I didn't actually watch the whole Quatermass TV series this morning. There's a lot of it. You can get a peak at the first three series over at the Internet Archive.
The Quatermass Experiment was the first series which was broadcast in 1953. The production was broadcast live with prefilmed bits to add some production value. Only the first two parts of the original six remain. Professor Quatermass (Reginald Tate) is part of a rocket group that has a ship returning from outerspace. When it lands 2 of the 3 space men are missing. The other guy is all screwed up, contaminated by some alien presence, and he starts turning into a veggie monster. Quatermass has to figure out some stuff but since the rest of the series wasn't filmed when first broadcast we sadly have to make do with hearsay. I guess they save the earth from alien invasion since there was a sequel. There's a movie remake from Hammer which is fairly entertaining. The British title was The Quatermass Xperiment and the USA title was The Creeping Unknown.
The second series was called Quatermass II and it aired in 1955. All six of the episodes are available and the story is another alien invasion. This time the alien presence is coming to earth in little meteors which upon breaking open release an alien presence that takes over the human brain and links it to the alien group mind. Quatermass (John Robinson) gets involved and you know he's going to save the day. It's an even more ambitious project, bigger sets and a larger cast. There are more pieces filmed before the broadcast, giving the production a boost. The quality of this series is much better than either of the two previous episodes. It's a bit slow moving but at times it gets pretty exciting for British tv in the 50's. Hammer made a film of this too.
The third series, Quatermass and the Pit, aired in 1958-59 and all six episodes are still around. There's an alien invasion in this one too, but the invasion took place 5 million years ago. While digging the foundation for new building the workmen find some weird skulls. Science guys get involved, and more digging leads to a large cylinder, which is thought to be an unexploded bomb. It's not that, let me tell you. Once inside they find some preserved insect critters. There's also an alien presence that turns the city on it's ear. Death and destruction follow before Quatermass (Andre Morell) can save the day. The Hammer film was renamed Five Million Years To Earth for the USA. You can see a few trailers for the movies at the Internet Archive link above. I liked the movies but I'm happy to see science guys save the day.
As an added bonus today I wanted to mention a fun little invisible man comedy that Sperhauk noticed on Turner Classic Movies last week. I caught it and enjoyed it. Thanks for the tip! The Body Disappears has multiple people, and a monkey, disappearing and appearing all through the movie. One of my favorite character actor's Edward Everett Horton plays a professer at a college. He's a bit whacky, it's his monkey, and he's in trouble with the head of the school. He's created a formula to make people, and monkeys, invisible. No one believes him at first, except that monkey. Edward has a daughter, played by Jane Wyman, whom I'm not a big fan of, and a servant, played by Willie Best, who I am a big fan of. Willie often played the scared black guy and he played that character, oh so well. His characters often filled in for us the audience and vocalized the only voice of reason. Often he was just the comic relief machine. He's was great at physical comedy too. There's another guy, who's getting married. The bride's ex-boyfriend shows up at the bachelor dinner. He makes some threats and gets tossed out. The groom, a bit drunk, has an accident and accidentally gets turned invisible by Edward's formula. The police think he's dead and arrest the bride's ex. There's a lot of running around, yelling and all sorts of silly stuff, as more and more people turn invisible. The right couple's pair off and the professor proves he's not crazy. Even Willie gets a shot at turning invisible as the movie signs off.
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