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Quatermass II - aka Enemy from Space - (1957 England)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 6:26 pm    Post subject: Quatermass II - aka Enemy from Space - (1957 England) Reply with quote



Professor Quatermass is again portrayed by Brian Donlevy ("The Creeping Unknown") in this alien invasion yarn with a good concept and plenty of shoot-em-up action in the climax.

* * * Beware!!! This post contains blatant spoilers . . . and shocking news about an elaborate hoax connected with this film! * * *

But first, let's talk about the great story.

Brain Donlevy is the head of a project to develop an atomic rocket, and he wants the British government to provide funding for a Moonbase which he has designed. But one evening the radio telescope at the research project detects a barrage of tiny meteorites which land near a small English town. When Donlevy investigates the site, he discovers a huge complex of buildings — a complex which bear an uncanny resemblance to the Moonbase which Quatermass designed!



The meteorites turn out to be tiny space vehicles which crack open to release an invisible alien presence which possesses the nearest human.



The meteorite-like invasion craft have been landing on Earth for several years, and the aliens have already taken over hundreds of humans, including several high government officials.

The aliens are coming from an asteroid which orbits the Earth, hidden by Earth's shadow (an idea which, unfortunately, doesn't quite work). Donlevy learns that the strange complex of buildings he discovered is serving the same purpose here on Earth that his Moonbase is supposed to serve on Earth's satellite — to protect its occupants from a hostile alien environment (an idea which, happily, works extremely well. This is the plot's strongest point).



The aliens have come to colonize the Earth. The British government is under the false impression that the complex is a top secret research project which is developing a new synthetic food. And the government has been pouring millions of dollars into the project without realizing that they're footing the bill for an invasion force!



This element of the plot is both unique and wonderfully ironic: the government is funding a top secret facility like Area 51 where aliens are hiding. But the government isn't hiding the aliens — the aliens are hiding from the government!

The climax is a full-scale battle between the misguided human guards of the alien complex and a mob of angry local people whom Quatermass alerts to the real danger of the alien invasion. And wait until you see what the aliens are growing the big vats that are supposed hold the new synthetic food!



Director Val Guest's action scenes are nicely done. The explanation of the aliens' nature is a trifle muddled, but otherwise the screenplay by Nigel Kneale and Val Guest is both witty and intelligent. The special effects by Bill Warrington, Henry Harris and Frank George are a big plus.

And now a word about the wonderful poster you see at the top of the post — and the hoax I mentioned earlier. Getting that jpeg ready for this post turned out to be quite an interesting and humorous experience.

First I found this one — a magnificent work of art.



But I also found one with a completely different color scheme that I liked much better. Unfortunately the resolution wasn't as good.



So I kept looking until I found a better copy . . . but it was darker, and it had text at the bottom which marred the composition.



I raised the contrast and the brightness —



— and than I pasted a section from the less-sharp version to cover up the text, blending the edges a bit to make it look right. Now I had a version of the poster I could put at the top of this post. Very Happy

I was all set to upload it to Photobucket and use it . . . when I suddenly noticed something horribly wrong!


Brian Donlevy's first name was spelled wrong!

In the version shown above, his name is "Brain" Donlevy. Very Happy

After I stopped laughing so hard I almost hurt myself, I performed one more enhancement, copying the letters A and I, and then reversing them.



How the heck did the studio's promotional department manage to make such a terrible mistake? Shocked

I went looking for the origin of the jpeg that had the name spelled wrong, to see if the source site mentioned the mistake.

I found the source . . . and it did acknowledge the screw up.

I discovered that the jpeg came from a post by Ted Newsome on the Classic Horror Film Board, in which he talks about the fact that — (are you ready for this? — Quatermass II was originally filmed in color!

According to Ted's CHFB post, studio executives didn't want to spend the money on color prints, so they released the film in black&white. In other words, we saw this —



— when we were supposed to see this! (Oh my lord, what a beautiful shot . . . )



But as I continued to read through Newsome's post, the claims it made became increasingly outrageous. Hmmm . . something was fishy here. Confused

I scrolled down to the replies and discovered that the whole thing was a joke! I'm not sure Newsome actually wrote it or if he lifted it from this site below.


The Drunken Severed Head

Here's the link to Ted Newsome's CHFB post.



Both the CHFB post and The Drunken Severed Head article mention the spelling error, so obviously the poster was altered to go along with all the other "evidence" presented in support of the claim that Quatermass II was originally in color.

Now, folks, consider the irony of what I did with the jpeg of the poster when I decided to use it here. When I enhanced, improved, and altered the jpeg, I was unwittingly reversing all the bogus information somebody had placed on it for the hoax! Shocked

Brian Donlevy's name had been deliberately misspelled for the sake of the joke — but I had corrected it. And the text at the bottom (referring to AnscoColor) which I had removed because I thought it distracted from the artwork, was also part of the "filmed in color" hoax.

