This film was released in 1957 – it followed the famous Television serial on BBCTV here in England

Above – The Trailer to the film

 Above: Brian Donlevy and a young Michael Ripper

The Television serial was rivetting over 6 weeks and this film version followed shortly afterwards. It starred Brian Donlevy in the role of Professor Quatermass – whereas on TV he was played by John Robinson who, it seems, had quite a busy career on Television and in some films but apparently the Producers thought an American in this  film part would help sell the film in the USA.

This was not a view shared by Nigel Kneale the writer who did not think that Brian Donlevy was the man for the part – although others disagreed.    In fact he is the only man to have played the Professor twice on film – as he had done in the previous one The Quatermass Experiment.

These films did well at the Box Office and on imdb both Films  seem to get generally favourable reviews and people seemed to have enjoyed them.

I can go back to the Television series and as a small boy both this one and The Quatermass Experiment scared me stiff. I was older when Quatermass and The Pit came on TV but probably that one was the scariest of all.

Above