X the Unknown, 1956.
Directed by Leslie Norman and Joseph Losey.
Starring Dean Jagger, Leo McKern, Edward Chapman, Anthony Newley, Michael Ripper, Kenneth Cope, and Frazer Hines.
SYNOPSIS:
A radioactive, mud-like creature terrorizes a Scottish village.
Right then, it’s time for Hammer to bring out the big guns once again as they prepare to unleash X the Unknown as part of their ongoing mission to put together definitive editions of their back catalogue, and this four-disc set is about as definitive as it is possible to get.
Originally intended to be a sequel to their hit movie The Quatermass Xperiment from the previous year, 1956 saw Hammer turn to their production manager Jimmy Sangster to deliver a science fiction script in the Quatermass style, seeing as Quatermass creator Nigel Neale did not give Hammer permission to use his character. Sangster had worked behind the scenes for Hammer for the best part of a decadeb and stepped up to write what is widely considered to be one of, if not the first, ‘killer blob’ movies, beating Paramount’s The Blob by two years, and although Hammer would turn to ‘proper’ horror the following year with The Curse of Frankenstein, there are many reasons to consider X the Unknown a fully-fledged horror movie.
The movie opens with a squad of soldiers in Scotland training to use a Geiger counter. All is going well until young squaddie Private Lansing (Kenneth Cope) finds something a little more radioactive than the piece of metal they are supposed to be hunting for and an explosion causes a strange shaped crack to appear in the earth.
The army call in atomic energy scientist Dr. Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) to investigate when a local boy larking about in the woods is hospitalised with radioactive burns. Soon after, a doctor at the hospital melts after coming into contact with radioactive material, and as the casualties start mounting the doctor is joined by investigator Mac McGill (Leo McKern). One of Royston’s colleagues is lowered into the crack to see if he can find the source of this destruction but is unable to fully comprehend what they are up against, until Royston theorises that the radioactive attacks are being caused by an entity which lives deep within the Earth that comes to the surface every 50 years to feed on radioactive material. Estimating where it will next emerge, Royston sets a trap using cobalt and the gelatinous creature reveals itself, allowing the scientists and the army to take action.
Using the template of the US sci-fi/horror movies that were popular at the time, X the Unknown is a solid companion piece to The Quatermass Xperiment that showed Hammer were on the right track and, when not resting on their laurels, could produce exciting genre movies that easily rivalled anything coming out of America. The biggest strength of the movie is in its casting, with Dr. Adam Royston being the Bernard Quatermass stand-in and instead of having the gruff and aggressive Brian Donlevy bringing the required American star power to the production the producers wisely went with more affable Dean Jagger. Quite why an American nuclear physicist would be working in what amounts to a garden shed somewhere in dark and dreary Scotland is never explained, but nevertheless, Jagger brings a warmth to Royston that makes him easier to side with when all the scientific techno-babble starts getting used and he comes out with gems like “How do you kill mud?”. In one particular scene, Royston has to coax information out of Ian (a very young Frazer Hines), one of the boys mucking about in the woods when they shouldn’t have been, and Jagger is magnetic, making Royston trustworthy and clearly on the side of good. Had Hammer attempted such a scene with Brian Donlevy, who knows what carnage that could have caused.
Jimmy Sangster clearly did some research in creating this world for his creature to exist in, and although the dialogue does get a bit heavy-handed with the movie language version of science – cobalt, anyone? – the pacing and structure of the script is bang on, and you can bet that Steven Spielberg took notes from this movie when he came to make Jaws, as Sangster does not reveal his creature until well into the final act, by which point the build-up has been so successful in creating tension and terror that it could have gone very wrong had the reveal come at an inappropriate moment. Fortunately, the effects in X the Unknown are way ahead of their time and surprisingly gruesome – how many American-made movies were showing off heads melting right down to the skull? – although the curse of UHD means that the miniatures and false perspectives are all the more obvious nowadays. However, watching this on a cinema screen in 1956 must have been mind-blowing as the titular creature broke the surface of the Earth and spilled over everything in its path, and there are worse examples of this kind of thing in more modern movies using ‘better’ technology, so Hammer did something right.
This gorgeous box set boasts two 4K UHD discs and two standard Blu-rays, with all features replicated on both formats. There are three cuts of the movie – UK Theatrical, US Theatrical and the As Filmed version, all in different aspect ratios – and a whole heap of extras, the cream of which are a new feature-length documentary regarding the making of the movie that includes contributions from from Toby Hadoke, Andy Murray, Wayne Kinsey, Dick Klemensen and actor Frazer Hines, a new documentary on special effects maestro Les Bowie with contributions from Wayne Kinsey, Dick Klemensen, Mike Tilley and archive audio contributions from Christopher Lee, a discussion between film critic/writer Tim Lucas and film historian Stephen R. Bissette regarding X the Unknown and other sci-fi/horror movies from the era, A Man on the Beach short film that was written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Joseph Losey (who was supposed to direct X the Unknown after being blacklisted in America), and a documentary about Joseph Losey and his career. Add to these no less than four audio commentaries and all the usual promotional tidbits like trailers, BBFC cards and Super 8 footage, plus Hammer housing it all in their premium leather-look slipcase with a 120-page book, art cards and poster, and we have another set worthy of calling itself a definitive package.
As a movie, X the Unknown is terrific fun and a well-made genre entry that is obviously showing its age nowadays but, when put into context of the time it originally came out, stands head and shoulders above other notable films that are probably better known. For early Hammer it was one of the key titles in progressing towards what we know as ‘Hammer Horror’ today, and if you have any desire to purchase it then this extensive and superbly curated edition is the one you need to own, as it gives so much background information and many new perspectives that it takes hours to get through, plus you can spend some of that time looking at the various actors on the screen and trying to figure out where you know them from as the movie is basically a who’s who of British acting talent (although the Scottish accents aren’t quite so authentic). Chalk up another success for Hammer!
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
