Quatermass and the Pit (released as Five Million Years to Earth in the United States) is a 1967 British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions. It is a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors, it is based on a BBC Television serial, in this case Quatermass and the Pit, written by Nigel Kneale. It is directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir in the title role as Professor Bernard Quatermass, replacing Brian Donlevy, who played the role in the two earlier films. James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover appear in co-starring roles
The storyline, largely faithful to the original television production, centres on the discovery of ancient human remains buried at the site of an extension to the London Underground called Hobbs End. More shocking discoveries lead to the involvement of the space scientist Quatermass (Keir).
The film opened in November 1967 to favourable reviews, and remains generally well regarded.
Plot Workers building an extension to the London Underground at Hobbs End dig up a skull. Palaeontologist Dr. Matthew Roney identifies it as a five-million-year-old apeman, more ancient than previous finds. Part of a metallic object is uncovered nearby. Believing it to be an unexploded bomb from the London blitz, they call in an army bomb disposal team.
Meanwhile, Professor Bernard Quatermass learns that his plans for the colonisation of the Moon are to be taken over by the military, who want to establish missile bases in space. Colonel Breen is assigned to Quatermass's British Experimental Rocket Group. When the bomb disposal team call for Breen's assistance, Quatermass accompanies him to the site. When another skull is found within a chamber of the "bomb", they realise that the object must also be five million years old. Noting the ship's imperviousness to heat, Quatermass suspects it is of alien origin.
Roney's assistant, Barbara Judd, goes to the site with Quatermass. She becomes intrigued by the name of the area, recalling that "Hob" is an old name for the Devil. A policeman mentions a legend that the bombed-out house opposite the station is haunted. All three go there to investigate. Quatermass and Barbara later find historical accounts of hauntings and other spectral appearances going back centuries, coinciding with disturbances of the ground around Hobbs End.
A member of the bomb disposal team witnesses a spectral apparition of Roney's apeman appearing through the object's wall. An attempt to open a sealed chamber in the object using a Borazon drill fails. Later, however, a small hole is seen. The hole widens to reveal the corpses of insectoid creatures with horned heads. An examination of their physiology suggests that they came from Mars. They resemble images of the Devil; Quatermass believes that the spaceship is the source of the spectral images and disturbances.
They reveal their findings to the press. Quatermass theorises that the occupants of the spaceship came from a dying Mars. Unable to survive on Earth, they sought to preserve part of their race by creating a colony by proxy, by enhancing the intelligence of and imparting Martian faculties to the indigenous primitive hominids. Quatermass theorises that the insectoids used medical and surgical techniques that were more advanced than those on present-day Earth. These apemen's descendants evolved into humans, retaining the vestiges of Martian influence buried in their subconscious. Breen thinks that the "alien craft" is Nazi propaganda designed to sow fear among Londoners. A government minister believes Breen and decides to unveil the spaceship at a press conference.
The drill operator, Sladden, is later overcome by a psychic force and flees. His mind unleashes telekinetic energy displays, disrupting people and property. He comes to rest in a church. Before recuperating, Sladden has a vision of insect creatures under an alien sky. Sladden sees himself as one of them and feels that he has to flee to save his life. At Hobbs End, Quatermass brings a machine which taps into the primeval psyche. While trying to replicate the circumstances under which Sladden was affected, he notices that Barbara has fallen under the spaceship's influence. Using the machine, he records her thoughts. Quatermass presents the recording to the minister and other officials. It shows Martians engaged in what he interprets as a genocidal race purge, to cleanse the Martian hives of all mutations. The minister and Breen dismiss the recording.
A power line later is dropped within the craft, giving it a jolt of electrical energy. The effect and range of the spaceship's influence on Londoners increases; they go on a rampage, attacking all those perceived as different, with deadly telekinetic displays of energy. Breen is drawn towards the spaceship and killed by the energy emanating from it. Quatermass falls under the alien control too, but is snapped out of it by Roney, who is unaffected. A small portion of the population turns out to be immune. The psychic energy intensifies, ripping up streets and buildings, while a spectral image of a Martian resembling the image of the Devil of legend towers above London. Recalling stories about how the Devil could be defeated with iron and water, Roney theorises that the Martian energy can be discharged into the earth. Roney climbs a building crane and swings it into the image. The crane bursts into flames as it discharges the energy, killing Roney. The image and its effects on London disappear.
