Friday, October 16, 2009

Hammerin' Fears: "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955)

Hammerin' Fears
Hello, Pulp Friends,

today's Hammer Classic is "The Quatermass Xperiment", directed by Val Guest and starring Brian Donlevy and Jack Warner.
Here's the synopsis, for those 2 or 3 of you who don't know about this movie ;)

Britain's first rocket has been successfully launched and returns to Earth but communication has been severed. Only one of the three spacemen (Wordsworth) remains on board whose physical and mental health has been severely damaged. He is put under strict observation but his wife smuggles him out of the hospital only to unleash the biggest threat ever to civilisation. For the survivor is being consumed by an alien force, who gains strength from human flesh to multiple and grow, threatening to engulf and kill all living organisms. Professor Quatermass (Donlevy) must find a way to overcome the thing before it becomes impossible.

I decided to portray what happened on the rocket before it returned to Earth.

Buona Visione and have a Pulp Friday everyone! :)

Cheers,
Francesco

The Quatermass Xperiment

Artwork © 2009 Francesco Francavilla.
"Hammerin' Fears" and "The Vault of Fear" © and TM 2009 Francesco Francavilla.

7 comments:

Rob M. Worley said...

Awesome as usual. I've really been enjoying the TWILIGHT ZONE ones. I'm a big student of that show.

Chuck Wells said...

Very interesting take on this, I like it alot.

Francesco Francavilla said...

@Rob: hey man, good to see you here :D and thank you so much for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the TZ series - I should be able to do a few more before the month is over.
@Chuck: glad to hear you dig the approach :) I am trying a modern and classic approach at the same time on these hammer tributes. Thanks! :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Britt Reid said...

Superb, as always!
Really captures the anguish they felt as they were infected! (And you got the suit details right!)

One note: both Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass II were black & white.
Quatermass & the Pit and Quatermass Conclusion were color.

Have you heard about the theory that the plots of all four Quatermass films were adapted (some say pirated) into the X-Files "mytharc"?

Check out http://www.the11thhour.com/archives/091999/features/muldermass6.html for their take on Quatermass Xperiment!

Francesco Francavilla said...

Thank you, Britt :D No, I didn't know about the X-Files/Quatermass connection (even though I wouldn't be surprised - for example the current Fringe seems, to me, very much inspired by X-Files and with lots' of structure plot from Terminator movies). I need to check into that.
I also heard that the orginal brioadcasted Quatermass shows (which were later adapted in these movies) have been lost from the BBC archives: pity.

Cheers,
Francesco

Unknown said...

Fan-freaking-tastic!
(Fan-freaking-cesco?)
I only recently saw this movie, myself (yes, I know...I've been working on educating myself..God Bless Hulu.com!), and I really enjoyed it. It had a very serious treatment of the topic, and the outer-space tie-in was wonderful. Another movie with a wonderful, sci/fi tie-in was "The Crawling Hand"...very similar, but you had more contact with the poor, doomed astronaut in orbit.
I'm lovin these posters, my friend...how the heck do you ever find the time...?

-Dave Flora

Francesco Francavilla said...

I don't find the time, Dave, I MAKE the time ;) Glad you are enjoying these, my friend, and glad to hear you are re-discovering these classics :)

Cheers,
Francesco