Enemy from Space (1957) on Netflix
Approved19571h 25mHorrorSci-Fi
Bernard Quatermass wants backing for a Moon colony. Objects fall over a remote part of England, where a secret complex mirrors his own designs, and guards seize his colleague Marsh.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.7/105,573 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bernard Quatermass is having trouble winning government backing for his plan to put a colony on the Moon. Radar operators at his rocket project follow small objects down over a remote stretch of English countryside, and Quatermass drives there with his colleague Marsh. They find an industrial complex that matches his lunar designs, and Marsh picks up a meteorite in the shape of a small rocket. Gas escapes from it and a V-shaped mark shows on his face. Armed guards, some marked the same way, take Marsh away and drive Quatermass off the site. He brings his account to Inspector Lomax, who arranges for him to meet Vincent Broadhead, a member of parliament pressing to learn what the site is for. Broadhead has a pass, and Quatermass goes along on a tour of a plant said to make synthetic food.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Enemy from Space (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Nigel Kneale, who wrote the original Quatermass II serial, was unhappy with Brian Donlevy returning as Quatermass, claiming the actor was so crippled by drink on set that he needed an idiot board and repeated takes; director Val Guest denied Donlevy was a paralytic, saying he was a professional who knew his lines.
- Quatermass 2 was the first Hammer film whose United States distribution rights were pre-sold, a financing model that soon became standard for the company's later productions.
- The secret Winnerden Flats complex was played by the Shell Haven oil refinery at Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, where the plant's small staff made it easy for Val Guest to make the site look eerily deserted, and management let him stage the climactic gun battle at the flammable location.
- The BBFC objected to a scene where a guard from the Winnerden Flats complex kills a family on a picnic. It was left out of the final film but is in the original television presentation.
- The role of Inspector Lomax, played by Jack Warner in The Quatermass Xperiment, was recast with silent-film and Alfred Hitchcock veteran John Longden when Warner was unavailable; Nigel Kneale much preferred Longden's authoritative take to Warner's comedic "breezy sergeant".
- During the filming of one scene, wind machines knocked Brian Donlevy's toupée off, and the crew chased it.
- Bryan Forbes, playing Marsh, had a complex alien-growth makeup applied for his scene; at lunchtime the pub landlord refused to serve him because he could not take the makeup off.
- The film's £92,000 budget, far larger than that of The Quatermass Xperiment, came from United Artists, which put up about £64,000 plus Brian Donlevy's $25,000 fee and his airfare from the US.
