(1955)
Directed by Val Guest
Written by Richard Landau, Val Guest fr4om a TV miniseries by Nigel Kneale
Starring Brian Donlevy, Richard Wordsworth, Margia Dean, Richard Wordsworth
IMDB Entry
We now go backwards to the first of the Quatermass films, a milestone in UK science fiction of the 1950s.
Brian Donlevy is the original Quatermass, head of a group putting the first human-crewed market into outer space. It crashes in the English countryside and Quatermass is quick on the scene. But two of the three men in the crew are dead, their spacesuits empty. The third, Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth). stumbles out, saying only two words before collapsing: "Help me." Carroon is taken to a hospital, but is catatonic and has some odd physical changes happening to him. Carroon's wife Judith (Margia Dean) doesn't think the doctors are doing enough for him, so manages to sneak him out, when he escapes, killing others and going on a rampage.
The characterization of Quatermass changes over the three films. In this one, he is prickly and short tempered, excusing himself because he's a scientist. In Quatermass 2, he's softened a bit. And in Quatermass and the Pit, the new actor, Andrew Kier is much more avuncular and not particularly short with others.
Val Guest, who directed this and its sequel, also directed the great UK SF film The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
Chuck Rothman is author of The Cadaver Princess, from Amazing Story Selects.
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