The only thing I did NOT do to restore the bogus poster to it's original appearance (without even knowing I was doing this) was to remove the words "in color" under the title.

Amazing . . .

But I certainly wish it had all been true. These doctored color photos are wonderful!





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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:40 am; edited 4 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

I'm surprised this post doesn't have any replies. Seems like it provides a lot to comment on.

Oh well. Enjoy the trailer from YouTube.




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:37 am; edited 3 times in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 5:21 am    Post subject: Re: Quatermass II - aka Enemy from Space - (1957 England) Reply with quote

On the old board I mentioned that the large model rocket sitting on its tail in the background of this photo appears to be the filming miniature used in Satellite in the Sky, another British production, released the year prior to Quatermass II.



See http://www.allsci-fi.us/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=785
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, that does indeed look like the Stardust. Nice observation, Wayne.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A fairly good movie for its time, and a twice told tale!

Originally a version of this story appeared on the BBC in serial form...as a more adult answer to Doctor Who.
Quatermass II is a British science-fiction serial, originally broadcast by BBC Television in the autumn of 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel Kneale, and the oldest of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives.



The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government.

As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind.





Quatermass II comprised six half-hour episodes, transmitted live from Studio G at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios in London. The episodes — individually subtitled "The Bolts", "The Mark", "The Food", "The Coming", "The Frenzy" and "The Destroyers" — were shown every Saturday night at 8 p.m. from 22 October to 26 November 1955; because of the live nature of the performances, most of the episodes overran their allotted half-hour slots slightly. Each episode was rehearsed on the Monday to Friday before transmission at Mansergh Woodall Boys Club in St John's Wood, London, and then camera rehearsed in studio for most of the day on the Saturday.



Speaking in a 2003 television documentary about Nigel Kneale's career, the writer and critic Kim Newman praised the underlying themes of Quatermass II, and their particular relevance to the British way of life. "Quatermass II is the British Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing... What Quatermass II does is take that metaphor and apply it to the specific conditions of Britain in the 1950s; not just the Cold War paranoia, but the traditional British grumbling resentment of bureaucracy as represented by the council, or in this case big business.



Some science-fiction fans have speculated that the Quatermass serials in general, and Quatermass II in particular — with its elements including a conspiracy of silence in the government concerning extraterrestrial life, secret government facilities for alien use, and the silencing of any critic who opposes the government's plans — influenced the successful American series The X-Files (1993—2002). Kneale was invited to write for The X-Files during the 1990s, but declined the offer
Other genre productions that have been compared with the serial include the 1970 Doctor Who story Spearhead from Space. This serial features an alien entity falling to Earth in a meteorite shower; a factory taken over for the growth of the alien creature, and governmental institutions being infiltrated by servants of the aliens

As with The Quatermass Experiment, the film rights to the serial were purchased by Hammer Film Productions — in this case after they had only read the scripts, before the serial was even made.





Titled Quatermass 2, the film was released in 1957 and once again directed by Val Guest, with Brian Donlevy starring; unlike the first film, Kneale wrote the screenplay himself. In the United States, the film was released under the title Enemy from Space.



The plot is a condensed but largely faithful retelling of the original television serial. The main difference between the two versions is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass blasts off in a rocket to confront the aliens in outer space, whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, to destroy the aliens' asteroid base.

Returning director Val Guest once again employed many cinema verte techniques to present the fantastic elements of the plot with the greatest degree of realism. Nigel Kneale was critical of the final film, mainly on account of the return of Brian Donlevy in the lead role. Kneale was unhappy with Donlevy's interpretation of the character and also claimed the actor's performance was marred by his alcoholism, a claim denied by Val Guest.



As with The Quatermass Xperiment, the screenplay for Quatermass 2 condenses many of the events of the original. The most significant change is at the climax: in the television version Quatermass and his assistant, Pugh, use Quatermass's rocket to travel to the asteroid to take on the aliens on their home turf whereas in the film the rocket is fired, unmanned, at the asteroid to destroy it.



Several characters from the television version do not appear in the film, most notably Quatermass's daughter, Paula, and his assistant, Leo Pugh. Conversely, the character of Inspector Lomax reappears in the film version, having previously been in The Quatermass Xperiment, but does not appear in the television version.

The character of Sheila the barmaid also appears only in the film version.







(Some comments and info from Wikipedia et al.)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

When I was a randy young teenager in the 1960s, I saw Vera Day in The Woman Eater on the late show and fell madly in lust with her. Wink

There's a scene in that movie with Vera siting in the driver's seat of a car with the door open, talking to a young auto mechanic lying on his back under the dashboard, working on the car's wiring . . . and gazing up at Vera with increasing nervousness. Vera begins to smile when she realizes what he's thinking.

