X the Unknown
Encyclopedia
X the Unknown is a British
science-fiction
/ horror film
made by the Hammer Films company and released in 1956.
, but writer Nigel Kneale
refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass
to be used.
The film starred Dean Jagger
, Edward Chapman
and Leo McKern
. It was written by Jimmy Sangster
, and was originally to have been directed by Joseph Losey
(working under the name Joseph Walton). Losey was an American
director who had moved to the UK after being placed on the Hollywood blacklist
. Although Losey did begin shooting the film and some of his footage is included in the final cut, when Dean Jagger arrived on set the star refused to work with a suspected Communist sympathiser. Losey was replaced by Leslie Norman
, officially for health reasons.
That night, a local boy, on a dare from his friend, goes to a tower on the marshes. He sees a horrific off-camera sight. He refuses to tell his friend what has happened but continues running. The friend follows. Royston investigates the tower and finds an old man inside who had a canister of a formerly radioactive material now drained of radioactivity. The boy dies next day from radiation burns.
Shortly afterwards, a young doctor named Unwin is having an intimate encounter with a nurse in a radiation lab at the hospital when something off-camera reduces him to a charred corpse and leaves the nurse out of her mind and screaming.
Royston hypothesizes that a form of life, existing in distant prehistory when the Earth's surface was largely molten, had been trapped by the crust of the Earth as it cooled; every 50 years there is a tidal surge that these creatures feel, which causes them to try to reach the surface in order to find food from radioactive sources.
Two soldiers have been left to guard the pit. One goes to investigate a mysterious glow in the pit. The other one hears his screams and goes to investigate. He shoots at something off-camera, but is killed. The next day, a soldier named Elliott volunteers to be lowered into the crack, and on his way down sees a skull. Farther down, he sees the monster, still off camera, and his compatriots race to get him back to the surface again before the monster can reach him.
The army uses flamethrowers and explosives in an attempt to kill the creatures, then it seals the crack with concrete. Royston points out that the monster broke through miles of Earth to get to the surface, so a few feet of concrete would be unable to stop it. Meanwhile he continues with his pet experiment, discovering a way to neutralize radiation using radio waves tuned to a certain frequency. The monster comes out again that night; it is shown to be an amorphous glowing mass (similar to The Blob
or Caltiki). Some distance away, a car with four people in it is badly burned and all four people are melted.
The thing travels to Lochmouth Atomic Energy establishment to get the cobalt used there. The Lochmouth inhabitants hide in a chapel as the monster approaches them. The creature raids the nuclear establishment before the authorities can remove the radioactive cobalt to a safe distance. As a result the creature grows even larger. As it returns through the village of Lochmouth, it narrowly misses the chapel and a little girl who has gone outside to play.
Royston and McGill hypothesize that the creature will move through the centre of Inverness
, a nearby town, to reach another source of radioactive material nearby. Royston has some success with his anti-radiation device which neutralises a small container containing a radioactive source but causes it to explode violently. With no time left for further experimentation or consideration of safety, they set up two large "scanners" on lorries, and use a canister of cobalt as bait to lure the monster from where it is hidden. The idea works, but the soldier carrying the bait barely escapes with his life when his jeep becomes stuck in mud whilst leading the monster into scanner range. However, the jeep is close enough for the scanners to do their job, and the creature is neutralised and explodes a sufficient distance from the observers to avoid further injury or death.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science-fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
/ horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
made by the Hammer Films company and released in 1956.
Production
The film was originally intended by Hammer to be a sequel to the previous year's successful The Quatermass XperimentThe Quatermass Xperiment
The Quatermass Xperiment is a 1955 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions, it was based on the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment written by Nigel Kneale. It was directed by Val Guest and stars Brian Donlevy as the eponymous Professor Bernard...
, but writer Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter from the Isle of Man. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Film Award for Best Screenplay...
refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass
Bernard Quatermass
Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist, originally created by the writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading up the British Experimental Rocket Group...
to be used.
The film starred Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
, Edward Chapman
Edward Chapman (actor)
Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wilfred Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.Chapman was born in...
and Leo McKern
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
. It was written by Jimmy Sangster
Jimmy Sangster
James Henry Kinmel Sangster was an English screenwriter and director, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, including scripts for The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula .Sangster originally worked as a production assistant at...
, and was originally to have been directed by Joseph Losey
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood...
(working under the name Joseph Walton). Losey was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
director who had moved to the UK after being placed on the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
. Although Losey did begin shooting the film and some of his footage is included in the final cut, when Dean Jagger arrived on set the star refused to work with a suspected Communist sympathiser. Losey was replaced by Leslie Norman
Les Norman
Leslie A. Norman was a British director and producer. His career spanned nearly fifty years, from 1930 until 1978, and in that time he tried his hand at many different jobs, including editor, producer, and writer...
, officially for health reasons.
Plot
The film takes place in the Lochmouth area of Scotland, near Glasgow. A group of soldiers are taking turns using a Geiger counter to find a small and harmless hidden source of radioactivity in a wide pit area. Private Lansing finds another mysterious source of radiation where ground water starts to boil. As the other soldiers begin to run, there is an explosion. Lansing, who was closest to the explosion, dies of radiation burns while another soldier has bad radiation burns to his back. At the site of the explosion, there is a Y-shaped crack in the ground with no apparent bottom. Dr. Royston from a nearby Atomic Energy establishment at Lochmouth is called in to investigate, along with Inspector McGill who runs security at the UK Atomic Energy Commission.That night, a local boy, on a dare from his friend, goes to a tower on the marshes. He sees a horrific off-camera sight. He refuses to tell his friend what has happened but continues running. The friend follows. Royston investigates the tower and finds an old man inside who had a canister of a formerly radioactive material now drained of radioactivity. The boy dies next day from radiation burns.
