X the Unknown (1956)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Please don't spend money on this.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

'X the Unknown' is a typical and entertaining British sci-fi movie and comes with everything that these types of movies relied on......terrible special effects, a budget that wouldn't feed a church mouse and a silly story that is brought to earth by a well-known cast who play it straight with a good tight script and well-paced direction.There are lots of excellent reviews and information on this site that do this movie far more justice than I can... so I'm dedicating this review to Chris Tarrant and Peter Tomlinson...Thank you so much to Chris Tarrant and Peter Tomlinson who made Friday night Hammer movies such a delicious pleasure in the 1970s on Midlands Television.Every Friday night after the 'News At Ten', either Chris or Peter (sometimes both) would introduce a Hammer film which would take us through to the idiotic conversational bible class at about 12:30 in the morning. This was followed by the loud whiny pitch which let us know that there was no more telly for the night and it was time for Britain to go to bed!While my parents were out at the Officer's Mess at RAF Cosford getting drunk and having a good time, I'd make a big round of sandwiches, steal a few cans of dad's McEwans Pale Ale or Tartan Export Ale and settle in front of the TV on my own, for the best two hours of the week.The movies were usually Christofer Lee or Vincent Price doing their various evil characters and of course, there were also sci-fi movies just like 'X The Unknown'. And as the adverts came around, Chris or Peter (I think they took turns each week) made watching these scary movies so much more fun. Add that to the memorable Cinzano adverts along with the Milk Tray ads and Castella ads, Hamlet ads... my Friday nights were the very best that any kid could have imagined.Thanks, Chris and Peter... You'll never be forgotten for the enormous pleasure you brought to so many people like me, who watched scary Hammer movies in the midlands during the 70s, who were now never alone on a Friday night!

X the Unknown is an immensely enjoyable Horror flick produced by Hammer Film productions in 1956. Scripted by reluctant screenplay writer (he was originally a Production Manager) and regular Hammer contributor Jimmy Sangster and starring an obligatory American lead (to ensure American distribution) in the form of actor Dean Jagger, playing Dr. Adam Royston, a character a bit like Professor Bernard Quatermass. There is a good reason for these similarities. Following the success of Hammer's 'The Quatermass Xperiment' the year prior (a film adaptation of the 1953 BBC serial 'The Quatermass Experiment' scripted by Nigel Kneale) the folks at Hammer were hoping for a quick return and the opportunity to cash in on that first film. Besides which they had also begun carving themselves a niche in the British horror/science fiction market and films such as this paved the way for the glossy Gothic colour Hammer films that were to follow with pictures such as 'The Curse of Frankenstein' in 1957 and 'Dracula' in 1958. Although 'X the Unknown' is a Jimmy Sangster script it was hoped that Nigel Kneale would give the filmmakers permission to include the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass thus making it a Quatermass picture. Although Kneale would allow Hammer the rights for their three film adaptations of his Quatermass TV serials and his unrelated serial 'The Creature' (made by Hammer as 'The Abominable Snowman') he did not allow Hammer to use the character for this production. Thus the character of Dr. Adam Royston was born and in a way it's a pity that Dean Jagger did not portray the role of Quatermass in the first two Hammer pictures, the aforementioned 'The Quatermass Xperiment' and 'Quatermass 2' because he is a lot better at portraying the curious, meticulous scientist Royston than fellow actor Brian Donlevy ever was at playing Quatermass. 'X the Unknown' concerns a radiation hungry monster that appears in a Scottish gravel pit during a routine military exercise searching via Geiger counter for a harmless radiation source. Its forces create a fissure in the ground of the gravel pit at the start of the film and later its true power in unleashed. In traditional fashion it runs amok across the fictional Scottish village of Lochmouth, which also happens to be home to Dr. Royston who works at a nearby Atomic Energy Laboratory. The film is solidly directed by Leslie Norman and benefits from some atmospheric night shoots on location. 'X the Unknown' is notably quite graphic for the time in which it was made, allowing the filmmakers to secure the desired X certificate that the 'Quatermass' pictures also enjoyed. At the time this gave the film a certain notoriety and the melted faces of the victims of 'X' are highly effective and predate the famous sequence from 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark' (namely the death of Major Arnold Toht) by 25 years. It is worth noting that the film's original booked director was Joseph Losey, who went on to direct the classic Hammer film 'The Damned' in 1963. An American director, he had moved to the UK (initially working under the name of Joseph Walton) to avoid the Hollywood Blacklist after he was blacklisted for allegedly being a 'Communist sympathiser'. This was not unusual for 1950's Hollywood and many directors, producers and actors suffered under McCarthyism for simply having left wing leanings. Nevertheless actor Dean Jagger refused to work with Losey due to his politics and although a couple of his sequences appear in the film he was dropped (officially due to 'illness') during the picture's first week in production.The performances of Dean Jagger and the supporting cast are generally excellent but special mention must go to Australian actor Leo McKern as Inspector McGill. A young Kenneth Cope (later of 'Randall and Hopkirk Deceased' fame) appears here as the first victim of 'X' Private Lansing. An even younger Frazer Hines (credited here as Fraser Hines and just 11 years old at the time of filming) plays local boy Ian Osborne here. An accomplished little actor Hines would later appear as the longest running Doctor Who companion to date (alongside Second Doctor Patrick Troughton) from 1966-1969 and later as a long running regular character in 'Emmerdale'. The film's main let down is the ridiculous sequence with Neil Hallett as Unwin and Marianne Brauns as Zena, a lustful Nurse who is after Dr. Unwin. They are both at a hospital where a boy who had come into contact with 'X' has succumbed to the radiation burns caused by the incident. Marianne picks this moment to get close and personal with Unwin who ultimately meets the same fate as the young boy. The sequence is demeaning to one of the very few women to appear in the film and was clearly crassly included purely for the benefit of the 'X' certificate rating. His death scene though is very well done. The special effects are actually very successful throughout and there are some memorable sequences, particularly when 'X' almost envelopes a small child, only to be saved by the local priest in the nick of time. James Bernard's spooky, dissonant and minimal score (his second for Hammer following 'The Quatermass Xperiment') nicely counterpoints the action and all in all 'X the Unknown' is great fun. Sangster treats the scientific subject matter with great seriousness and sincerity, and although it is inevitably pseudo-science it has believability and does not patronise its audience. It is also an unusual film in that the threat is not man made, but a natural occurrence, a refreshing change from the much repeated idea of man creating its own enemies by meddling with things it does not understand. This production is leagues above a great deal of the American and British science fiction/horror product of the decade, not to mention the following three decades too and is no doubt one of Hammer's best early Horror pictures.