The second photo below is not a cropped version of the first one. That's a screen shot of the actual camera position. (Oh . . . my . . . God . . . ) Shocked








Finally the love-sick young man squirms around a bit and tells her it seems to be getting warm. Vera smiles knowingly and says, "Hmmm . . . I don't think so."





By gum, it's still a sexy scene, and you can watch it on Youtube at the 45:00 mark. Treat yourself, Vera Day fans! Very Happy

_________________ The Woman Eater (1957)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 1:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can tell her talent really stood out on the screen!

Of course she was prominently showcased in all the posters because they knew what caught your attention!
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Custer
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Calling Quatermass "a more adult answer to Doctor Who" is slightly misleading - the first Quatermass BBC serial was broadcast in 1953, followed by 1955 and 1958-59, while Doctor Who started in 1963. For Quatermass to be an "answer," you'd need some sort of time travel!

Oh, wait...
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I understand that Dr Who came a few years later but the point is serialized drama was a BBC method of story telling.

Quatermass WAS an attempt to tell a more adult science fiction story in that mode. It was an evening program aimed at adults just as the later Dr Who was a early afternoon serial aimed at a younger audience.

They are two examples (Not contemporary) of a mode of presentation of their program.
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Custer
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The BBC has done plenty of serials over the decades, and the Quatermass tales certainly qualify, though mainly it's the "classic serials" that are most remembered - plenty of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, et cetera.

Doctor Who, after a slightly difficult scheduling start (some bad news from Dallas), wasn't exactly a serial - you got multi-part stories, sure, but the Doctor kept going, so that you got a whole darn series.... scheduled to start usually at about, um, 5:15 pm?
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________

___________________ Quatermass 2 - Trailer


__________


The follow-up by Hammer to The Quatermass Xperiment (55), this also was preceded by an earlier TV version - a 6-part BBC serial in 1955.

Brian Donlevy returns to the role of Professor Quatermass, here starting the story in a grumpy mood because the funds for his planned moon base have been cancelled. Investigating a region with an associate due to rumored meteorite strikes, Quatermass is surprised to discover a secret base, apparently modeled on his moon base.

They also find some small meteorites; one of these breaks open and infects the associate. Armed personnel take the infected man away and Quatermass gets bruised. Later, along with a persistent newspaper reporter, Quatermass begins to get wind of an alien plot - several government men have already been compromised by this point, in an alien scheme that stretches back over a year.

__________

The famous horrific visual on the poster is a representation of what happens to the reporter — he falls into a vat of toxic alien material (his fall isn't shown, only the aftermath).

The aliens in this one are a kind of gestalt mind and we finally see these massed together in monstrous form in the final act. But, overall, it's one of the more subtle alien invasion tales, copied later by such diverse properties as Star Trek TNG, the episode Conspiracy (1988), wherein select officials are 'taken over' by an alien mind.

The plot shows that one doesn't know who to trust, though compromised individuals can be spotted by the odd black marks somewhere on the skin, the point where the alien presence entered.

This seems a bit slow in the first half, but the tension mounts and there's a fairly action-loaded last act when Donlevy infiltrates the secret plant and the local workers join in repelling the alien invaders.

BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10



BoG
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 12:35 am    Post subject: Re: Quatermass II - aka Enemy from Space - (1957 England) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
. . . Brian Donlevy's name had been deliberately misspelled for the sake of the joke — but I had corrected it. And the text at the bottom (referring to AnscoColor) which I had removed because I thought it distracted from the artwork, was also part of the "filmed in color" hoax.

Another giveaway is the tagline "It's Just As Good" under "in AnscoColor by Agfa."



Not only is the line an obvious joke, but it's in an algorithmically slanted or "obliqued" font (as opposed to a true italic) -- something that only became possible with the advent of digital typesetting in the 1980s.
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17 Oaks
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ohh boy, found these on Youtube which is become a source for movies and a lot of Sci Fi of the days gone by, when it was really Good.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 9:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's a lot of "good stuff" on YouTube. I download quite a bit of movies and documentarys and put them on a DVD as data files or on a data stick to play in my Bluray player.

Good hunting!

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Phantom
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 10:24 pm    Post subject: YouTube Reply with quote

YouTube is a gold mine for movie fans and fanatics. Like Gord, I have captured hundreds of films and short subjects from the Silent Era to the 21st Century.

Sometimes it is just a matter of dumb luck finding something you never believed would be available before it is taken down

It is easy to lose control and amass a titanic amount of material, so you really need to be selective and download only what you know you want to see repeatedly.

I've already had to divide my collection onto three separate data sticks (A-L and M-Z for movies and a stick just for all the music, comedy, documentaries, film trailers and on and on). And I'm darn near to another division.

I never would have believed when I was a child haunting my local theatre that I would own the movies that thrilled me.

We are truly living in an Age of Miracles.

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