Dear God these Hammer “ultimate edition” box sets will be the end of me I fear. And the new one of X the Unknown– a terrific 1956 British sci-fi movie about a giant blob of radioactive mud that emerges from a chasm in the earth in rural Scotland- well, it was something I just had to own, despite the dizzying price tag.
Some people gamble. Some do drugs or drink. Some buy scores of expensive shoes. Some accumulate Hummel figurines. Some are relentless sex addicts. Some hoarders. Some pride themselves on their collection of used, slightly soiled, underwear. I buy pricy Blu-ray box sets from time to time. Is that a crime? Should I try to find a church with meetings set up for people with my compulsion? Could I be called a vidiot? A home media maniac? A bonkers Blu-ray buff? A 4K freak? Who am I hurting (except my bank account)? So what if I have to eat rice for a month. When that box set of X the Unknown came in the mail I was filled with such overwhelming joy it made it all worthwhile.
Now Hammer Films had been around for a long time- churning out black and white mysteries and dramas- but they hit the jackpot with their film adaptation of a BBC mini-series The Quatermass Xperiment, written by Nigel Kneale. The movie version starred Brian Donlevy as the cranky scientist, dealing with an astronaut returning from space transforming into a monster that absorbs all living matter he touches, eventually becoming a hideous blob they finally destroy in Westminster Abbey. The movie was a huge sensation and one night over drinks, producers Anthony Hinds, Michael Carreras and 27-year-old production manager Jimmy Sangster all tried to come up with a follow-up to the sci-fi smash. Sangster came up with the best ideas- particularly having the threat from space switched out to a threat from under the ground. Anthony Hinds told Sangster to write a treatment and if it was good they would commission him to write the screenplay. The eventual screenplay was a hit with the producers and cemented Sangster’s role at Hammer Films– he eventually wrote the screenplays to their gothic horrors like Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and scores of other- including the psychological thrillers of the 1960s like Scream of Fear (1961), Paranoiac (1962), Nightmare (1964), and The Nanny (1965). To me Jimmy Sangster was the soul of Hammer Films in many ways. You should check out Sangster’s book about his career, cheekily titled “Do You Want It Good, or Tuesday?”
X the Unknown begins with an army training exercise where soldiers search the ground for “mock” radiation signs using a Geiger counter. The young soldier in the film is Anthony Newley, who would soon become a sensation himself with this 1961 musical- Stop the World- I Want to Get Off. But another soldier disastrously uncovers some actual radiation in the earth, and later dies painfully in hospital of radiation burns. A young boy playing with his friend in the nearby woods also succumbs to death from radiation. A crack in the earth reveals a moving mound of radioactive mud which searches out cobalt from a nearby hospital, flowing through the vents and burning alive any human in its path in its search for radioactive material to absorb.
A scientist (Dean Jagger) works furiously to find some way to neutralize and destroy the creature before it devours the nearby village. The producers wanted to call the scientist “Quatermass,” but Nigel Kneale refused to let them use it- he still was furious that the BBC had sold The Quatermass Xperiment to Hammer and he particularly hated the film and Brian Donlevy’s lead performance as the scientist.
Now Joseph Losey was originally set to direct the film- he would eventually direct for Hammer– The Damned (1962) (released as These are the Damned in the States). Losey was blacklisted during the McCarthy era in America and came to London to find work. The gifted director had made a moody short film (from a script by Jimmy Sangster) called A Man on the Beach. This rare film is also included in the box set. The trouble came when they hired Dean Jagger to play the lead. He was a rabid anti-Communist and would have had a fit if Joseph Losey was at the helm, so journeyman director Leslie Norman was given the assignment. He does a decent enough job, but it would have been fascinating to see what Losey would have done with the material.
Filming took place at Bray Studios and also the Beaconsfield Gravel Pits and Gerard’s Cross. Most of the budget was used for Dean Jagger‘s salary. But the film hurtles along- it’s intelligent, streamlined, and incredibly suspenseful. The special effects were effective and sometimes quite grisly, like when the radioactive mud melts the face off of a doctor.
The film was critically well received and did great at the box office, and propelled Hammer Films towards similar sci-fi material, and eventually the gothic horrors they are so beloved for.
The box set, a “Limited Collector’s Edition” has four discs: the first two are 4K UHD of the widescreen and full-screen British and US theatrical version. The big difference was the opening credits to the British version which are mostly silent, the camera roving over the barren ground of the military training exercise. In the US version, the thundering score by James Bernard is heard over the credits. I think it’s eerily more effective in the British version. But other than that, the films are pretty much the same. The extras on the discs are just phenomenal- there are audio commentaries from film historians (and experts on Nigel Kneale). There are documentaries on the making of the film and archival interviews with Jimmy Sangster. Film historian Tim Lucas discusses similar films of that period. And there is a riveting new documentary on director Joseph Losey. The set includes a handsome 116-page book with fantastic articles on the film; Dean Jagger, and director Leslie Norman. There is a poster for the film, and reprinted lobby cards for X the Unknown.
Yes, it’s way too much, but the stunning black and white photography in 4K took my breath away. Not to mention the sterling clarity of the audio. Quite frankly, when it comes right down to it, I would much rather watch a movie about radioactive mud over a film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey any day.
