonic apparitions.  As Breen becomes increasingly convinced that the object is nothing more than a Nazi propaganda weapon, Quatermass develops a more fantastic theory.  The object is a space ship belonging to the last remnants of a race of Martians who, before their extinction millions of years ago, attempted to alter the course of human evolution to preserve something of their civilisation.  What Quatermass does not realise is that ship is far from inert.  It harbours psychic forces that have the potential to drive mankind to destruction...

Quatermass serials is often cited as the best and is certainly the one that is most faithful to the original series scripted by Nigel Kneale.  Quatermass and the Pit effectively weaves together supernatural and science-fiction ideas with an ingenious plot that rationalises mankind’s propensity for self-destruction, topical since the film was made at the height of the Cold War.  The film deals with a theme that was of great concern to Kneale and many contemporary writers – man’s exploitation of science for military ends.   Contrast the perspectives of the scientists Quatermass and Roney with that of Breen and his government paymasters. The latter are blinkered by a paranoid obsession with national self-interest and military supremacy, whilst the former are concerned with the welfare of mankind as a whole and have the imagination to realise the truth and act before it is too late.   

In the previous decade, Hammer had adapted the first two Nigel Kneale serials – The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass 2 (1957) – but failed to repeat the box office success of these films with Quatermass and the Pit.  The first of the films to be made in colour, this third Quatermass film lacks the darkly oppressive atmosphere of the original television serial but has significantly better effects (although these are pretty primitive by today’s standards).  The denouement is particularly well realised, with a spectacular depiction of the release of demonic forces that threaten to engulf the world.  The only let down is the absurd deus ex machina plot resolution.  How convenient it is for the all-powerful demonic spectre to materialise next to the very thing that can destroy it...

As Professor Quatermass, Andrew Keir is far more sympathetic and believable than his predecessor in the films, Brian Donlevy, being much closer to Kneale’s conception of a patrician-like savant with anti-establishment tendencies.  The performances are amongst the best of any Hammer sci-fi film, and include a fine turn from Julian Glover, playing one of long line of villains who, if placed end-to-end, would probably stretch from here to Mars and back.   Duncan Lamont, who was excellent as Victor Caroon in the first Quatermass serial, appears in a small role, as the drill operator.  Sci-fi aficionados should also watch out for Gareth Thomas, future star of the BBC TV series Blake’s Seven.  

Nigel Kneale had intended to script a fourth Quatermass film but the poor return of Quatermass and the Pit persuaded Hammer that the series had run its course.  Kneale would rework his ideas for this unmade film into a further television serial, which was made by Euston Films and Thames Television, transmitted on ITV in 1979.  Here, John Mills played an elderly Quatermass, saving the world for a fourth and final time.

© James Travers 2009

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