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May 26 08 8:40 AM
Ted Newsom wrote: OK, I took the bait. Lured back. I'm not at all convinced Nigel Kneale's resentment about Q-X being sold to Hammer had diddly to do with the script of Q-2. On both of them he was a staff writer, and it's not unusual at all for work done on company time to be owned by a company. As for the discussed Nazi implicatons--I'd rather take Kneale at face value. Q-2's targets were complaceny and government treachery against its people-- plus the Quisling factor of well-fed workers working against their own interests.
Hi Ted, I don't think Kneale was a staff writer on QX. Writing duties went to Richard Landau, which in turn had to be practially re-written by Val Guest. Kneale did not leave the BBC until the end of 1955, his contract with them prevented him from working freelance up until that point, which was long after QX had been made and released, but I'm willing to be proved wrong.
I think you can just about read anything you like into any film if you wish to, Q2 just happens to be one of those films that goes the extra mile and gives you that bit more. Yes, there is the treachery, conspiracy, mass murder, mans own complacency - the 'As long as it doesn't bother me! kind of attitude, even xenophobia is there, if you want it to be. As one wag wrote in the UK newspaper 'The Guardian', that Kneale was writing about the West Indian immigrants that arrived in the UK in the 1950s, pointing out that Kneale used Q2 to enforce the White British peoples fears against the new Black immigrants, even to the point of making the burning food slime -'Black'. Although an extreme viewpoint, and one I myself disagree with, it's there if you look for it. That is why I prefer to take Q2 on face value, rather than to read a political infrastructure around it, to me it's damn good entertainment, yes it's dark and scarey and yes, even political, but just entertainment - and that is what matters at the end of the day.
May 27 08 1:40 AM
Hi Ted, I don't think Kneale was a staff writer on QX.
May 27 08 9:32 AM
grgstv338 wrote: Hi Ted, I don't think Kneale was a staff writer on QX. Stephen, I think you're mis-reading what Ted said or (I take it) what he meant - that Kneale was a staff writer for the BBC when he did the original Quatermass Experiment teleplay and thus was not allowed to do the movie version (pretty much what you then said in your reply).
Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me, I must have read that completely wrong there, that's what tiredness does to you I guess. Sorry for the misunderstanding there Ted, my apologies. Kneale had some serious grievances with Hammer for some reason, which is a shame, because IMHO if it wasn't for them, it's doubtful his work would have been seen outside of the UK.
May 28 08 2:14 AM
Sep 7 08 10:36 AM
Stephen Reed wrote: grgstv338 wrote: Hi Ted, I don't think Kneale was a staff writer on QX. Stephen, I think you're mis-reading what Ted said or (I take it) what he meant - that Kneale was a staff writer for the BBC when he did the original Quatermass Experiment teleplay and thus was not allowed to do the movie version (pretty much what you then said in your reply). Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me, I must have read that completely wrong there, that's what tiredness does to you I guess. Sorry for the misunderstanding there Ted, my apologies. Kneale had some serious grievances with Hammer for some reason, which is a shame, because IMHO if it wasn't for them, it's doubtful his work would have been seen outside of the UK.
Sep 7 08 11:45 AM
Sep 7 08 2:45 PM
Ted Newsom wrote: Coulda been different... Paul Henreid, maybe... George Brent (snore...)... Forrest Tucker (pow/biff/smack)... Tom Conway... nope, I'd say Donlevy was a good choice, Kneale not withstanding.
Sep 9 08 12:53 PM
Sep 9 08 2:32 PM
Sep 9 08 2:43 PM
The Drunken Severed Head wrote: Why not Lon Chaney, Jr? An American who often played loud and blustery types-- drank like Donlevy-- played professors in the Inner Sanctum series-- why he'd have been just as good a choice! Would have added a bit more oomph to his resume than, say, THE CYCLOPS, or THE BLACK SLEEP.
Sep 9 08 3:48 PM
Sep 9 08 5:00 PM
Monsterpal wrote: Dan Blocker would have been good.
Sep 9 08 11:32 PM
Sep 10 08 4:23 PM
Sep 14 08 7:21 PM
Sep 15 08 1:15 PM
Sep 15 08 4:47 PM
bipolarber wrote: Just my $0.02: The minister escaping from the alien "gas chamber"... And so on...
Sep 15 08 5:03 PM
Sep 15 08 5:24 PM
bipolarber wrote: skelton, No, I was referring to the one that came out of the "food" tank, covered in black, acid goo... I know the scene you're thinking of... where Quatermass realizes what's about to happen on the "tour" and makes *sses and elbows for the exit.
Sep 15 08 9:45 PM
bipolarber wrote: The fact that they discover the "secret camp" where people are being put to work... The people of the town not wanting to know what goes on there, so long as the work is good... The townspeople becoming "marked" and then hauled away by a group of annonymous gun toting thugs... The images of people who have been "taken over" by the alien thught process, working like zombies... The minister escaping from the alien "gas chamber"... The whole "trapped in a building" and surrounded by dark, military forces... very similar to a jewish ghetto.
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