The Quatermass Experiment Details

Hammer's film of Nigel Kneale's ground-breaking television serial was a huge success, encouraging the studio to concentrate on the production of horror films; in that regard, it can truly be said to have changed the course of British film history. The story, of an astronaut who returns to Earth only to gradually mutate into a vegetable, was subsequently much emulated. Veteran director Val Guest detested the casting of American actor Brian Donlevy, though his portrayal of Quatermass was generally well-received at the time; while Jack Warner, PC George Dixon in The Blue Lamp and the long-running TV series Dixon of Dock Green, plays the inspector who helps the professor destroy the terror from outer space.

Intelligent science fiction based on a highly successful BBC TV serial; the film version is generally workmanlike despite its obvious low budget.