The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) on Netflix
Approved19551h 18mHorrorSci-Fi
Professor Bernard Quatermass sends three men into space aboard his rocket; it crashes in an English field with only Victor Carroon aboard, unable to speak. A doctor finds his body changing.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.6/108,753 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
Professor Bernard Quatermass heads the British-American Rocket Group, and its first crewed rocket carries three men: Victor Carroon, Reichenheim and Green. Radar contact is lost, then the rocket comes down in an English field. Quatermass and his assistant Marsh reach the wreck with the emergency services, Carroon's wife Judith, Rocket Group physician Dr. Briscoe and Blake, a Ministry official angry that the launch went ahead without permission. Carroon stumbles from the hatch, able to say only that he needs help, and the other two suits are found strapped in and empty. Carroon is kept mute and still under Briscoe's care, where a disfigured patch on his shoulder and the shifting bones of his face show that something is altering him.
Cast
- John Wynnas Detective Sergeant Best
Show all 20 cast
- Henry B. Longhurstas George, Maggie's father (uncredited)
- Ernest Hareas Crash Site Fire Chief (uncredited)
- Michael Godfreyas Crash Site Fireman (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Brian Donlevy, who played Professor Quatermass, was suffering from alcoholism during the shoot; it took director Val Guest some weeks to realize that the coffee flask Donlevy carried on set was laced with brandy.
- An engineer at Battersea Power Station agreed to switch off the lights on its exterior for a shot of London's lights going out, but misunderstood and briefly cut all power along the River Thames.
- A nine-year-old boy died of a ruptured artery in a cinema in Oak Park, Illinois, during a showing of the double bill, as reported by Variety; the Guinness Book of Records recorded it as the only known case of an audience member dying of fright while watching a horror film.
- The film was only the twelfth to receive the BBFC's 'X' Certificate since its introduction in 1951; Hammer, unlike most other studios, exploited the rating by dropping the 'E' from 'Experiment' in the title.
- For the climax at Westminster Abbey, effects man Les Bowie made the monster from tripe and rubber and filmed it against a model of the Abbey; close-up inserts used an octopus with spikes on its sac, set on fire.
- Nigel Kneale, then a BBC employee, got nothing when the BBC sold his Quatermass scripts for filming; he won control of future film rights at his next contract renewal and the BBC paid him £3,000 ex-gratia in 1967.
- Michael Carreras wrote to Westminster Abbey asking permission to film there but was refused, so the hospital set and the interior of Westminster Abbey were built on the New Stage at Hammer's Bray Studios.
- The film was the first to bring Hammer to the attention of a major distributor, United Artists; from then on the company dealt directly with the majors and no longer needed intermediaries like Lippert.
