Enemy from Space (AKA Quatermass 2)
Directed by Val Guest
Written by Nigel Kneale and Val Guest
1957/UK
Hammer Films
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn’t come here. Well, it can’t hide forever – one day we will overhear it. Arthur C. Clarke [/box]
These Hammer sci-fi films are so refreshingly different than the giant creature movies that were dominating American sci-fi screens at the time.
Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is now working on a lunar colonization program, involving an elaborate facility that looks quite a bit like a nuclear power plant. As the film begins, a rock falls from the sky and burns a colleague, though it is cold to the touch. Investigation takes him to a nearby village and a top secret installation that looks identical to his own facility. The installation is protected by armed guards. At first, he can get no one to tell him what its purpose is.
Finally Quatermass contacts his old friend Inspector Lomax (John Longden) who is also reluctant to speak about it but refers the professor to a Member of Parliament who is investigating. The MP has finally wangled a pass to visit the plant, which he has been told is developing synthetic food. When the pair arrive, Quatermass deduces that it may be producing food – but not for humans …
I liked this though I found it somewhat slower moving than the original. Donlevy still makes a perfectly irascible Quatermass, barking orders to everyone whether they work for him or not.
Trailer
