X the Unknown

source: X the Unknown

This is another of those films that I watched as a child, and shouldn't have! We owned a large Philco console TV set that had two knobs: On/Off/Volume and Channel Selector. It sat in the living room, so all my late-night monster movie viewing had to be done on the sly. "X - The Unknown" had me hooked at the title. The black and white photography made the action doubly spooky. In the Scottish Highlands, a routine British Army exercise in radiation detection results in one soldier dead and another badly burned. That night, a large crevice opens at the test site and "something" makes its way to the surface. Thereafter, a series of baffling deaths have the authorities scratching their heads. The one that scarred me forever was the demise of the doctor who used the radiation-treatment room of the hospital as a trysting place with willing nurses. While the good doctor and his latest conquest are snogging, the electronic gear comes on by itself. Doc investigates and recoils in horror. As the hapless nurse watches, the young doctor's face melts down to the bone! There are solid performances from all here. Dean Jagger as the American scientist, Leo McKern as the police inspector are outstanding. Also, look for a young Ian MacNaughton (of Monty Python fame) as "Haggis". I guarantee you'll never look at mud the same way again.

If you tell someone that there is a creepy little horror film about an ooze coming up from the earth that will kill you on contact, odds are good they are going to laugh at you. Odds are also good that should you actually show them said film about ooze they are going to be riveted to their seat when the film turns out to be X:The Unknown. I know it sounds daft that film about what amounts to killer mud is going to be scary, but it is. There is something about the way the film is done, how its all so matter of fact and that the plot keeps things from ever really spinning way out that really makes this work. Trust me on this this is a super film that will hold you tight for its entire running time. Will it scare you once the film is done and make you dream of killer mud pies? No, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't see this you should. its one of the best scifi horror films ever made and a really good thrill ride to boot

With the success of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT Hammer films immediately decided to do a sequel and this is that film but Nigel Kneale wisely decided to have nothing to do with it and was adamant the company weren't going to using his character of Bernard Quatermass to appear . I say " wisely " but X THE UNKNOWN isn't by any means a bad film but lacks that little something and one wonders if involvement by the visionary and oh so intelligent Kneale would had lifted the screenplay above being merely average and in to undisputed classic British sci-fi horror ? It's a film you may remember from years ago but upon seeing again realise it's the sum of its parts rather than a consistent whole Directed by Leslie Norman ( Barry's dad ) the scene is set in the opening sequence with a bleak cold winters day in the Scottish Highlands and a unit of the Royal Engineers on training maneuvers . In those days Britain had a conscript army and if nothing else the film does make a point that forcing young men in to routine military duties seemed rather senseless . It also contrasts a rather mundane setting with the horrors about to come . Norman is rather effective but his job is relatively easy in using night filming , scary music and a build up of people about to be killed by a blob of radioactive mud . Let's be honest and say it's not to difficult to frighten an audience via this type of convention . May be we should also be charitable and point out the melting effect is rather well done but it's difficult to be scared by something that's just a pile of mud The cast are okay but nothing more than that . Reminding ourselves this was originally supposed to be a QUATERMASS film Brian Donlevy's much maligned performance would have probably been an improvement than Dean Jagger's rather flat substitute role . At least Donlevy would have been a bit more brusque and arrogant and a scene where the father of a dead child condemns the men of science might have had a bigger impact . That said the characters throughout the film are rather non descript and lack a spark to them X THE UNKNOWN works well enough as a science fiction horror film . It's a good idea on paper and does contain a few scenes that are more than efficient but you're left with the nagging suspicion that more could have been done with the premise , characters and perhaps most of all the big bad monster . Sometimes you wish Nigel Kneale could have written a few more QUATERMASS teleplays

A somberly realistic background of small Scottish towns, atomic laboratories and bleak moors provides the setting for this suspenseful film.A force of unknown origins and intent has somehow made its way out from the earth's center to seek nourishment on atomic radiation in any amount. People unfortunate enough to encounter this slithering thing end up being melted or fatally burned. The mysterious deaths, and unexplained burglaries of research labs where nuclear material is stored, cause various scientific investigators to join forces to locate and destroy the unknown power responsible, before it becomes totally unstoppable. Excellent acting from a fine cast, good writing and gripping direction all add up to an effective and thoughtful science fiction adventure. Dean Jagger is especially good as a benign but somewhat unorthodox American scientist working with British researchers. Leo McKern is also very good as the special investigator from the Atomic Energy Commission. Highly recommended for fans of Fifties science fiction movies. This early Hammer picture is unusually intelligent and thought provoking at a time when most American science fiction movies tended to be pretty silly. Though the plot gets far fetched at times, it always remains believable, thanks to the good script and above average performances.

