# Quatermass and the Pit (1968)- Are we human?



## ray gower (Feb 12, 2005)

> _synopsis_
> Workmen extending the London Underground, discover a war time bomb amongst an ancient burial site. Professor Quatermass is less convinced that the explanation is so simple, especially when he discovers the areas history.
> So it proves as dark forces are released on the Earth that threaten not only mankinds future, but his history.



There are several possible themes for space Sci/Fi: Man finds Aliens (Alien, Star Trek etc). Aliens find Man (ET, Invasion of the Body Snatchers etc.). Quatermass and the Pit belongs to the third class: Man is Alien.

It is also one of the few horror films that have ever left an impression beyond the going home pint in the pub afterwards. To be quite honest it scared the living daylights out of me the first time I saw it in 1968 (The BBC version 10 years previously had the same effect as well).

Where as The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass II, both superb Sci/Fi shockers of their time, have been relegated in film terms to dodgy B's despite their strong stories and acting, the Pit is still more than capable of making the hackles of alarm stir!

Like the first two films, the Pit is full of solid character actors that carry the tension and building horror (the vision of the police sergeant near the beginning, disolve into a fearful wreck as he remembers stories from his childhood of the happenings in Hob's Lane must come as a classic from any support actor). The difference is that a little more money was spent on effects, but they are used sparingly and in sympathy with what the characters are doing. 

Andrew Keir, the original Quatermass from the BBC series, is a far better Quatermass than Levey when it comes to feeling sympathy as he fights stupidity in higher circles.


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## Dave (Feb 13, 2005)

I don't really remember 'The Quatermass Xperiment' or 'Quatermass II', but like you I have vivid memories of seeing this (probably later than 1968) and it also scared the living daylights out of me too. I say it must have been later than 1968, because I don't think I would have been old enough to be allowed to watch it then (though I do remember watching 'The Avengers' when I was very lucky.)


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## BAYLOR (Jun 7, 2016)

Quatermass  and the the Pit alwsy struck me as being a lovecraftain film with shades  of *At The Mountains  of Madness* and *The Shadow out of Time .*


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## BAYLOR (Oct 30, 2016)

The film like the 1958 tv serial of  its based on is very unsettling to  watch . One scene come to mind, when the workman went to collect his tools, he goes in to the capsule and the lights  suddenly go out and then all hell breaks lose.


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## mosaix (Oct 31, 2016)

I vaguely remember all three Quatermass TV series (I would have been about ten years old) - The Pit most vividly. The special effects weren't all that special but somehow that made it all the more scary - that and it was in black and white. I do remember a scene where some guy fell onto a graveled path and the path rippled underneath him - it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

I think they were six episode serials. Each episode always ended on a cliff-hanger or something a bit spooky.


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## Extollager (Oct 31, 2016)

BAYLOR said:


> Quatermass  and the the Pit alwsy struck me as being a lovecraftain film with shades  of *At The Mountains  of Madness* and *The Shadow out of Time .*





This is the one with the Martian remains.  I wish I remembered when it was that, as a


youngster, I saw this, as _Five Million Years to Earth_.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 31, 2016)

mosaix said:


> I vaguely remember all three Quatermass TV series (I would have been about ten years old) - The Pit most vividly. The special effects weren't all that special but somehow that made it all the more scary - that and it was in black and white. I do remember a scene where some guy fell onto a graveled path and the path rippled underneath him - it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
> 
> I think they were six episode serials. Each episode always ended on a cliff-hanger or something a bit spooky.



It was six episodes and they were very suspenseful.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 9, 2017)

One scene that really creeped me out  in the 1967  film,  was  the one in which  the Police officer told  Quatermass about the the houses in Hobs end that were abandoned not because of the London Blitz WW2  like Colonel Breen and the military people believed ,  but because people wouldn't live in them due to strange noises and apparitions and other things . They both proceed  across the street into one of the decrepit and abandoned houses . Once inside house  the first thing you can't help but  notice are  the scratches on the walls, which made that scene all the more unsettling .  As Quatermass questions the officer who was from Hobs end , about the what went there years ago,  the officer  became ever more  uncomfortable taking about it  and then stopped talking about it and , when the subject of the scratches on the wall came up and bolted from the house. saying the scratches were cause by" kids playing " . This one part  in which the film actually does a better job then 1958 serial. Interestingly the police officer in 1967 film also played a police officer in the 1958 serial too.


