Quatermass and The Pit - The Classic 1958-59 BBC Television Version Starring Andre Morell

Have wanted this particular title for awhile now. If you are a fan of the Quatermass series, this is a must have. It would be nice to have movies like this again without all the CGI and bad language. I try to look for region 2 as they often seem to contain better cuts of the movies than in the US. This one was excellent. No extras.

I was happy to find this available. Given it's an old tv series, the quality is good and no problems with playback.

This is the original six-part television serial by Nigel Kneale. Later it was remade as a movie in 1967. I have not seen the movie version yet, but this TV version is really good. Even though it is slow moving at times, I still found it quite creepy - the haunting musical score and the black & white picture help create the eerie astmosphere of the piece. And for it's time it, even now days, it has some really big science-fiction concepts in it. I think Nigel Kneale is the best sci-fi writer of all time, surpassing Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne. And when you see "Quatermass and the Pit" you might understand why. The acting and directing is top-notch, plus not to mention the excellent lighting, and the great design on the spacship and creatures.The Plot:London construction workers uncover fossilized human remains five million years old and beneath that an alien spacecraft. Professor Quatermass (played to perfection by Andre Morell) is called in to investigate. His investigations reveal a bizarre and horrifying connection between the ship's alien crew and the evolution of man on Earth.I'm not going to say more than that because it might spoil the story. The only other thing I can say is... Highly Recommended!

Saw the movie a long time ago and thought the story as science fiction was great. Right up there with the story of FORBIDDEN PLANET as superior in the genre. Instead of the modern world going off to explore a dead civilization on another planet, the modern world confronts what had been an invasion millions of years ago by a now dead civilization from another planet. I heard that there was a TV production that appeared in the U.K. and was the basis for the tantalizing movie. So I sent off for this version. Very pleased to say that this was well worth the money. Yes, the video quality isn't top notch, but it was made in the late 50's, and maybe the six chapter length has its drawn out moments. Still, the concept that is at the root of the show is more than intriguing. The conventional battle between science and politics allied with the military/governmental mind set comes to the fore early on, and we realize that times have not changed over the years. Thick headedness reigns among the authorities, making one wonder how mankind ever managed to create civilization. Well worth the time to watch for the patient viewer.

Back in the 1950's the idea of gene splicing didn't exist. The technology to insert the DNA of one species into another and trigger the alien DNA into action under specific conditions hadn't been invented. Today our science is comfortable messing about with DNA and making all sorts of creatures - like goats who's milk contains spider silk.The Quartermass and The Pit television series was ahead of its time in that it considered the question "what if humanity is the product of an industrial process that combined alien DNA with pre-human creatures?" The idea is so far out that even today it is far fetched. However, the writers pulled it off and the actors carry on marvelously. This is a low-budget series but the writing and plot make up for the 1950's special effects.For a series made in the 1950's there are no great social embarrassments (as viewed from a 2013 social lens). Yes the women are presented rather one-dimensionally, and there are no minorities. It is a product of its time and culture.The series may be too much for small children but middle school aged kids on up can handle the story. The kids with a science background will understand better than the actors what the writers were suggesting.

The three 1950's era Quatermass series really touched on all the options for humans meet hostile aliens type SF. Quatermass and the Pit is the third in the series, and with the huge interval before the 4th and final series (simply titled Quatermass), it stands as the capstone of what is effectively a trilogy. It's TV in the raw, with occasional visible microphones, but it's inventive, and the producers didn't write down to the lowest common denominator - In an era when they were creating what became cliches well before the X-Files came along, these people were carefully avoiding repeating themselves and instead saying something new each time. There are predictions that were ahead of print SF (for just one, pseudoliving organic electronics). Many of the most interesting SF ideas and most of the Darwin/Evolution references were left out of the shorter Hammer films version, and they add to the feeling of real quality for the series.The series weakest point is the stock characterisation of the incompetent and hidebound military brass and politicians, which feels just as bad as any modern example since Short Circuit or even Aliens 4. Andre Morell, by contrast, makes a very, three dimensionally human Quatermass, a man of science who prefers just about any other solution to physical violence and yet can be logically driven to accept it.

So when I found out that the BBC had made a TV version of it in 1958, I wanted to see how much different that was from the film version. I like them both now that I've seen the BBC version which is more concise and follows the same story line as the film which has better special effects, more money.

I used it for obvious reasons! It's a video film!

Un très vieux classique mais le descriptif est pas bon

I saw this on BBC TV when it was first broadcast and was thrilled. Many decades later I am still enthralled by this story as portrayed in B&W in 450 line resolution. In my opinion this is the best sci fi production ever, on big or small screen. It is a cleverly convincing story. The later Hammer Film version (half the length in duration), in colour, is also to be commended but does not quite match the original BBC production, yet both should be seen and enjoyed.

I saw this movie decades ago on TV and always thought it was well acted and well written. The story line was very different.