Hammer and Sicko: The Quatermass Xperiment

A Hammer Film that isn't about Dracula or any other kind of Monster like that?!?  Is that allowed?  Yes, yes it is.  This is The Quatermass Xperiment (or Experiment), a 1955 Film made as the Studio's first official one.  Side-note: this is a Remake a TV Mini-Series from 1953, so stuff that in your 'people are only now obsessed with Remakes in Year XXXX' argument.  The Film is about the titular Scientist and the aftermath of, well, his experiment.  Movie Titles can sometimes be pretty straight-forward, no?  It seems simple enough at first, but then boils down to scientific silliness.  This is one of those 'crazy thing X has created crazy monster Y' Films.  It's also one of the ones that explains it- I'll get to that-, but also doesn't really explain the Science behind the thing all that much.  It's like that Film I watched about killer mud (also British and Hammer, I think) that explains (in a crazy way) how the creature exists.  That one also didn't actually *verify* the man's theory of what the creature was, which still bugs me to this day (clearly).  This time, it involves a crashed rocket ship, a lone survivor and...not Superman?  Oh well.  Instead, a guy slowly transforms into something freaky.  To find out how this long-regarded Cult Classic feels to me, read on...

A Ship crashes in a British Field.  They can't afford to show the effect, but they do give us this shot, so...alright.

A man- Quatermass- is called to the Scene.

You see, he set up a trip in the Rocket with three men, not getting full permission.  He's somehow not thrown in Jail, because reasons.

After a bit of stalling, the Rocker is opened and only one man is alive.  The other two are missing, although their still-sealed suits are there!

Is the secret to what happened going to be gained from this man?  He can only say two words- 'Help me.'

While he recovers in a Hospital, we get more padding about them getting the Film from the ship developed.

Yes, we can fly Rockets deep into Space in this semi-past/future, but no digital!

The footage reveals little, but raises many questions.

The man is freed from the Hospital by his somewhat-dense wife, but gets mutated more and kills the man she hired for the job.  He's kind of an evil monster-in-the-making now.

Skipping to the 3rd Act, he's now fully a monster and hiding in Westminster Abbey.  He's an evil, world-killing Alien, but he knows fancy!

Our Lead kills it again as his plan involves...shocking the metal frame to kill the beast.  I mean...I could have done that.

In the aftermath, he vows to do his experiment again and we see another rocket leave.  Again- he's not arrested for this and, not only that, he gets more funding?!?

Sure- why not?  The End.

A somewhat dry, but enjoyable Film.  1950s Sci-Fi can be that way.  Throw in the fact that this is British and you're going to get dryness overload!  It's still a good, solid Film though.  The premise is simple enough and they don't muck things up too much.  He accidentally brings back a monster, it kills some people (more Poor Bastards of Cinema in the future) and it gets defeated.  It's pretty cut-and-dry, really.  The devil, as always, is in the details.  We see a man transforming into a monster and see you how much he hates it.  Nothing will ever top the possessed man crying while killing himself to stop the beast in Prince of Darkness for me (R.I.P. Jessie Lawrence Ferguson), but this guy does his best.  He makes you feel bad for him.  His story does not end happily.  On the plus side, he doesn't kill Paul McCartney's future fiancee (Jane Asher as a littler girl), so it worked out well for someone else.  The worst thing you can say about Films like this is that they spend more time talking about the idea and science of their monster/creature than they do showing it.  This is definitely a good example of that.  It's still better than damn mud though!  There was apparently some issue with the Casting of an American Actor as the Lead, but I was cool with it.  On a related Casting Note, how often do you see the strange caveat under Jack Warner's name?

Next time, a jump back the 1970s.  I've got plenty of strange options, so who knows what's next?  Stay tuned...