Dean Jagger is a scientist working at a lab in Scotland, trying to find a way to render radioactive materials (like a bomb) harmless. The earth splits open nearby and a rude lump of glowing stuff comes pouring out, lethal, crackling like bacon in a frying pan, and conveniently built of the kinds of radioactive stuff that Jagger is working on. The blob -- for the most part unseen -- manages to kill several locals by radioactive poisoning before Jagger and the authorities are able to deploy a full-scale replica of their laboratory model. It may not work because "the fans are out of synch." Or it may explode, like the tiny lab model does. Will it work? Is Jagger's fantastic theory of blobby organisms having been forced underground as the earth's crust thickened correct? Is the short, squat dilatory figure who runs the lab correct when he calls the whole thing balderdash? Will the whole mess blow up? Why does hail always have to be the size of something else? Did the Masons really design the first dollar bills? It starts off slowly and mysteriously. That's the best part. Then it gets fast, complicated, scientifically inaccurate, and very loud. Sometimes the suspenseful musical score, on top of all that crackling, as of cellophane being wrinkled, literally drowns out the speech so you can't hear what the characters are saying. It's not terrible. It's just a routine example of those 50s Briish SF movies that used an imported Yank as the main figure -- here Dean Jagger, there an improbable Gene Evans -- and sometimes they worked quite well -- Brian Donlevy as Quatermass. In this one, the performances aren't bad but the script has a tendency to lose itself once in a while. In the very last scene, there is a blinding explosion from the creature's fissure. Knocks everyone flat. What was that, asks a soldier. Jagger is staring thoughtfully at the smoke wreathing out of the fissure. "I don't know," he replies, "but it shouldn't have happened." Camera draws away. The End. It should have happened if you'd decided at the last minute to end the movie with a big bang in order to use up the left-over special effects explosive.

The plot: In the remote Scottish Highlands, a living radioactive mass seethes out of the depths of the earth and kills everyone in its path as it seeks fresh radioactive energy. Luckily an American scientist is about the place and kicks the 'thing' back down from whence it came. X the Unknown, while not having the innate intelligence of the Quatermass movies, is a good example of 1950's British pulp science-fiction cinema. While most of its American counterparts visited fantastic worlds inhabited by outlandish monsters and gorgeous 'space-babes', X the Unknown was a truly British effort: our monster was dollop of mud out of a hole in the ground doing a slow crawl around a dingy moor. It's effective though. It has the same austere, grim intensity which made the Quatermass movies so memorable. The film also benefits from moody, high-contrast black and white photography, a typically acerbic score from James Bernard, and a good cast; Leo Mckern turns in a very good, naturalistic performance, much like his turn in The Day The Earth Caught Fire. I first saw this movie when I was about six and the extraordinarily graphic scene depicting the monster 'devouring' a hospital doctor gave me a few... err....sleepless nights (there's a particularly ruthless zoom-in to the poor guys hand as it expands and melts!). Perhaps I should have stuck to Bugs Bunny. Overall, a decent chiller, well directed by Leslie Norman (late father of the superb British film critic Barry Norman). One last memory of a six year-old's first viewing of this picture: I remember sitting there stunned and horrified as the end credits rolled; I was not looking forward to a good nights sleep. The statutorily paternal BBC announcer came on and cracked the following nervous joke: "Well, I'll never eat cheese on toast again" (see the film and you'll know what he meant). I laughed with relief and my childhood was thus saved a terrible trauma! Thanks Uncle Beeb.

