X the Unknown (1956) User Reviews

A Hammer Films Classic

[vmwrites · 7/10 · 25 June 2004]

Often overlooked even by those who enjoy the sci-fi films of the fifties, "X The Unknown" is one of those sleepers that real afficionados will watch over and over. Starring Dean Jagger, the cast also features a very young Anthony Newly as a British Army corporal.

There's not much that professional critics would find either amusing or compelling about this film, but when considered in its place as a landmark movie both for the sci-fi genre and for Hammer films, it shines somewhat brighter.

As has aready been mentioned, this film occupies a prominent role among those that feature a "blob" monster. The special effects, incidentally, are not bad for the year (1956), and the concept of a radioactive blob is perhaps even more interesting than one that merely gobbles up people.

I understand that this was one of the early films produced by Hammer, as a step toward making more sci-fi entries. I'm glad they took the chance. This film and those that followed it enriched the genre for all fans of 1950's and 1960's sci-fi films.

A nice early outing from the nice people at Hammer studios

[The_Void · 7/10 · 7 March 2005]

This early offering from the studio that would go on to become the greatest force horror would ever see lacks the vibrant colours and pseudo-Gothic style that would go on to epitomise their later output, but it retains the British charm and wit that Hammer became famous for. The film also succeeds in being entertaining, and that's what Hammer Horror has always done best. X the Unknown is your classic 50's B-movie, and it follows a seemingly bottomless crack that has opened up in the Earth. This is not all, as adding to the Earth's woes is the creatures that have come out of this pit; which are made of mud and feed on energy. For the time it was made, the effects certainly aren't bad and this was an obvious blueprint for several b-movie 'classics', including most notably; The Blob. Seeing the huge mud creature fumble over telephone lines and rooftops is very fun to watch, and is a good early indicator of the sort of film that Hammer studios would go on to mass-produce.

One thing that X the Unknown is notable for is the believability regarding the scientists researching the 'creature'. Too often in this sort of film, the scientists realise what is going on and everyone just accepts it, no matter how ridiculous it is; but here there's a bit of opposition and it's nice to see. The film remains interesting throughout thanks to the way that the plot is developed, and the fact that it doesn't go over the top with detail. It attacks the premise from lots of different angles, and seeing the army do it's best to thwart the creature is always amusing. The cast keeps the film afloat at all times, and the acting isn't bad at all; and certainly much better than I was expecting. Most of the cast are unknowns, but one standout is Hammer regular - Michael Ripper, who puts in a small appearance. X the Unknown isn't a brilliant film, and Hammer would go on to better this ten fold; but it's good for what it's worth, and I definitely recommend this movie to fans of classic 'B' cinema.

It's A Blob!

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 30 November 2014]

Dean Jagger is a scientist working at a lab in Scotland, trying to find a way to render radioactive materials (like a bomb) harmless. The earth splits open nearby and a rude lump of glowing stuff comes pouring out, lethal, crackling like bacon in a frying pan, and conveniently built of the kinds of radioactive stuff that Jagger is working on.

The blob -- for the most part unseen -- manages to kill several locals by radioactive poisoning before Jagger and the authorities are able to deploy a full-scale replica of their laboratory model. It may not work because "the fans are out of synch." Or it may explode, like the tiny lab model does.

Will it work? Is Jagger's fantastic theory of blobby organisms having been forced underground as the earth's crust thickened correct? Is the short, squat dilatory figure who runs the lab correct when he calls the whole thing balderdash? Will the whole mess blow up? Why does hail always have to be the size of something else? Did the Masons really design the first dollar bills?

It starts off slowly and mysteriously. That's the best part. Then it gets fast, complicated, scientifically inaccurate, and very loud. Sometimes the suspenseful musical score, on top of all that crackling, as of cellophane being wrinkled, literally drowns out the speech so you can't hear what the characters are saying.

It's not terrible. It's just a routine example of those 50s Briish SF movies that used an imported Yank as the main figure -- here Dean Jagger, there an improbable Gene Evans -- and sometimes they worked quite well -- Brian Donlevy as Quatermass.

In this one, the performances aren't bad but the script has a tendency to lose itself once in a while. In the very last scene, there is a blinding explosion from the creature's fissure. Knocks everyone flat. What was that, asks a soldier. Jagger is staring thoughtfully at the smoke wreathing out of the fissure. "I don't know," he replies, "but it shouldn't have happened." Camera draws away. The End. It should have happened if you'd decided at the last minute to end the movie with a big bang in order to use up the left-over special effects explosive.

