Say the name Nigel Kneale to sci-fi fans in the know, an you’ll probably get a nod acknowledging you are part of the inner circle of his fans. This Manxman wrote some stellar scripts, ones that focused more on ideas than action. His Quatermass character is especially popular, having been in three legendary BBC series in the 1950’s, each of which were adapted into theatrical films by Hammer Studios in due time.
1967’s Quatermass and the Pit took an unusual long time to reach the screen, arriving almost a decade after the corresponding BBC series. This is the first of the films to be in color. Curiously, it has a different actor in the title role than the previous two feature film outings, with Andrew Keir replacing Brian Donlevy. Stranger still is Keir is not even top-billed, as the producers didn’t think he was enough of a name.
Keir brings a different flavor to the role. He’s rather meek compared to Donlevy, who often came across as crass and pushy. Kneale famously did not take to Donlevy’s portrayal, but I thought he made Quatermass a slightly unusual character, more of a kind of anti-hero at times.
This time, the professor is involved in an investigation that began with bones and skulls of early hominids being unearthed during a subway excavation. An artist’s reconstruction of these proto-humans reveals them to be short and with elongated skulls.
Even more unusual is the discovery nearby of what at first appears to be an unexploded bomb left over from the war. Further excavation reveals it to be an alien craft, made of a material that is more resistant to heat than any other known at the time.
Measuring the ship reveals a wall at one end conceals a compartment. There is a symbol on the wall made of overlapping circles, which Keir describes as a pentagram. I wonder where this diplomas are from that he doesn’t know what a pentagram looks like.
A diamond drill is brought in but fails to penetrate the wall. I was amused the wall eventually melts away, apparently of its own accord. The drill operator also amused me, as he tells a military guy (Julian Glover) about a similar job he did before which was “secret, like this one”, to which Glover drolly replies, “Then I’m glad you don’t talk about it.”
The dissolved wall reveals the corpses of large locust-like creatures, which begin dissolving almost as soon as air hits them. Kier muses the bugs seem reminiscent of gargoyles. The creatures have thin, small, horn-like protrusions where one might usually expect antennae on an insect. It is suggested these startlingly large bugs were the source of the image of horned demons throughout history. Further evidence for their nature is that the subway station where the ship was found is on Hobb’s Lane. Barbara Shelley observes the street was originally spelled “Hob’s”, which she says was another name for the devil.
That is hardly the beginning of the lunacy in this film. In addition to the suggestion these alien bugs were the inspiration for the human concept of the devil, it is believed these are Martians and that they abducted early ancestors of man. Then they accelerated our evolution, with the goal of using them to colonize our planet by putting their minds into the proto-human’s brains.
That’s a lot to chew on. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what happened in the film, given how weird the concepts are in this. I found it admirable a film of this vintage could throw me for a loop this hard. That’s not even getting into the business involving a headset the scientists build through which they can watch the wearer’s thoughts on a monitor.
This is how we learn our Martian insect overlords needed to evacuate their home planet because of some sort of looming catastrophe. The discovery of this led to this exchange which has stuck in my mind: “What if we found the Earth was doomed by something, let’s say climate changes, what would we do?” “Probably nothing and go on arguing about the same old things.” As I write this, each year continues to be hotter on average worldwide that any previous one on record. And this is an election year, but it seems the arguments are about everything but cooling the planet. It seems to me this movie from 1967 suggests we were more intelligent then than we are now.
Dir: Roy Ward Baker
Starring Andrew Kier, Barbara Shelley, James Donald
Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray