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Quatermass II

1. Original Title: Quatermass II
2. Director: Val Guest
3. Editor: James Needs
4. Photography: Gerald Gibbs
5. Music: James Bernard
6. Starring:
   Brian Donlevy
   John Longden
   Sidney James
   Bryan Forbes
   Vera Day
   William Franklyn
7. United Kingdom
8. 84 min.
9. 1957

Professor Quatermass, leader of the British Experimental Rocket Group, is intrigued by a strange fall of meteorites in a nearby area. Following them with a young co-worker to the place where they should be landing, he finds a facility he had originally designed but for which he had never been granted funds by the Government. His assistant picks up one of the strange meteorites and gets seriously burnt by the gas it suddenly releases. Spotted by the guards, the two scientists are threatened and removed from the area.
With the help of a member of Parliament, Quatermass learns that the lab is carrying out classified research aimed at the production of synthetic food, but he senses that something is not right.
Quatermass II is the second film produced by Hammer. Its mixture of horror and science-fiction bizarrely reflects the alarm and hysteria of the Cold War.
Building on Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, released the previous year, this low-cost but nevertheless very effective film focuses again on the theme of the Earth being saved by the versatility of the scientific mind as opposed to the ignorant helplessness of politicians and the military.