Written by / 10/30/2023 / No comments / , , , , , , , , , , , ,

VAL GUEST DIRECTS HAMMER'S 'QUATERMASS 2' WITH BRIAN DONLEVY

Original British Title: QUATERMASS 2 American: ENEMY FROM SPACE Year: 1957 Rating: ****

Both of Val Guest's 1950's Hammer QUATERMASS vehicles rely on different science-fiction scenarios, so you don't have to watch one to enjoy the other: starting with a Frankenstein story involving the titular scientist's funded return-space-flight gone awry, and the second has aliens behind a project meant to send rockets back up into space (while some kind of comet dust is randomly burning people's skin)... 

Condensed into a 90-minute programmer involving an enigmatic town, created within a power plant to supposedly make food for humans to live on a moon colony (borrowed from Quatermass's abandoned project), then engulfing one man with a tar-like substance: a horrifying image that this particular Hammer's best remembered...

Vera Day in QUATERMASS 2

Ironically, for such a far-out tale, the most important element's grounded in a jitterbugging beer pub that features lovely waitress (and British scream queen) Vera Day, alongside Percy Herbert as the most determined of a group of disgruntled construction workers...

Who did all the heavy lifting for the ever-suspicious factory, joining with American import Brian Donlevy as the title Quatermass (later joined by Sidney James's boozing journalist), fervently spouting rushed exposition to keep the page-turning thriller rolling under the flowing direction of Hammer stock Val Guest...

John Van Eyssen and Brian Donlevy in QUATERMASS 2

Yet QUATERMASS 2 leaves the best aspects to the imagination, sparked by matte painted visuals, like an ominous factory-sized dome or a parked rocket-ship, straight from those wonderfully fantastical pages of vintage sci-fi magazines...

And what eventually connects both Guest-Hammer QUATERMASS pictures is a gigantic alien monster attacking in a noisy climax — just in case the more standard and studied, pulpy elements (from theorized dialogue to machine-gun-wielding baddies) weren't enough for those early genre addicts, who get... despite this being a fan favorite... more an appetizer than the original's more satisfying, full-course meal: yet is still a nice little run, and gets better with every viewing.

Brian Donlevy and Bryan Forbes in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and Bryan Forbes in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and Bryan Forbes in QUATERMASS 2 with William Franklyn
Brian Donlevy in QUATERMASS 2
Tom Chatto in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and Sidney James in QUATERMASS 2
Vera Day and Sidney James in QUATERMASS 2
Vera Day and Percy Herbert in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and Bryan Forbes in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and William Franklyn in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and Michael Ripper in QUATERMASS 2
Space Monster attacks QUATERMASS 2
Vera Day and Brian Donlevy in QUATERMASS 2
Vera Day in QUATERMASS 2
Vera Day and Brian Donlevy in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy in QUATERMASS 2 aka ENEMY FROM SPACE
Bryan Forbes in QUATERMASS 2
John Van Eyssen and Jane Aird in QUATERMASS 2
John Van Eyssen and Jane Aird in QUATERMASS 2 with Brian Donlevy
John Van Eyssen and Jane Aird in QUATERMASS 2 with Brian Donlevy and John Rae
Tom Chatto in QUATERMASS 2 with Brian Donlevy 
Val Guest's QUATERMASS 2 with Brian Donlevy

London establishing shot in QUATERMASS 2
Brian Donlevy and Tom Chatto in QUATERMASS 2
John Longden in QUATERMASS 2
John Van Eyssen in QUATERMASS 2


Share This Post :
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

DEFENDING THE BREEZY SEQUEL 'BREAKIN 2': ELECTRIC BOOGALOO'

Title: BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Year: 1984 Rating: *** Cannon Films' BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO  was rushed out the same...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "Yeah, and the devil serves lemonade, right?" David Proval, Kojak

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)THE BREAK 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)CALCULATED RISK 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)JUNGLE STREET 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)MODEL SHOP 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)RIOT 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6)CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)SAM PECKINPAH 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

Most Popular Last Year