Quatermass and the Pit [Five Million Years to Earth] **** (1967, Andrew Keir, James Donald, Barbara Shelley, Julian Glover) – Classic Movie Review 3166

Director Roy Ward Baker 1967 sci-fi horror movie is the third and last of the Hammer Films’ versions of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass BBC television serials. It has London Underground excavators digging up a spaceship and the bones of an alien crew. The best of the series, it is full of original author Nigel Kneale’s inventive ideas, and filmed in Technicolor by cinematographer Arthur Grant with much imagination and style.

Though André Morrell (from the TV series) and Brian Donlevy (from The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2) were both excellent, Andrew Keir proves arguably the best Professor Bernard Quatermass ever. The story grips and scares, and there’s an amusing climax when the Devil appears over London, though of course the film misses out on today’s state-of-the-art special effects.

It also stars James Donald as Dr Mathew Roney, Barbara Shelley as Barbara Judd, Julian Glover as Colonel Breen, Duncan Lamont as Sladden and Bryan Marshall as Captain Potter.

Also in the cast are Edwin Richfield, Peter Copley, Maurice Good, Grant Taylor, Robert Morris, Sheila Steafel, Hugh Fletcher, Hugh Morton, Thomas Heathcoate, Noel Howlett, Hugh Manning, June Ellis, Keith Marsh, James Culliford, Bee Duffell, Roger Avon, Brian Peck, John Graham and Charles Lamb.

John Mills played Quatermass in a 1978 four-part TV film Quatermass (released in America and on British video as a 107-minute feature The Quatermass Conclusion).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3166

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