I remember seeing Quatermass and the Pit as a child. I didn’t know the title of the movie and it haunted me for years. All I could remember about it were the insect creatures and the devil. As an adult I search and search trying to figure out what the movie was. Eventually I saw a clip on RU-vid and mystery solved.
Quatermass and the Pit (the Hammer version) is actually my favourite film. The scene with the horned devil, is so powerful - Nigel Kneale wove elements of historic religious beliefs into the plot, which still makes it a really good watch, over 50 years after it was made!
I wish I could see it again with my adult eyes. I remember the scene where they tried to drill into it and vaguely remember the devil head floating in sky, but the plot lines I can't remember. I do know I wasn't terrified though, mainly because I was into science fiction even at early age.
(2:28) Boy, Holst's The Planets Mars sure has gotten a lot of use over the years, eh? 😉Great series, Professor! Sorry I'm late to the party! The Quatermass movies/stories have been a favorite of mine since I was a wee lad in the late 70s/80s. Scared me to DEATH! 😉
I saw Quatermass II (as "Enemy from Space") as a kid of eleven with my mum on TV back in 1965. It scared the daylights out of me and I had trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards.
Hi Professor: really enjoy the videos and your level of research and production value. Look forward to and know I'll be seeing you on a network soon. Keep it coming. I'm here in California and I'm a big fan of Quartermass and the Pit. Ever since I was a kid. The title is different here in the states but its a great flick. Thanks for the video hospitality. Keep it up.
Excellent story telling from both Nigel and yourself, having witnessed a thing hidden in plain sight I love the sub-plot! ( back in 2016 I witnessed a large triangular shape pass behind the ISS when I pressed NASA for an answer their response was cubesats! Subsequently I've witnessed at least 2 more triangles, both around the ISS, the brightest object in the night sky)
Evening Prof! The suspense is building, Flash Gordon had me stamping my feet with excitement at the local ABC cinema in the mid -1960's along with 100's of other kids, I wonder if these films will do so now? Grand bit o' presenting sir! VBW Glenn x
the photographs at around 10minutes are from the Hammer Version of Quatermass 2 with Donlevy; the BBC version starred John Robinson. It is fantastic that Nigel Kneale is being discussed. He is one of the true great of Science Horror writers: Stone Tapes is another one of his that I would really recommend!
One love prof. Keep keeping on. No matter what . You're a legend. Your content is brilliant, informing and interesting! Fuck all the haters, let them do what they do. We're all up for the education you so thoughtfully provide us. Thank you. !
I watched the whole of Quatermass and the pit when I was a youngster on my parent’s TV in our home in Derbyshire. I think it must have been televised on a Saturday or maybe it was Friday, but I remember my parents reading a newspaper article where pub landlords were protesting that their pubs were empty at a peak time. Their customers were all staying home to watch it :-))
If those pub landlords had had any brains, they would have acquired the biggest screen televisions they could afford and let customers watch the show in the pub...you know, the way they do nowadays with football matches.
There are actually 3 versions of this. My personal favourite was (i think) the 1968 one, being in colour and featuring a gorgeous assistant, who Quatermass has to save for that kiss kiss ending, a tiny bit of Hollywood creeping into a somewhat frigid English film? All 3 are def worth watching!
Dear professor, there is a huge potential in you creating longer podcasts. Your show is mesmerizing. I listened to the previous part while biking and I was so entertained and felt kind of informed about something that I would not have found interesting otherwise. And please don't mind the bullies. They come and learn as well. Have a great day 🌞🔥
It's just a movie . . . a fictitious bit of entertainment. nothing but pure pleasure to be had, if you want it. Thank you Mr Proffesor S for the movie history lessons.
For years I had a memory of watching Quatermas and the Pit with my father on television. This would have been in Saskatchewan in Canada, late 60s, I would have been maybe 5. Specifically I remembered the scene with the man climbing the crane while the horned devil loomed overhead. It scared the bejeepers out of me. I had no idea what that movie was called and sometimes wondered if I'd seen it at all. It took over 40 years but I finally came across the movie playing on some random network. It was like having a scratch it itched. It's held up surprisingly well.
Quatermass 2 was recently shown on Talking Pictures TV, i think that was the channel, anyway i watched it. Brian Donlevey played Quatermass with Sid James as the reporter. The Schwepps drinks ad man William Franklin and a young Brian Forbes. Thats just from memory its that good, it was supposed to be scary in its day, i was howling. For what they had to work with it is brilliant.
Another interesting TV, SciFi drama that needs analysis, and also has only one or two filmed episodes available today, is 'A for Andromeda' by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot. A book based on the film's plot was published in 1962; a copy of which I managed to bye from a used book shop in Fremantle, Western Australia in the 70's. A good story to both see (if it were available) and read.
Great video again! We had good UK made tv programs in Colombia back in the 70`s and 80`s, I remember Survivors and it`s spooky intro, it was very good.