When troops practice locating fallout in a remote Scottish quarry, an apparently bottomless fissure opens in the Earth, critically injuring a soldier with radioactive burns. As radioactive goo oozes forth, destroying everyone in its path, scientist Adam Roysten (Jagger) formulates a theory that the living mass, dormant for millennia, now seeks fresh radioactive energy ("energy can only be fed with more energy") and, to this end, is heading straight for the military's own nuclear reactor. A film of what-ifs and could-have-beens, X The Unknown was originally devised as a Quatermass sequel - until Nigel Kneale, miffed over what he felt was a lousy adaptation of his BBC serial, refused to co-operate (he would, however, go on to co-write Quatermass 2 after leaving the BBC). More intriguingly, X The Unknown was also to have been directed by the legendary Joseph Losey (The Servant), then on the run from Senator McCathy's Un-American Activities Committee. Obliged to carry the pseudonym 'Joe Walton', he was forced to bow out after leading man and rabid anti-Commie Jagger rumbled Hammer's ruse. (The studio's US distributors considered Jagger's involvement crucial to the movie's commercial appeal overseas, so he had considerably more sway than the director.) Replacement director Leslie Norman does his best within the budget's limitations, aided by a faintly literate premise "cobbled together in an hour" by 27-year-old Jimmy Sangster (in his major screen writing debut), along with a shipload of tapioca pudding. But, sandwiched between the two classic Quatermass films, this can't hope to replicate Val Guest's achievements. Faintly ludicrous scenes of soldier boy Tony Newley firing blindly at a tsunami of pud sit uncomfortably with some genuinely shocking moments - faces melting, exposing skulls. There's a sense of treading water here - Bernard's score lazily re-working familiar themes, although some naturalistic performances (particularly from Newley, as Private 'Spider' Webb) go a little way to absolving the film.

I love it due to the mercifully unmusical appearance of Anthony Newley - yes, *that* Anthony Newley. Appearing as L. Cpl. 'Spider' Webb, he disappears midway through the film without singing a note. I too saw this as a youngster and had the crap scared out of me by the blob monster and the radiation induced deaths. As a former technician who used to work with isotopes and x-ray machines (non-destructive testing), it took a few years to get over my fear of working with radioactive substances. One of the best of the early sci-fi pics - right up there with the Quartermass trilogy. Definitely worth the time and a bowl of popcorn!

I keep telling myself that I am not going to watch old time 'B' movies, but here I am yet again watching another one that I am once again rolling my eyes at throughout the entire film. I know these type of 'B' movies are all about the fun and the tongue in cheek but for me they just simply don't work. This one is about radioactivity. Whilst on a routine exercise, a squad of Scottish Army troops stumble across high radio activity that ends up killing a soldier and causing a bottomless crack in the surface. After the crack is quarantined strange deaths continue to happen and nuclear energy seems to be going missing. After weighing up the facts, a scientist discovers that this is an evolution that is scouring the earth for energy, and the more it gets the more it grows. The only problem is that it is a form of mud, that is right mud, that can break into particles and creep into science labs and steal their energy. As the 'mud' grows it begins to go after bigger sources and the scientists and police must find a way to stop it before it gets out of control. The premise is very typical and the idea is achievable but they are talking about mud. If they made this film today and substituted the 'mud' for an alien being searching for nuclear energy it may work, but the fact it's 'mud' that is squirming over hills and across the moors just makes it really stupid. 'B' movies aren't supposed to take themselves seriously and to be fair this one doesn't, but if I can't take it too seriously than I'm not interested. With this film we experience very typical 'B' movie characteristics. We get the poor special effects which are obvious that they are miniatures with some kind of thick liquid pouring over them, the poor acting which doesn't draw you into any character or the story, and the unbelievably stupid story which I don't buy. A film can be surreal as long as it brings me into that world. This film really didn't. The entire opening half is dull and slow with nothing really happening. The second half is more entertaining despite the real poor effects and acting. Oh and the ending. The film finally got me interested and then we have a big explosion, ten soldiers hit the deck and a cop says to the scientist, 'your theory worked, you should be proud', and then it ends. Credits roll. What about the poor guys who are laying on the floor after this explosion? I was in complete shock that the film just ended. Considering there was no tension, no atmosphere and no horror throughout the film I can't say I'm surprised though. Is it no surprise as well that the film is probably the shortest film I have ever watched? I have to say thank God for that however because I wouldn't have taken much more. The second half is a little more entertaining. The 'mud' makes its way through the town and over inflates a soldier and melts four people in a car. The stakes are raised, this thing is growing and rapidly. The problem in this half though is still the effects and instead of being fearful for the characters I was laughing at them. The funniest part is when a small child walks towards the mud and stops, completely unaware she is supposed to be acting or being filmed, so a priest runs over to save her but it isn't intense! He just jogs over, picks her up and stands and stares at the mud, which is clearly a miniature super imposed on the background. Where is the tension? This is becoming a reoccurrence with the 'B' movie genre and maybe I should stop watching them but I will continue till I find at least one I like. This one I'm afraid was not it. 1 / 5 Check out more reviews at: www.tolli-movieworld.blogspot.com Or follow the blog @WorldofMovies