Shortly afterwards, a young doctor named Unwin is having an intimate encounter with a nurse in a radiation lab at the hospital when something off-camera reduces him to a charred corpse and leaves the nurse out of her mind and screaming.
Royston hypothesizes that a form of life, existing in distant prehistory when the Earth's surface was largely molten, had been trapped by the crust of the Earth as it cooled; every 50 years there is a tidal surge that these creatures feel, which causes them to try to reach the surface in order to find food from radioactive sources.
Two soldiers have been left to guard the pit. One goes to investigate a mysterious glow in the pit. The other one hears his screams and goes to investigate. He shoots at something off-camera, but is killed. The next day, a soldier named Elliott volunteers to be lowered into the crack, and on his way down sees a skull. Farther down, he sees the monster, still off camera, and his compatriots race to get him back to the surface again before the monster can reach him.
The army uses flamethrowers and explosives in an attempt to kill the creatures, then it seals the crack with concrete. Royston points out that the monster broke through miles of Earth to get to the surface, so a few feet of concrete would be unable to stop it. Meanwhile he continues with his pet experiment, discovering a way to neutralize radiation using radio waves tuned to a certain frequency. The monster comes out again that night; it is shown to be an amorphous glowing mass (similar to The Blob
The Blob
The Blob is an independently made 1958 American horror/science-fiction film that depicts a giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania...
or Caltiki). Some distance away, a car with four people in it is badly burned and all four people are melted.
The thing travels to Lochmouth Atomic Energy establishment to get the cobalt used there. The Lochmouth inhabitants hide in a chapel as the monster approaches them. The creature raids the nuclear establishment before the authorities can remove the radioactive cobalt to a safe distance. As a result the creature grows even larger. As it returns through the village of Lochmouth, it narrowly misses the chapel and a little girl who has gone outside to play.
Royston and McGill hypothesize that the creature will move through the centre of Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
, a nearby town, to reach another source of radioactive material nearby. Royston has some success with his anti-radiation device which neutralises a small container containing a radioactive source but causes it to explode violently. With no time left for further experimentation or consideration of safety, they set up two large "scanners" on lorries, and use a canister of cobalt as bait to lure the monster from where it is hidden. The idea works, but the soldier carrying the bait barely escapes with his life when his jeep becomes stuck in mud whilst leading the monster into scanner range. However, the jeep is close enough for the scanners to do their job, and the creature is neutralised and explodes a sufficient distance from the observers to avoid further injury or death.
Cast
- Dean JaggerDean JaggerDean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
as Dr. Adam Royston - Edward ChapmanEdward Chapman (actor)Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wilfred Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.Chapman was born in...
as John Elliott - Leo McKernLeo McKernReginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
as Insp. "Mac" McGill - Anthony NewleyAnthony NewleyAnthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
as LCpl. "Spider" Webb - Jameson ClarkJameson ClarkJameson Clark was a Scottish character actor who appeared in 22 films and made many appearances on television.-Career:...
as Jack Harding - William LucasWilliam Lucas (British actor)William Lucas is a British film and television actor. His first acting role was in the film Portrait of Alison , and later appeared in many Hammer Film Productions such as Shadow of the Cat. He is probably best known for his role in The Adventures of Black Beauty as Dr...
as Peter Elliott - Peter HammondPeter HammondPeter Hammond may refer to:* Peter J. Hammond , British writer - television* Peter Hammond , Swedish-born American settler for whom Hammond, Louisiana, is named...
as Lt. Bannerman - Marianne Brauns as Zena, the Nurse
- Ian MacNaughtonIan MacNaughtonEdward Ian Macnaughton was a Scottish former actor-turned-television producer/director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team...
as Haggis - Michael RipperMichael RipperMichael Ripper was an English character actor born in Portsmouth.He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. He played one of the two murderers in Richard III. Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions...
as Sergeant Harry Grimsdyke - Kenneth CopeKenneth CopeKenneth Cope is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk , Jed Stone in Coronation Street and Ray Hilton in Brookside.- Career :...
as Private Lansing - Edwin RichfieldEdwin RichfieldEdwin Richfield was an English actor.His film credits include: X the Unknown, Quatermass 2, The Camp on Blood Island, The Face of Fu Manchu and Quatermass and the Pit....
as Soldier Burned on Back - Neil Hallett as Unwin
- Frazer HinesFrazer HinesFrazer Hines is an English actor best known for his roles as Jamie McCrimmon in Doctor Who and Joe Sugden in Emmerdale. Hines was born in Horsforth, a civil parish of Leeds.-Acting career:...
as Ian Osborne
Credits
- Directed by Leslie NormanLes NormanLeslie A. Norman was a British director and producer. His career spanned nearly fifty years, from 1930 until 1978, and in that time he tried his hand at many different jobs, including editor, producer, and writer...
- Screenplay by Jimmy SangsterJimmy SangsterJames Henry Kinmel Sangster was an English screenwriter and director, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, including scripts for The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula .Sangster originally worked as a production assistant at...
- Music by James Bernard
- Produced by Anthony HindsAnthony HindsAnthony Hinds , aka Tony Hinds, aka John Elder, is a British screenwriter and producer. He is the son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions, William Hinds.-Early life:Tony Hinds was educated at St Paul's School...