TV/Series 6 | 2014 Écho et reprise dans les séries télévisées (III) : de la métafiction à la transmédialité Quatermass and the Pit: from British SF TV serial to Gothic Hammer film Gaïd Girard Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/tvseries/336 DOI: 10.4000/tvseries.336 ISSN: 2266-0909 Publisher GRIC - Groupe de recherche Identités et Cultures Electronic reference Gaïd Girard, « Quatermass and the Pit: from British SF TV serial to Gothic Hammer film », TV/Series [Online], 6 | 2014, Online since 01 December 2014, connection on 20 April 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/tvseries/336 ; DOI : 10.4000/tvseries.336 TV/Series est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. Quatermass and the Pit: from British SF TV serial to Gothic Hammer film Ga&d GIRARD This brief article aims at showing the shift of ideological and aesthetic perspective underl.ing the transposition of the 1950s 0uatermass 1ritish T2 serials to the later 3ammer film version of the original 11C program. 5hile the science fiction T2 0uatermass reads as an obvious declaration of philosophical faith in the restoration of social normalit. and order in spite of alien threats from outer space, the 3ammer films tend to enhance a more Gothic approach of a disaster film where uncertainties of all 6inds eventuall. prevails. 7ost-55II convictions and Cold 5ar tensions either support or undermine the evolution of the plotline and its subterranean vision of the world as we pass from tv serials to films. 1. From series to film: a few elements of context The 0uatermass T2 serials are a monument in the histor. of post-war 1ritish television. The three hugel. popular serials 8 The Quatermass Experiment 91953), Quatermass II 91957), Quatermass and the Pit 91958-9) 8 were all written b. igel Kneale and broadcast b. the 11C between 1953 and 1959. The. were transmitted live and did not resemble an.thing that had been done before; the. gripped the entire nation 8 including the 0ueen1, combining for the first time science fiction and horror in sophisticated plots aimed at adults. In the earl. fifties, T2 was basicall. ?radio with pictures“ according to igel Kneale. 5hen the shooting of the first serial began, The 11C production team were unable to devise a credible man/monster; in order to signif. astronaut CarroonAs mutation, Kneale had to fabricate and operate huge fungus-li6e puppet hands which he filmed at close range. 5or6ing with director Rudolph Cartier, and using electronic music for the first time in this t.pe of production, Kneale invented a trul. ?televisual“ st.le2. The first two 0uatermass stories were Buic6l. adapted to the big screen b. 3ammer films 92al Guest, 1955-1957) whereas Quatermass and the Pit, a colour film directed b. Ro. 5ard 1a6er, was released later in 1967. The original titles were retained in 1ritain, except for the first one, which was slightl. altered to The Quatermass Xperiment, in order to cash in on the supposedl. alluring power of the newl. categoriCed Drated films. 1ut contrar. to 1ritish television, 3ammer 1 Cf. ?The Kneale tapes“ in the 11C D2D bonus: when igel Kneale aired an adaptation of ErwellAs 1984 after the first 0uatermass serial, sections of the audience were shoc6ed at the violence shown on T2. 0uestions were as6ed in 7arliament, but it turned out that 1uc6ingham 7alace li6ed the programme and the outcr. died off. 2 Ibid.: see ?The Kneale tapes“ and ?Conversation between igel Kneale and Rud. Cartier“. TV/Series #6, décembre 2014 / December 2014 284 http://revuetvseries.wix.com/tvseries ISS 2266-0909 films which included American financing from the start also targeted the American mar6et3. Fet, 3ammer productions alwa.s retained a specificall. 1ritish flavour, not onl. because plots were set in 1ritain but also because the filming was done on location, in 1ritish countr. houses, landscapes, and small villages rather than in studios4. The 3ammer st.le was distinctl. different from that of Corman in the US or 1ava in Ital., who also specialiCed in the horror genre. The 0uatermass films were huge hits on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, it was the success of the first one, The Quatermass Experiment, that made 3ammer shift its production to concentrate on the horror genre, so successful in the following .ears; films li6e The Curse of rankenstein 91957), Dracula 91958), The Mummy 91959) developed a highl. sensational and intense 8 some would sa. rather crude 8 visual st.le, foregrounding graphic violence and sexual titillation. This was also a response to the increased popularit. of television, made more powerful b. the arrival in 1955 of AT2, a new 1ritish commercial channel. Cinema audiences were starting to dwindle and 3ammer films, which had alwa.s used stories adapted from the radio or from television, 6ept a close e.e on what could draw spectators to see their films. All these parameters should be 6ept in mind when wor6ing on the film adaptations of the 0uatermass stories. Moreover, the proximit. between T2 and the cinema wor6ed both wa.s: while 3ammer adapted well-6nown T2 serials to the big screen, the T2 producer and director of the 0uatermass serials, Rudolph Cartier, claimed that his aim was to ?bring cinema effects to T2 studios5“, using for example inserted film seBuences in his live studio recordings. Cartier, born in Austria, was a pupil of Max Reinhardt in 2ienna. 