X The Unknown is directed by Leslie Norman and written by Jimmy Sangster. It stars Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley and Jameson Clark. Director of photography is Gerald Gibbs and James Bernard scores the music.
During a British army training exercise in the Scottish Highlands, mysterious fissures open up in the ground and unleash a radioactive being. The authorities call in atomic scientist Dr. Adam Royston (Jagger), who sets about defeating the entity before it destroys mankind.
Following the success of The Quatermass Xperiment the previous year, Hammer Film Productions quickly realised that a market was open for some sci-fi horror from the British Isles. Wanting it to be a sequel to Quatermass Xperiment, producer Anthony Hinds was dealt a set back when Quatermass writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass to be used. Undaunted he fetched in Sangster and paired him with exiled American director Joseph Losey. American actor Dean Jagger was brought in to play the Quatermass like role of Royston, but he refused to work with Losey on account of his suspected sympathies to communism; the reason the director was in flight from America for. So in came Leslie Norman and the film was finally made.
Sangster brought a new spin to the 50's craze of sci-fi schlockers and creaky creature features. Having observed mankind come under threat from all manner of aliens or beasties, from space, land, sea, air or otherwise, Sangster hit on the idea of having the threat come from the Earth's bowels. Thus X The Unknown was spawned, in a big blob of malevolent alien energy. Photographed in shadowy monochrome by Gerald Gibbs, "X" taps into the general unease that was pulsing in America and Europe at the time. The Cold War was gathering apace and the threat of a nuclear based WWIII was at the back of everyone's minds. 1956 was also the year of the Suez crisis, the makers of "X" had pitched their film at just the right time.
It proved to be a hit with critics and cinema goers alike. Sangster's script is tight and intelligent, but never losing the necessary sci-fi schlock factor, and it's very well acted, especially by a straight faced and serious Jagger. Bernard scores it with strings and percussion, creeping menace style, while the effects team provide good 1950's style ick and grue. It may not have the quality of the Quatermass films, but it makes for a nice companion piece to that series. While it for sure towers above the bubblegum candy floss that was The Blob that followed two years later. 7/10
During a British army training exercise in the Scottish Highlands, mysterious fissures open up in the ground and unleash a radioactive being. The authorities call in atomic scientist Dr. Adam Royston (Jagger), who sets about defeating the entity before it destroys mankind.
Following the success of The Quatermass Xperiment the previous year, Hammer Film Productions quickly realised that a market was open for some sci-fi horror from the British Isles. Wanting it to be a sequel to Quatermass Xperiment, producer Anthony Hinds was dealt a set back when Quatermass writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass to be used. Undaunted he fetched in Sangster and paired him with exiled American director Joseph Losey. American actor Dean Jagger was brought in to play the Quatermass like role of Royston, but he refused to work with Losey on account of his suspected sympathies to communism; the reason the director was in flight from America for. So in came Leslie Norman and the film was finally made.
Sangster brought a new spin to the 50's craze of sci-fi schlockers and creaky creature features. Having observed mankind come under threat from all manner of aliens or beasties, from space, land, sea, air or otherwise, Sangster hit on the idea of having the threat come from the Earth's bowels. Thus X The Unknown was spawned, in a big blob of malevolent alien energy. Photographed in shadowy monochrome by Gerald Gibbs, "X" taps into the general unease that was pulsing in America and Europe at the time. The Cold War was gathering apace and the threat of a nuclear based WWIII was at the back of everyone's minds. 1956 was also the year of the Suez crisis, the makers of "X" had pitched their film at just the right time.
It proved to be a hit with critics and cinema goers alike. Sangster's script is tight and intelligent, but never losing the necessary sci-fi schlock factor, and it's very well acted, especially by a straight faced and serious Jagger. Bernard scores it with strings and percussion, creeping menace style, while the effects team provide good 1950's style ick and grue. It may not have the quality of the Quatermass films, but it makes for a nice companion piece to that series. While it for sure towers above the bubblegum candy floss that was The Blob that followed two years later. 7/10