Wow! Great stuff Professor! Those miserable hut like houses were looked down upon and called “pre-fabs”. As in the sentence, “....that family aren’t up to much, they all live in a pre-fab”. But they were manly for housing families that had been bombed out in London, so the slur was not really fair. I remember the trailer that they used, some time into the episodes, not at the beginning, where the terrified army electric drill operator, bravely manning the tiny Black and Decker trying to drill a hole in the spaceship. He screams and over-acts his terror brilliantly, with his only speaking part, waving a tremulous finger he points at the ship “ ...it went.... through the walll!”
Well done Professor Simon, in this case saying the least said the most, gave your argument strength and cut right into the core, with your well crafted psychological maneuver, not mentioning the channel name of the fallacious "strange guy" whom criticises you. I believe something good will come out of the individuals negativity., eg generate more interest in your channel, increasing subscribers, viewing times, likes and comments, and further engagement between viewers. Thank you for setting the bar high and continuing the same high standard we've been accustomed to.
Brilliant. I loved this video. Looking forward to next week's video. I think it is that it is about the one that had such a huge impact on me when I was very young. Can't wait.
I wasn't born in 1950 and remember Quatermass coming to TV, but my parents wouldn't let me watch as I was too young! However, I di remember seeing Quatermass and the Pit a bit later. These memories stay with me more than other SF films.
Funny that you would have someone make an account just to challenge you. I wrote an essay on Quatermass 7 years ago called "Euston, we have a problem" Euston being the studio used for the 1960's productions. I also remarked that not only did Neal have an uncanny sense for horror / scifi, but that many of his ideas from 'the pit' are now real technologies, like sonic weapons, microwaves, telepathic electronics (and no visible wiring, where have we heard that before?) Did he somehow just predict the future accurately, or did he know more from the beginning. Even that image of the skinny grey gives me the creeps 50 years later! Nice topic Prof, and i take your word for it on the additional info ;)
@@ProfSimonHolland I will try to send it to you, if i can find it! Yes the contemporary class structure was there, but my focus was on Kneal's incredible insight. Heat rays, microwave mind meltdown,"no visible wiring" etc. He was way ahead of his time with these concepts, that intrigues me a great deal.
Quatermass and the Pit also led to the sublime BBC "Goon Show" tribute radio show by Spike Milligan, "The Scarlet Capsule", in which a long-buried artifact (a London Tube train), contains, 'the skeletons of three blue serge suits and the bones of a bowler hat'. After 50 years, the movie is still outstanding..
Ahhh! Intrigued! I saw 5 million year to earth when I was a wee lad. Didn't understand it and didn't seem complete or just had a bad ending....hence the fly on the lens...lol. good stuff professor!
I trained as a film editor at Ealing Studios. I also saw Quatermass and the Pit - I don't remember the others, but I later saw a repeat of QII. They were pretty scary, for a kid!
The reason many Ufo and Horror movies are so soul shaking for some is that we as Earth Humans have a genetic marker passed from generation to generation that has our basic Bios. That basic Bios has information who,what and where basic instruction set. That set includes inherent loves,fears,etc..... There sure seems too be a big emphasis in our original programming that things from the Sky/Space and The Dark are too be feared or at least made aware of.
10:05 those helmets kinda break it for me - they look like something that Spike Milligan would have worn in Q for comic effect. Watching it all again, it's a mix of intrigue, fear and sudden outbursts of « hahaha check out the headgear! » which bring you back to realising it's the 1950s. If it wasn't so compelling to watch the contrast of this wouldn't be so bad, which is actually a compliment I suppose. A similar « hahaha - headgear » moment occurs in Kin Zsa Zsa, a great cult Russian sci-fi movie.
Haha... you tell them mate. There's another film that needs to be seen but this one is not advertised or promoted in any way - I get the feeling this is one film they do not want people to watch. John Carpenter - They Live (1988). The acting sucks because he used a wrestler as the lead actor, but the implications of what he put in the story is dead serious. It's not as good a film as The Thing but it is really interesting.
I Love The so hidden messages with you left hand ,🐓 Professor, I not blowing smoke at the moment Your the man, Please speak about what Happened to Capital City in the States
In America after WWII there was a similar thing to New Towns. We called them Levittowns after the business man who made a fortune building them for all the veterans coming back. From what I see here, it looks like your New Towns were typical products of socialism. No wonder Neale hated them.
That theme tune you played was brilliant and I remembered it well.....BUT it's from Mars bringer of wars Not Quatermass. I think I deserve a shout out for that LOL and if I'm wrong I'll give you a shoutout on my channel (I'll probably do that anyway) I remember watching this film on a Friday night in the late 70's or early 80's when my parents would go to the pub on a Friday and Saturday night and leave 3 young kids at home...we watched a LOT of sci-fi and horror movies back when we were kids heh heh. brilliant and most interesting video as always Professor Simon. Oh and my channel name is from H2G2 (if you worked at the beeb you'll get it or remember Douglas Adams) Paul
So is the original quartermaster xperiment extant now? I think I might have seen it on telly but it would be long after it went out. I remember a film where the guys arm swells up and he keeps clench and u clench his fist and goes to a chemist, in black and white. You could remove the fly digitally now.