Apparently this was supposed to be the fourth instalment of the Quatermass series and you can definitely see the influence here, British location, American scientist character in order to give it some transatlantic appeal, bumptious military types, disbelieving bureaucrats (Dr Beeching?) and young and handsome earnest assistants. This time however the threat does not come from outer space but in a neat twist from inner space, a prehistoric creature that feeds on radioactive energy and has now emerged as the development of nuclear power/weaponry has finally provided it with enough food source to return to the surface. A great concept which unfortunately the special effects can never live up to, I envisioned something more akin to Morbius' creature of the 'Id' from The Forbidden Planet. Speaking of which this must have been quite shocking in its' day, the sight of the creature's victims melting away must have been truly disturbing to a 50s audience. They also kill the kid which must have been taboo at the time. One thing that stuck in my craw a little was the nurse who was rendered mute after witnessing her lover's death, I half expected someone to exclaim 'Well of course she's hysterical, she's only a woman'. Underpinning this all is an early form of environmentalism, atomic energy had been sold to the masses as the great white hope but now people were beginning to have second thoughts as the grieving father's rant against the scientist illustrates. That the creature resembles an oil slick may also be a metaphor of sorts. The ending is somewhat underwhelming, the creatures defeat depending on a tyre getting out of a rut and you wonder if there wasn't supposed to be another scene before the titles run but all the same it's an interesting and entertaining film.

The always reliable Hammer Studio would find its Artistic, Money-Making stride the next Year, but before that there were offerings like Quatermass and this follow-up and it was obvious that there were rumblings of Greatness afoot.It would take Classic Monsters, Color, bloody Violence, Cleavage and smart Production all around that would take Moviedom in a new direction and announce that Hammer Studios would be an unforgettable force for the next twenty Years.This was before all that and is an eerie, quite effective, very low-budget, brainy, anti-nuke Movie that has great and gloomy Atmosphere with believable Characters experiencing Horrific situations. There is a good deal of "Scientific Explanation" and is a bit talky here and there, but this nonetheless remains a very good Shocker that is much better than the overrated Rip-Off, The Blob (1958).Definitely worth a view for B-Movie and Horror Fans and even for those who like to laugh at this kind of stuff. Even they may be impressed at its doom laden, Cold-War seriousness and overall quality.