Good, grim, post-Quatermass horror/sci-fi

[Heathcliff · 30 January 2002]

The plot: In the remote Scottish Highlands, a living radioactive mass seethes out of the depths of the earth and kills everyone in its path as it seeks fresh radioactive energy. Luckily an American scientist is about the place and kicks the 'thing' back down from whence it came.

X the Unknown, while not having the innate intelligence of the Quatermass movies, is a good example of 1950's British pulp science-fiction cinema. While most of its American counterparts visited fantastic worlds inhabited by outlandish monsters and gorgeous 'space-babes', X the Unknown was a truly British effort: our monster was dollop of mud out of a hole in the ground doing a slow crawl around a dingy moor.

It's effective though. It has the same austere, grim intensity which made the Quatermass movies so memorable. The film also benefits from moody, high-contrast black and white photography, a typically acerbic score from James Bernard, and a good cast; Leo Mckern turns in a very good, naturalistic performance, much like his turn in The Day The Earth Caught Fire.

I first saw this movie when I was about six and the extraordinarily graphic scene depicting the monster 'devouring' a hospital doctor gave me a few... err....sleepless nights (there's a particularly ruthless zoom-in to the poor guys hand as it expands and melts!). Perhaps I should have stuck to Bugs Bunny.

Overall, a decent chiller, well directed by Leslie Norman (late father of the superb British film critic Barry Norman).

One last memory of a six year-old's first viewing of this picture: I remember sitting there stunned and horrified as the end credits rolled; I was not looking forward to a good nights sleep. The statutorily paternal BBC announcer came on and cracked the following nervous joke: "Well, I'll never eat cheese on toast again" (see the film and you'll know what he meant). I laughed with relief and my childhood was thus saved a terrible trauma! Thanks Uncle Beeb.

A blob in Scotland

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 13 October 2013]

X: The Unknown from Hammer Films was intended to be a sequel to the film, The Quatermass Xperiment. Objections from the writer Nigel Kneale meant that the plot of the film was reworked.

The original director was slated to be the noted American blacklisted Joseph Losey who started shooting the film but due to illness had to be replaced by Leslie Norman (Father of film critic Barry Norman.)

This is an unpretentious film dealing with issues with nuclear radiation very much in vogue in the 1950s in horror and sci-fi films. The films also predates The Blob by a few years which was more campy.

Soldiers in Scotland discover a bottomless crack in the ground with a mysterious source of radiation activity. An explosion kills a few of the soldiers from radiation burns. Soon several more people die of radiation burns.

American actor Dean Jagger plays Dr Royston from an Atomic Laboratory who hypothesized that a form of life from prehistory trapped in the crust of the Earth, tries to reach the surface every 50 years depending on the alignment of the sun and tidal waves in order to find food from radioactive sources.

As the entity, a glowing blob feeds on radiation its mass increases as it tries to make its way to nuclear plants to find more radiation.

The film has a mix of good special effects especially with people melting and some ropey ones as the blob moves taking over the town or with fire explosions that look like a match going off. A lot of the horror is off camera but the film maintain its thrills.

The acting from Dean Jagger and Leo McKern is straightforward. It has a fair amount of thrills such as a little girl being left behind in a church as the blob approaches or at the climax when a jeep gets stuck in the mud.

Chris Tarrant and Peter Tomlinson

[khunkrumark · 7/10 · 17 February 2017]

'X the Unknown' is a typical and entertaining British sci-fi movie and comes with everything that these types of movies relied on...

...terrible special effects, a budget that wouldn't feed a church mouse and a silly story that is brought to earth by a well-known cast who play it straight with a good tight script and well-paced direction.

There are lots of excellent reviews and information on this site that do this movie far more justice than I can... so I'm dedicating this review to Chris Tarrant and Peter Tomlinson...

Thank you so much to Chris Tarrant and Peter Tomlinson who made Friday night Hammer movies such a delicious pleasure in the 1970s on Midlands Television.

Every Friday night after the 'News At Ten', either Chris or Peter (sometimes both) would introduce a Hammer film which would take us through to the idiotic conversational bible class at about 12:30 in the morning. This was followed by the loud whiny pitch which let us know that there was no more telly for the night and it was time for Britain to go to bed!

While my parents were out at the Officer's Mess at RAF Cosford getting drunk and having a good time, I'd make a big round of sandwiches, steal a few cans of dad's McEwans Pale Ale or Tartan Export Ale and settle in front of the TV on my own, for the best two hours of the week.