Cast
Production Origins
Professor Bernard Quatermass was introduced to audiences in two BBC television serials, The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and Quatermass II (1955), written by Nigel Kneale. The rights to both these serials were acquired by Hammer Film Productions, and the film adaptations – The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2, both directed by Val Guest and starring Brian Donlevy as Quatermass were released in 1955 and 1957, respectively. Kneale went on to write a third Quatermass serial, Quatermass and the Pit, for the BBC, which was broadcast in December 1958 and January 1959. Once again interested in making a film adaptation, Hammer and Kneale, who had by then left the BBC and was working as a freelance screenwriter, completed a script in 1961. It was intended that Val Guest would once again direct and Brian Donlevy would reprise his role of Quatermass, with production to commence in 1963. Securing financing for the new Quatermass film proved difficult. In 1957 Hammer had struck a deal with Columbia Pictures to distribute their pictures, and the companies collaborated on thirty films between 1957 and 1964. Columbia, which was not interested in Quatermass, passed on the script, and the production went into limbo for several years. In 1964 Kneale and Anthony Hinds submitted a revised, lower-budget script to Columbia, but the relationship between Hammer and Columbia had begun to sour and the script was again rejected. In 1966 Hammer entered into a new distribution deal with Seven Arts Productions, Associated British Picture Corporation, and Twentieth Century Fox; Quatermass and the Pit finally entered production.
Writing Kneale wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 1961, but difficulties in attracting interest from American co-financiers meant the film would not go into production until 1967.
The screenplay is largely faithful to the television original. The plot was condensed to fit the shorter running time of the film, the main casualty being the removal of a subplot involving the journalist James Fullalove. The climax was altered to make it more cinematic, with Roney using a crane to short out the Martian influence, whereas in the television version he throws a metal chain into the pit. The setting for the pit was changed from a building site to the London Underground. The closing scene of the television version, in which Quatermass pleads with humanity to prevent Earth becoming the "second dead planet", was also dropped, in favour of a shot of Quatermass and Judd sitting alone amid the devastation wrought by the Martian spacecraft.
Casting Andrew Keir, playing Quatermass, found making the film an unhappy experience, believing Baker had wanted Kenneth More in the role.
James Donald first came to prominence playing Theo van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956) before going on to play a string of roles in the World War II prisoner of war films The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Great Escape (1963) and King Rat (1965). Although not playing the title role, Donald was accorded top-billing status.
Nigel Kneale had long been highly critical of Brian Donlevy's interpretation of Quatermass and lobbied for the role to be recast, arguing that enough time had passed that audiences would not resist a change of actor. Several actors were considered for the part, including André Morell, who had played Quatermass in the television version of Quatermass and the Pit. Morell was not interested in revisiting a role he had already played. The producers eventually settled on the Scottish actor Andrew Keir, who had appeared in supporting roles in other Hammer productions, including The Pirates of Blood River (1962), The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) and Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). Keir found the shoot an unhappy experience: he later recalled: "The director – Roy Ward Baker – didn't want me for the role. He wanted Kenneth More ... and it was a very unhappy shoot. [...] Normally I enjoy going to work every day. But for seven-and-a-half weeks it was sheer hell." Roy Ward Baker denied he had wanted Kenneth More, who he felt would be "too nice" for the role, saying: "I had no idea he [Keir] was unhappy while we were shooting. His performance was absolutely right in every detail and I was presenting him as the star of the picture. Perhaps I should have interfered more." He reprised the role of Quatermass for BBC Radio 3 in The Quatermass Memoirs (1996), making him the only actor other than Donlevy to play the role more than once.
Barbara Shelley was a regular leading lady for Hammer, having appeared in The Camp on Blood Island (1958), Shadow of the Cat (1961), The Gorgon (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1964), Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966) for them. Quatermass and the Pit was her last film for the company and she subsequently worked in television and the theatre. Roy Ward Baker was particularly taken with his leading lady, telling Bizarre Magazine in 1974 that he was "mad about her in the sense of love. We used to waltz about the set together, a great love affair."
Filming