‘That pipe has been blocked with human pulp…’
The first Quatermass film was adapted from Nigel Kneale’s BBC TV serial by Hammer Film Productions (it was their first film), and was so successful that they quickly acquired the rights to adapt Kneale’s second Quatermass sequel under the imaginative title Quatermass 2. Kneale, who played no part in the production of the first adaptation, shared writing duties with director Val Guest for this entry, despite this, and despite a much bigger budget (mostly supplied by United Artists), Quatermass 2 too often feels like a bland retread of the original…
Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is back! This time, he stumbles upon an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style extra-terrestrial plot to take over the world. He handles this the only way he knows how – by shouting at people and storming into rooms uninvited. Elsewhere, John Longden replaces Jack Warner from the first film as the long-suffering Inspector Lomax, and Sid James delivers a wonderful cameo as a drunken but weirdly competent journalist.
Like pretty much all of Kneale’s work, it is clear that Quatermass 2 was influential (its influence can be felt everywhere from the James Bond franchise to Halloween III: Season of the Witch), but it is also clear that the story provided here isn’t as compelling as the infected astronauts from the first film. Donlevy is an unpopular choice generally as the titular protagonist (Kneale, a famous curmudgeon, was vocally critical of Donlevy, claiming that his performance was affected by his drinking), but I like his brusque and unemotional style, and I find him a good match for Kneale’s philosophical dialogue. As an aside, this is apparently the first sequel to ever have the number 2 in the title to connote the second entry. So, there’s that.
As quicky sequels go, Quatermass II certainly isn’t bad, but it was overshadowed by another Hammer film upon release (it was released in the same month as The Curse of Frankenstein – a monster hit if you’ll excuse the pun), and it has since been overshadowed by the film that preceded it – one for completists only.