The movies were usually Christofer Lee or Vincent Price doing their various evil characters and of course, there were also sci-fi movies just like 'X The Unknown'. And as the adverts came around, Chris or Peter (I think they took turns each week) made watching these scary movies so much more fun. Add that to the memorable Cinzano adverts along with the Milk Tray ads and Castella ads, Hamlet ads... my Friday nights were the very best that any kid could have imagined.

Thanks, Chris and Peter... You'll never be forgotten for the enormous pleasure you brought to so many people like me, who watched scary Hammer movies in the midlands during the 70s, who were now never alone on a Friday night!

Science Fiction and Horror fans don't "need" to see this, but they ought to.

[lemon_magic · 7/10 · 7 February 2014]

Very solid early outing from Hammer - I always thought of them as the "lurid color horror studio", but "X" (and the "Silent Scream") proves they could put together an impressively tight and well told tale that didn't involves breasts and blood.

The "Quatermass" influences are all over this, of course, but that's not a problem - the screenplay and the production are crisp and energetic even during the expository scenes. And Dean Jagger is almost the "antimatter" version of Brian Donlevy. His character plays the Quatermass role, but he's infinitely more likable (if a little odd and preoccupied) and humane. (There were moments in the Quatermass films that you had to remind yourself that Donlevy was not actually a jerk, just impatient and arrogant.)

The movie does have a little problem with making a monster that is essentially radioactive mud look and sound menacing, but they wisely limit the actual screen time of the beast and concentrate on its effects and its victims. The result is a little potboiler with some eerie and disturbing moments that are well worth your time if you don't insist on big budget special effects.

If you like Hammer films, classic horror films, or black and white 60's British entertainment,take the time to see "X the Unknown" if you get the chance.

"How do you kill mud?"

[fenian2153 · 7/10 · 6 January 2010]

This is another of those films that I watched as a child, and shouldn't have! We owned a large Philco console TV set that had two knobs: On/Off/Volume and Channel Selector. It sat in the living room, so all my late-night monster movie viewing had to be done on the sly.

"X - The Unknown" had me hooked at the title. The black and white photography made the action doubly spooky. In the Scottish Highlands, a routine British Army exercise in radiation detection results in one soldier dead and another badly burned. That night, a large crevice opens at the test site and "something" makes its way to the surface. Thereafter, a series of baffling deaths have the authorities scratching their heads. The one that scarred me forever was the demise of the doctor who used the radiation-treatment room of the hospital as a trysting place with willing nurses. While the good doctor and his latest conquest are snogging, the electronic gear comes on by itself. Doc investigates and recoils in horror. As the hapless nurse watches, the young doctor's face melts down to the bone!

There are solid performances from all here. Dean Jagger as the American scientist, Leo McKern as the police inspector are outstanding. Also, look for a young Ian MacNaughton (of Monty Python fame) as "Haggis". I guarantee you'll never look at mud the same way again.

Good, creepy and smart

[jashley-6 · 5/10 · 31 March 2006]

"X, the Unknown" is not some great work of cinema, it is simply a monster movie. But, given that, it is refreshingly clean of all that anti-Man, anti-science, anti-technology commentary that pollutes so many science fiction movies that base themselves on science and at the same time attack it. And the hero of the film is a scientist in the best sense--logical, clear-headed, never acting on emotion, and never trying to defend the monster in this picture in the name of "animal rights". The creature in "X, the Unknown" is an immediate danger to human beings, and must be stopped. But to do this Dr. Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) must identify the nature of the thing he must find a way to destroy. He must discover what it is, what it feeds on, how it moves, and how it defends itself.

My favorite moment is in the hospital after a technician in a treatment room has been "micro-waved" to death by the creature, a radioactive blob of mud that nobody living has yet seen. The only apparent place the thing could have entered the room is through a grill in the wall, but nobody else believes that possible. "Well how small is ten thousand gallons of oil?", Dr. Royston asks. The others who have arrived on the scene don't understand. "Well, ten thousand gallons of oil would have to take up a pretty big area, wouldn't it?" "Yes." "And yet ten thousand gallons of oil could come through the holes in that grill, couldn't it?" Again, agreement. "Then that's how it got into my workshop: it came in under the door. Obviously, this thing can take up any shape it needs to."

All the performances are good, even down to the old, drunken bum in the old watchtower. The music is also notable; good and creepy, like the mud creature it's supposed to "sound" like.

