Quatermass And The Pit

Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Roy Ward Baker

Starring: Andrew Keir, James Donald, Barbara Shelley, Julian Glover, Duncan Lamont

From: Hammer

I am finally caught up here. I saw this a few nights ago on TCM, under its American title: 

As sometimes happens, I've heard of a movie and/or a movie character years before making any effort to see it. Last night on TCM they played this film, which was released in the United States as Five Million Years to Earth, as both then and now hardly any Americans have ever heard of Professor Bernard Quatermass.

This is a slow cerebral sci-fi so it's not for all tastes but I now understood why TCM showed the movie right after 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ancient bones are discovered in the London Underground... then a mysterious object is found right along the bones and it certainly looks like a spaceship. I don't want to give away too much else except that this movie goes bold by delving into such topics as mind control, psychokinesis and the origin of humanity... wild stuff.

Most of the main players were middle-aged or old men of academic excellence, and I was never bored seeing them interact with each other and try to piece together what is a bizarre puzzle. There's also Julian Glover as a military man, and it's not a spoiler to say that a military man in this kind of story or someone played by Julian Glover is an antagonist and also a jerk. Perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh on the character: when you hear Quatermass try to explain what those artifacts are and it sounded like he made giant leaps of logic to what sounds like a wild yarn he's spinning... Glover's interpretation does sound more logical. In addition, cult favorite Barbara Shelley does have a key role and she is more than just window dressing or a damsel in distress-the character is a credible scientist type.

I wouldn't be surprised if one day this got a modern remake. While they would be able to go hog-wild with all the wild things that were implied here, I just know the characters wouldn't be as interesting, the ideas would be dumbed down and it'd have a much faster pace at the expense of taking its time to unveil the plot. For me, this film was a pleasant surprise. Those that love Carpenter's Prince of Darkness...