X the Unknown ***½ (1956, Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley, William Lucas) – Classic Movie Review 3161

‘It rises from 2000 miles below the earth to melt everything in its path!’

That fine American star character actor Dean Jagger comes to the UK in 1956 to star as canny old Doctor Adam Royston, who finds himself in Scotland leading an epic battle against some monstrous slimy stuff For some peculiar plot reason it is oozing out of the creepy moors and wanting to feed on the local radioactive material. Is Doctor Royston going to prove clever and strong enough to stop the slime before it consumes one and all? Is he the hero, or what?

Writing a fresh and entertaining new story, Hammer Films’ stalwart writer Jimmy Sangster makes the most of his first big chance in the company’s welcome second horror venture (after 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment) to write the story and screenplay. Before shooting began, Ealing Studios veteran Leslie Norman was called in to replace the original, supposedly sick director Joseph Losey (working uncredited as Joseph Walton), and Norman directs it quite imaginatively and persuasively.

Gerald Gibbs’s stark, documentary-style black and white cinematography, Jagger’s commanding performance and the stalwart Brit support cast help to give the movie a ‘real’ look, much surprising credibility and an eerie atmosphere. X the Unknown’s big virtue is in starting and ending strongly, though the central reels are sluggish.

It also stars Edward Chapman as John Elliott, Leo McKern as Inspector ‘Mac’ McGill, Anthony Newley as Lance Corporal ‘Spider’ Webb and William Lucas as Peter Elliott.

Also in the cast are John Harvey, Ian MacNaughton, Jameson Clark, Frazer Hines, Kenneth Cope, Archie Duncan, Edwin Richfield, Peter Hammond, Marianne Brauns, Michael Ripper, Jane Aird, Norman Macowan, Neil Hallett, Michael Brooke, Max Brimmell, Robert Bruce, Brown Derby, Stella Kemball, Brian Peck, Anthony Sagar, John Stone, Shaw Taylor and Neil Wilson. It is Frazer Hines’s debut, aged 12.

It runs 86 minutes with the cut version running at 78 minutes.

The real story is that Hollywood blacklisted director Losey was replaced by Leslie Norman before shooting began after Dean Jagger refused to work with a director he thought of as a Communist sympathiser, and Losey’s departure was publicly announced as illness.

Allegedly, Norman didn’t want to make the film, but did it for the sake of work. Allegedly also, Jagger, crew members and the Hammer bosses found Norman difficult to work with, and even after good reviews, Hammer never worked with Norman again.

The film was intended as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment but creator Nigel Kneale vetoed Sangster using his characters so Professor Bernard Quatermass swiftly became Dr Adam Royston.

The Atomic Energy Establishment governmental group is based at Lochmouth, Scotland.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3161

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