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## mosaix (Jan 9, 2017)

The Goons did a great send up of Quatermass and the pit. According to them the 'space ship' was an abandoned tube train that had been shunted into a siding and forgotten.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 9, 2017)

mosaix said:


> The Goons did a great send up of Quatermass and the pit. According to them the 'space ship' was an abandoned tube train that had been shunted into a siding and forgotten.



 Do they have it on Youtube?


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## mosaix (Jan 9, 2017)

BAYLOR said:


> Do they have it on Youtube?



No. It was a radio program. But I have a recording on a vinyl LP record that, I now realise, is 53 years old. 

It still plays perfectly however. Not a scratch.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 9, 2017)

mosaix said:


> No. It was a radio program. But I have a recording on a vinyl LP record that, I now realise, is 53 years old.
> 
> It still plays perfectly however. Not a scratch.



Wasn't Peter Sellars on that show?


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## BAYLOR (Jan 9, 2017)

Extollager said:


> This is the one with the Martian remains.  I wish I remembered when it was that, as a
> 
> 
> youngster, I saw this, as _Five Million Years to Earth_.




I first saw this film back in the early 1970's .


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## mosaix (Jan 9, 2017)

BAYLOR said:


> Wasn't Peter Sellars on that show?



Peter Sellars, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe.

Milligan also wrote the scripts. For years The Goons was the most popular radio program on the BBC. Millions tuned in every week. Writing it almost drove him to a nervous breakdown. I believe the BBC paid him a paltry £40 per episode.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 10, 2017)

mosaix said:


> Peter Sellars, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe.
> 
> Milligan also wrote the scripts. For years The Goons was the most popular radio program on the BBC. Millions tuned in every week. Writing it almost drove him to a nervous breakdown. I believe the BBC paid him a paltry £40 per episode.



That's poverty wages , he could have made more money in the movies.


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## HanaBi (Jan 10, 2017)

mosaix said:


> Peter Sellars, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe.
> 
> Milligan also wrote the scripts. For years The Goons was the most popular radio program on the BBC. Millions tuned in every week. Writing it almost drove him to a nervous breakdown. I believe the BBC paid him a paltry £40 per episode.



Actually 40 quid back in say 1956 (the midpoint of the Goons broadcasting era), would be worth about £690 in today's money! (Unless of course you're referring to £40 in today's money, which works out at £2.40 back then)


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## BAYLOR (Sep 18, 2017)

The 1967 film had a terrific director in the person of Roy Ward Baker. Who had done A Night to Remeber(still the best Titantic film ever made)


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## KGeo777 (Oct 20, 2017)

Nigel Kneale did the Abominable Snowman--another Hammer film with a "who is the real monster?" story line. Was the Yeti really the remnant of a dying race or waiting for Humans to wipe themselves out? 

Quatermass and the Pit is one Hammer made film that does not end with the preservation of society being a comforting thing-since it implies a corruption that can never be eliminated or redeemed. There is an uneasiness to the conclusion.

Also reminds me of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend which is essentially Dracula in reverse. The man becomes the monster.

"Your society is bad" theme is one Hollywood emphasized regularly through the 60s and 70s, and if there is a redemption element, it usually came from the foreign or alien (this is also true of Matheson stories where the fearful protagonist ultimately embraces the alien).

That alone is a stark contrast with Dracula where the threat to society is the foreign.


Later Kneale was involved with a planned remake of Creature From the Black Lagoon which would have also suggested that the Gill Man was not an evolutionary dead end but similar to the Yeti.

I read that Kneale was inspired by violent reactions to immigration increases in the UK when he wrote Q and the Pit, if true I have to wonder how current news and immigration effects would influence his thinking in that regard.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 13, 2017)

Whatever happened to the proposed reboot of Quatermass ?


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## BAYLOR (Dec 10, 2017)

KGeo777 said:


> Nigel Kneale did the Abominable Snowman--another Hammer film with a "who is the real monster?" story line. Was the Yeti really the remnant of a dying race or waiting for Humans to wipe themselves out?
> 
> Quatermass and the Pit is one Hammer made film that does not end with the preservation of society being a comforting thing-since it implies a corruption that can never be eliminated or redeemed. There is an uneasiness to the conclusion.
> 
> ...