Functional Sci-Fi Horror But Not Much More Than That

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 12 October 2014]

With the success of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT Hammer films immediately decided to do a sequel and this is that film but Nigel Kneale wisely decided to have nothing to do with it and was adamant the company weren't going to using his character of Bernard Quatermass to appear . I say " wisely " but X THE UNKNOWN isn't by any means a bad film but lacks that little something and one wonders if involvement by the visionary and oh so intelligent Kneale would had lifted the screenplay above being merely average and in to undisputed classic British sci-fi horror ? It's a film you may remember from years ago but upon seeing again realise it's the sum of its parts rather than a consistent whole

Directed by Leslie Norman ( Barry's dad ) the scene is set in the opening sequence with a bleak cold winters day in the Scottish Highlands and a unit of the Royal Engineers on training maneuvers . In those days Britain had a conscript army and if nothing else the film does make a point that forcing young men in to routine military duties seemed rather senseless . It also contrasts a rather mundane setting with the horrors about to come . Norman is rather effective but his job is relatively easy in using night filming , scary music and a build up of people about to be killed by a blob of radioactive mud . Let's be honest and say it's not to difficult to frighten an audience via this type of convention . May be we should also be charitable and point out the melting effect is rather well done but it's difficult to be scared by something that's just a pile of mud

The cast are okay but nothing more than that . Reminding ourselves this was originally supposed to be a QUATERMASS film Brian Donlevy's much maligned performance would have probably been an improvement than Dean Jagger's rather flat substitute role . At least Donlevy would have been a bit more brusque and arrogant and a scene where the father of a dead child condemns the men of science might have had a bigger impact . That said the characters throughout the film are rather non descript and lack a spark to them

X THE UNKNOWN works well enough as a science fiction horror film . It's a good idea on paper and does contain a few scenes that are more than efficient but you're left with the nagging suspicion that more could have been done with the premise , characters and perhaps most of all the big bad monster . Sometimes you wish Nigel Kneale could have written a few more QUATERMASS teleplays

Quite-a-mess

[Ali_John_Catterall · 5/10 · 12 November 2009]

When troops practice locating fallout in a remote Scottish quarry, an apparently bottomless fissure opens in the Earth, critically injuring a soldier with radioactive burns. As radioactive goo oozes forth, destroying everyone in its path, scientist Adam Roysten (Jagger) formulates a theory that the living mass, dormant for millennia, now seeks fresh radioactive energy ("energy can only be fed with more energy") and, to this end, is heading straight for the military's own nuclear reactor.

A film of what-ifs and could-have-beens, X The Unknown was originally devised as a Quatermass sequel - until Nigel Kneale, miffed over what he felt was a lousy adaptation of his BBC serial, refused to co-operate (he would, however, go on to co-write Quatermass 2 after leaving the BBC).

More intriguingly, X The Unknown was also to have been directed by the legendary Joseph Losey (The Servant), then on the run from Senator McCathy's Un-American Activities Committee. Obliged to carry the pseudonym 'Joe Walton', he was forced to bow out after leading man and rabid anti-Commie Jagger rumbled Hammer's ruse. (The studio's US distributors considered Jagger's involvement crucial to the movie's commercial appeal overseas, so he had considerably more sway than the director.)

Replacement director Leslie Norman does his best within the budget's limitations, aided by a faintly literate premise "cobbled together in an hour" by 27-year-old Jimmy Sangster (in his major screen writing debut), along with a shipload of tapioca pudding. But, sandwiched between the two classic Quatermass films, this can't hope to replicate Val Guest's achievements.

Faintly ludicrous scenes of soldier boy Tony Newley firing blindly at a tsunami of pud sit uncomfortably with some genuinely shocking moments - faces melting, exposing skulls. There's a sense of treading water here - Bernard's score lazily re-working familiar themes, although some naturalistic performances (particularly from Newley, as Private 'Spider' Webb) go a little way to absolving the film.

The Unknown Quatermass.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 27 October 2016]

Finding The Man Who Could Cheat Death on Netflix UK,I started keeping a look out for Hammer Horror movies to appear on TV in the run up to Halloween.Greatly enjoying Quatermass 2 and Quatermass and the Pit,I was happy to spot the BBC airing an "unofficial" Hammer Quatermass sequel,which led to me finding out if x marked the unknown spot.