3e originall. wor6ed as a scriptwriter and director in 1erlin for the UIA studios, before fleeing naCism in 1935, following 1ill. 5ilder to America; he finall. settled in Great 1ritain. The lighting and some of the close range shots on the mutating astronautAs face in The Quatermass Experiment, the crowd scenes in Quatermass II, the mass 6illings in Quatermass and the Pit all bear obvious traces of CartierAs Austrian/German period, blended with American 6now-how. 5ith the 3 The 0uatermass films were retitled for the American mar6et since the name 0uatermass did not have the appeal it had for 1ritish audiences; respectivel. The Creeping (nknown 91955), Enemy from Space 91957), ive Millions years to Earth 91967). 4 5ill 5right, ?The Iace of 0uatermass: ational Identit. in 1ritish Science-Iiction“, in Offscreen, 2008, 2ol. 12, o. 10, http://offscreen.com/view/face_of_Buatermass, last consulted on December 7th, 2014. 5 Cf. igel Kneale in the 11C D2D bonus: ?Rud. put a lot on the small screen. 3e burst it open. That reall. did brea6 the bounds of Mrs Smith drawing room“. TV/Series #6, décembre 2014 / December 2014 285 http://revuetvseries.wix.com/tvseries ISS 2266-0909 0uatermass stories, both the 11C and 3ammer productions broke aesthetic and visual ground in popular media6. 2. Recycling a British bac ground Quatermass and the Pit, the third and most acclaimed production of the 0uatermass serials is the onl. one for which igel Kneale wrote the scripts both of the T2 serial and the film. In an interview with 7aul 5ells, Kneale explains that when he started wor6ing on science-fiction stories, he wanted to do something different from the usual simplistic American science fiction movies, and that he aimed at ?something 1ritish but not flag-waving, something with real human interest and some good humour7.“ 3e also declared that he preferred the T2 serial to the filmic version of his stor., which ?suffered from shrin6age“ and never allowed room for comic relief, to ease off the melodrama. ?Iilm stor. telling is cruder,“ he bluntl. concludes8. Ebviousl., six 35-minute-long T2 episodes can sa. more than a 93-minute-long film. 1ut besides the issue of time and length, one of the distinctive features of the T2 serials which is not to be found in the film lies in the wa. this obviousl. highl. fictional stor. of ancient beings coming from outer space and having caused the human race to mutate is deepl. anchored in 1ritish social realit.. An outline of the stor. has to be given here before going an. further. As in all the other 0uatermass stories, the main character 1ernard 0uatermass, the head of the 1ritish Experimental Roc6et Group, has to wrestle with an alien threat from outer space. In Quatermass and the Pit, the danger seems to have been l.ing in wait for over five million .ears in the form of a strange capsule unearthed b. construction wor6ers in the heart of London. 7rimitive humanoid s6ulls l.ing about and dead horned insects found in the capsule point 6 Cf. 11C Screenonline: ?Cartier exploded the m.th that television was b. its nature small- scale, having to aspire to the MintimateA. 3e excelled in staging wide-ranging stories, large vistas, and crowd scenes in the studio, spectacles hitherto believed inimical to television. To do this he often inserted extensive pre-filmed seBuences into his live productions. 5hile other directors used such inserts as little more than filler material or for scene setting, in CartierAs hands the. brought the stor. to life, allowing it to expand be.ond the cramped studio. 9N) This highl. visual aspect of his wor6 has led some to call Cartier-s st.le Mcinematic.A 3owever, his large-scale images were not big pictures as for a big screen, but images that challenged the confines of the domestic screen. As such, his wor6 is essentiall. Mtelevisual.A http://www.screenonline.org.u6/people/id/1181098/, last consulted on December 7th, 2014. 7 ?I wanted to write some strong characters, but did not want them to be li6e those horrible people in those awful American science fiction films, chewing gum and stating the obvious.