Ive seen the Abominable Snowman, I seem to recall that actor  Forest Tucker was in it .


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## KGeo777 (Dec 10, 2017)

BAYLOR said:


> Ive seen the Abominable Snowman, I seem to recall that actor  Forest Tucker was in it .


Yes he was.
They tended to stick an American actor in these UK films but in this case I think it helped give the character a PT Barnum feeling.


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## Caledfwlch (Dec 11, 2017)

BAYLOR said:


> Whatever happened to the proposed reboot of Quatermass ?



In 2005, the BBC did a live reboot of The Quatermas Experiment, with the likes of David Tennant and Mark Gattis, is that what you are thinking of?

Nigel Kneale was quite a writer - I think the recordings of one of his, The Road (iirc the name correctly) about a haunted forest, set a couple of years ago was fantastic - and that was just reading the Script.

It is a huge shame he never wrote for Doctor Who, but for some reason he loathed the Show


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## BAYLOR (Jan 6, 2018)

Caledfwlch said:


> In 2005, the BBC did a live reboot of The Quatermas Experiment, with the likes of David Tennant and Mark Gattis, is that what you are thinking of?
> 
> Nigel Kneale was quite a writer - I think the recordings of one of his, The Road (iirc the name correctly) about a haunted forest, set a couple of years ago was fantastic - and that was just reading the Script.
> 
> It is a huge shame he never wrote for Doctor Who, but for some reason he loathed the Show




I saw the live reboot on Youtube. It was okay , but nothing to write home about.

He didn't care too much the X Files either.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 4, 2018)

Then there is *The Stone Tape *. Very well written.


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## Vince W (Jun 4, 2018)

With the gorgeous Jane Asher no less!


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## BAYLOR (Jun 4, 2018)

Vince W said:


> With the gorgeous Jane Asher no less!



This is like something out of the X Files . Its good stuff !


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## Vince W (Jun 4, 2018)

If you look at her imdb page, she was also in the Hammer film The Quatermass Xperiment as a little girl.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 4, 2018)

Vince W said:


> If you look at her imdb page, she was also in the Hammer film The Quatermass Xperiment as a little girl.



interesting .

Do remember the aces in Quatermass and the Pit  1967  filmwhen Quatemass was having the conversation with police office about the abandoned houses ?  That same actor that played the cop also  played a  different cop in the 1958 serial .


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## Vince W (Oct 16, 2018)

The 1958 *Quatermass and the Pit* serial is currently available on BBC iPlayer for anyone so inclined.
BBC iPlayer - Quatermass and the Pit


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## mosaix (Oct 16, 2018)

Vince W said:


> The 1958 *Quatermass and the Pit* serial is currently available on BBC iPlayer for anyone so inclined.
> BBC iPlayer - Quatermass and the Pit


Wow! A must watch for me. 

Thanks, Vince.


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## mosaix (Oct 19, 2018)

Vince W said:


> The 1958 *Quatermass and the Pit* serial is currently available on BBC iPlayer for anyone so inclined.
> BBC iPlayer - Quatermass and the Pit



Watched all six episodes in one go on Wednesday. Thanks again, Vince. I would have missed it but for your post.

Two things. First, the semi-amateurish production was endearing. Almost like amateur dramatics at the local theatre. Having said that, the 'special effects' weren't bad at all considering the time it was produced.

Second, I first saw this when I was about ten years old and Quatermass's anti-racism speech at the end of episode six must had gone straight over my head at the time. Who'd have thought that it would have  remained relevant over 60 years later? A bit depressing really.


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## Vince W (Oct 19, 2018)

mosaix said:


> Watched all six episodes in one go on Wednesday. Thanks again, Vince. I would have missed it but for your post.
> 
> Two things. First, the semi-amateurish production was endearing. Almost like amateur dramatics at the local theatre. Having said that, the 'special effects' weren't bad at all considering the time it was produced.
> 
> Second, I first saw this when I was about ten years old and Quatermass's anti-racism speech at the end of episode six must had gone straight over my head at the time. Who'd have thought that it would have  remained relevant over 60 years later? A bit depressing really.


