Review: Quatermass and the Pit (12A)

Hammer’s mini-franchises included Frankenstein and Dracula but its most overlooked hero was scientist Professor Quatermass.

What the BBC began as live television serials, Hammer Films continued as wonderfully atmospheric and creepy movies. After two initial films in the 1950s, with Brian Donlevy in the lead the role, it lay dormant until the Sixties when it was assumed by the Scots actor Andrew Keir. The resultant film, Quatermass and the Pit, provided a terrific coda to the good professor’s inquiries.

In Hammer’s third outing, Professor Quatermass uncovers evidence of a Martian civilisation when a spacecraft is unearthed in a London suburb. The plot veers towards the supernatural. Neither Quatermass nor the army provide answers. There are mutterings it is Devil’s work.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Hammer didn’t do sci-fi often, preferring the comfort of Mittel European settings, vampires, legend and folklore. But Quatermass and the Pit, from the teleplay by Nigel Kneale, offers more than its standard horrors, building to a level of intelligent – and challenging – science-fiction that demands more than just a cursory look.

By far the most expensive and enjoyable of Hammer’s Quatermass movies, it boasts high production values and a majestic central performance from Keir, who dispenses with the aggressive demeanour and machine-gun dialogue of predecessor Brian Donlevy to make the professor an articulate, humane hero.

On limited release

Related topics: