Post by lakelander on Mar 30, 2017 20:31:12 GMT
I recently read that Nigel Kneale was not at all happy with the way Brian Donlevy portayed professor Quatermass in the two Hammer film production releases, The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass II, aka The Creeping Unknown and Enemy from Space in the USA.
He's quoted as saying in a 1986 interview that he was not pleased with the film, and particularly disliked the casting of Brian Donlevy as Quatermass, "He [Donlevy] was then really on the skids and didn't care what he was doing. He took very little interest in the making of the films or in playing the part. It was a case of take the money and run. Or in the case of Mr Donlevy, waddle."
I think this is more of a sour grapes attitude as Donlevy got the part over Kneale's preferred British candidate, as per the character in the televised BBC series, and as evidenced by his derogatory "waddle" comment. I personally like the way Donlevy handles the part, as the director Val Guest proclaimed in responding to Kneale's criticisms.
Val Guest said, "Nigel Kneale was expecting to find Quatermass like he was on television, a sensitive British scientist, not some American stomping around, but to me Donlevy gave it absolute reality". And I agree with that and Donlevy's no-nonsense approach was a positive for the film.
The other Quatermass performance as well known was in Quatermass and the Pit, played by Andrew Keir, and softened the Donlevy characterization somewhat, but still he was portrayed as a very strong-willed and anti-bureaucratic scientist. He's my second favorite Quatermass.
The film, X the Unknown, from Hammer, was intended to be the third in a Quatermass "trilogy", but Kneale absolutely refused to allow Hammer to use the Quatermass character any longer, fearing another character reprisal by Donlevy. Hammer then decided to change the Professor's name from Quatermass to Royston, and cast Dean Jagger. Jagger played the character much more like what Kneale had originally envisioned, but this makes his portrayal probably the weakest of the Quatermass-like portrayals, IMO.
Haven't seen The Quatermass Conclusion with John Mills as Quatermass, so maybe someone else can comment on this, but it's quite interesting that Nigel Kneale, although he was pleased with the high production values, was dissatisfied with the casting, believing that John Mills "didn't have the authority for Quatermass".
Maybe he was secretly wishing for another more like Brian Donlevy?