Happy to have helped.  

I was planning on watching at least part of it this weekend.

I like the old production styles of these sort of shows. They did their best, but I'm sure they knew they weren't really fooling anyone. They relied on a 'we know you know we know' attitude from the viewers I think.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 19, 2018)

mosaix said:


> Watched all six episodes in one go on Wednesday. Thanks again, Vince. I would have missed it but for your post.
> 
> Two things. First, the semi-amateurish production was endearing. Almost like amateur dramatics at the local theatre. Having said that, the 'special effects' weren't bad at all considering the time it was produced.
> 
> Second, I first saw this when I was about ten years old and Quatermass's anti-racism speech at the end of episode six must had gone straight over my head at the time. Who'd have thought that it would have  remained relevant over 60 years later? A bit depressing really.



One of the best science fiction tv dramas of all time.


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## Graymalkin (Oct 20, 2018)

Just finished watching ep 6 on BBC i player. Brilliant. Cheers @Vince W 
Main actors losing their footing, bumping into each other. Props and scenery noisy on and off screen. Loads of those awkward frozen moments between the start of a camera rolling and the actors starting their movement/lines. You can even see them looking for their cue. Mint. 
As noted already. It has an amateurish charm. In the right mood, quite risible.
But the story ... Took me many years and views of the '67 film to get a real appreciation for the quality of Kneale's story.
Tying in evolutionary science with archaeology, bio(genetic?)-engineering, computer science, parapsychology, religion, legends, folk tale and medieval history. Social history observations in changing street names, vignettes of past residents, nods to oral history and language change.
There's also a heavy message here. A human pathological need to group identify and an inherent fear of anyone/thing too different, leading to the irony of complete social collapse. Whatever the hidden origins of these traits only our conscious effort to encompass differences will save us and so on and so forth and what have you and Gwan Nige! Mint writing with a proper grand message.


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## Al Jackson (Oct 20, 2018)

Anyone ever seen the Anchor Bay Quatermass and the Pit? 
It had a commentary track by director Roy Ward Baker and writer Nigel Kneale.
This DVD flew underneath my radar, would love to know what Baker and Kneale had to say.


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## KGeo777 (Oct 20, 2018)

I listened to his commentary for the Abominable Snowman but it was disappointing since he was crabby about how it was filmed and didn't talk much about the story details. Val Guest was the chatty one and they were in separate interviews.

 In the QATP commentary, they are in the room together but there's a lot of dead air and Baker does most of the talking. 

Kneale said they were still finding WW2  bombs regularly in 1967. 

He said  the original idea was inspired at the time the H bomb was developed and the Russians had it and he wanted to do a story about a lone scientist who had to deal with the military wanting to use it for their own purposes. 
Baker added what made Quatermass interesting is that he is a "rough diamond --a liberal, a leftwinger"--not supportive of the military (isn't that also true of the scientist in THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD?). 

Kneale said  Brian Donlevy  was not the Quatermass he had written while Keir was. 
I liked Donlevy's grouchy slouchy scientist.

He had thought about doing a Quatermass meets Werner Von Braun story set in 1936.

Towards the end of it he says that in the story there are three kinds of people in the world--those who have almost complete Martian DNA (Colonel Breen). And those who are in the middle (Quatermass) who have "outgrown" a lot of it--and those like Roney who have completely outgrown the Martian influence. 
He then compares it to mob mentality and cites a Hitler rally with people cheering en masse.

Interestingly he didn't say what I had read somewhere that the idea was that everyone was already an alien. He seems to be suggesting the Martian dna influence could be expelled by natural genetic variations over time.


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## KGeo777 (Oct 21, 2018)

He first said the Martian thing was a mob mentality like "Los Angeles" something, I couldn't understand the reference. Maybe he meant LA riots. They should have transcripts of hard to hear audio commentaries.


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## dask (Oct 26, 2018)

*Jodorowsky's Dune*. October is Doctobor at the local art house cinema and this was one documentary I didn't want to walk away from. Jodorowsky's passionate attempt to make the world's most important movie (a paraphrase but an accurate one) is both fascinating and captivating and has made me decide to put *El Topo *on the fast track. A shame this particular *Dune* never got made. Could have been something to witness.


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