We love you professor! Send any bad news or bs my way. Thank you so much and you are as worthy of any any other scientist, Astrophysicist or doctor. Happy new year!
I wonder if the guy who created the creatures for Quatermass And The Pit was the same person who created the Raggity doll for the Rupert The Bear tv puppet show. They both have a similar creepiness about them. Brrr!
where i used to live in waltham abbey they had the very mysterious erde explosive research facility.we even had overshots! occassionaly small bits of shrapnel hit houses in the area.it was all protected by mod armed police.my uncle was in scotland yards flying squad in the 60s and told us that one night they were parked up out of sight by the fence of the facility intending to nick i believe harry roberts the killer of 3 policemen who had hid out in epping forest nearby .they were staking out an associate of his house on the chance hed probably go there as the net tightened.this was national news the hunt for him on tv and in the papers.my uncle said 3 landrovers pulled up full of armed mod police. even though they had id were armed themselves they were effectively held at gunpoint and marched into the plant until their bonafides were checked .by this time their stakeout was blown! back at the yard much like lomax in the movie any attempt by the chief super to find out about the mod police and botching a serious operation and where they were based to prevent it happening again was met by a wall of silence.they were much like the very secret nuclear police now accountable to nobody.my uncle did say it wasnt too sinister as they were more like parking wardens with guns but absolute jobsworths when it came to ignoring police warrent cards and the reason they were there.roberts was found in the forest by the squad next day thankfully.its scary though when you think our top coppers of the day the elite flying squad had no authority over this anonymous force.some of the stuff being made and stored there wasnt very nice either.after it closed the mod paid out millions to peoples relatives who lived near it.they all died of a rare form of leaukeamia leaked we presume from the site.not aliens but deadly all the same!
Yes, and interestingly, in one of the title cards introducing the next episode in the Quatermass & the Pit TV series (which I have on DVD), they make the same mistake and call it "Quartermass". Ooops!
Intro Voice Over: A goat in the studio is no accident. The space aliens and Satan have horns like the goat. What is the symbolism of the goat eating the microphone? Professor Holland is sending a message to his audience that he has alien minders there with him and he may not be as frank as he could be. So while we probe the real meanings of the Quartermas series, the audience needs to probe the message the Professor is sending us in his broadcast. Maybe they aren't coming. Maybe they are already here! Video: Run Title Audio: Cue: Holst's "Mars the Bringer of War".
Really? Someone would go to the trouble of starting a channel to criticize your videos? Professor, you have a gift for making them look like the fools they are! The saying 'the flak is heaviest over the target ' comes first to my mind. This makes me look more closely at your videos than I already do, trying to see what it is The Powers That Be don't want seen!
He has a point about, why is it scary??. When I was a kid I used to be scared of the blob, alien, the thing was super scary back then. Now it doesn't bother me watching something like that. But for some reason, when I watched quatermass and the pit, and at bed time I flick the light off, it has a worrisome effect, albeit a small one. If I were to guess, its because the whole horned devil presence, as it were, is so intangible. You cant quantify it. But that is just a guess, I don't know why its so creepy. Perhaps the producer has hit the nail on the head, and there really is a deep dark alien presence that influences our minds, as if a doorway has been placed in our minds via the manipulation of our genetic code long long ago, and these entities just sits back and watches and waits for an opportunity to take over when the conditions are rite. dun dun duuurrrr!!
hi Jim, quatermass has this effect on most people, especially british viewers. i wanted to ask the question why? I agree with you, kneale wrote about deep dark fears we all have, possibly based on some horrible ancient truth.
Now THAT is one which reminds me of my youth. It seemed to get repeated fairly regularly in the 70s and me and my siblings would watch it from our beds on the old black and white telly which had been relegated to our bedroom after we got our first colour TV.
Please help me with this, theres a quatermass 2 movie and a tv series?? I only see episodes but see they say its a movie called enemy of space. I loved quatermass xperiment and really want to find out before starting the episode 1. Also, how is quatermass the pit?
Same thing with "Threads" which I have met several people who have said that the program scared them so much that one guy said he literally emptied his bowels at the thought that WW3 would kick off.
@@ProfSimonHolland We covered the subject in a series of English classes (modern literature type stuff) and like the "Of mice and Men" book we had just covered, the teacher decided to use TV and turned threads in to a set of lessons and because it was relevant and on TV, the dunces at the back paid attention and actually, according to the teacher, turned in some really good work... Almost a copy of the script...