The plot:

Drilling for a source of radiation under the earth's core, Private Lansing notices water beginning to boil above the surface. Trying to run away,a mysterious explosion goes off,and leads Lansing and his fellow soldiers with radiation burns.Called to the scene with "Mac" McGill, Dr. Adam Royston finds the radiation being drilled to be a completely different type to any he has seen before. Performing tests on the site,Royston begins to fear that the soldiers have cracked something which should have remained buried in the earth.

View on the film:

Landing between the Hammer's more Noir style of the past and the lush Gothic Horrors that were on the horizon,director Leslie Norman (who replaced original choice Joseph Losey,who was suspected by the lead actor of being a "Red"-with Norman being so "difficult" to work with that Hammer never hired him again!)and cinematographer Gerald Gibbs masterfully sit the movie between both eras of Hammer,via mountains of dirt giving the army sight a tense Film Noir atmosphere,where Royston's trench coat is unable to shield him from the horrors that the army has unleashed. Despite the monster looking like the catering department dropped some cake mix on set, (all part of Hammer's "handmade" charm!) Norman follows on from the superb work he did on Ealing's The Night My Number Came Up with a slithering atmosphere which touches 50's paranoia on James Bernard's low-hanging violins score and the oncoming Gothic Horror,as the soldiers shiver in fear over the screen being soak in a rich,low-lit black tar.

Chopping and changing the names in his Hammer writing debut after Nigel Kneale stopped the Quatermass name from being used,the screenplay by Jimmy Sangster cuts the 81 minutes into a lean and mean Sci-Fi Horror Film Noir. Written at the time as a warning over nuclear weapons,the intelligent allegorical route Sangster took now makes the title appear as a warning against fracking,from the evil being at the earths core,but the army being told not to stop drilling until they get right into the belly of the beast. Bringing up some monster jolts for a easy shock, Sangster largely takes a restrained Film Noir flavour approach to the Hammer Horror, unveiling itself in Royston uncovering in various tests the full threat that has been uncovered.

Sent in to give the flick an American gloss, Dean Jagger gives a terrific performance as Royston,whose inquisitive mind Jagger presents in a playful manner. Joined by Hammer's superb character actors Michael Ripper, Kenneth Cope and Frazer Hines, Leo McKern gives a great performance as "Mac" McGill,thanks to McKern making McGill try to keep a grip on reason,as McGill and Royston uncover the unknown Hammer.

X... the unknown...

[tom_koopa · 6/10 · 27 July 2009]

What a corny title. I love those strange, out-of-the-blue collection of letters and words. Back then, these kind of titles were intimidating or even scary. Now they are just goofy. And I collect these goofy movies, because they have a certain charm.

X the Unknown is a movie just like that. It's a very straight-to-the-point movie about radioactive mud melting people. Didn't see that one coming, did you? The acting, effects and music all work for this movie. Sure, it gets cliché at times or just dumb; but like I said these kind of movies have a certain charm.

So if you are a fan of movies in this genre, check it out. You won't be disappointed.

On a side note: it was my first black-and-white movie of Warner bros.

6 out of 10 stars.

A Radioactive Goo

[ricardojorgeramalho · 5/10 · 20 January 2023]

A horror film from the early days of Hammer, the famous British B-movie horror company, with a particularly absurd script. British army radioactive experiments lead to the release of a ridiculous being, like nuclear goo, which roams the fields and towns of rural Scotland, melting whatever comes its way.

A kind of Blob in a radioactive version and manufactured in Scotland.

The allusion to radioactivity is quite typical of the time, when everyone had heard about the nuclear bombs dropped by the North Americans on Japan, but no one had a definite idea of what radioactivity was and what dangers it represented. To simulate the radioactive danger, it was necessary to invent a murderous foam that would melt anyone who approached it less than three meters (and not always, if the film is to be believed).

Anyway, a basic film, only for fans of Hammer's minimal and absurd style.

Enjoyable Sci-Fi, & Well-Crafted For Such a Low Budget Movie

[Snow Leopard · 6 December 2004]

Sometimes these low-budget science fiction features are amusing for unintended reasons, but this one is enjoyable because it has an interesting story and because it is well-crafted for such a low-budget movie. Since its effectiveness comes mostly from the story and from the solid acting, even with a bigger budget it might not have been significantly better.

The menace of "X the Unknown" is based on a far-fetched but interesting concept, and the story gets good mileage out of the premise, without pushing it too far. There are a couple of plot holes, but not so bad that they pull it down, and in general the story has the kind of internal logic that holds it together as long as you grant the premise for the sake of a good story.

The cast does surprisingly well. The characters are not the kind of roles that are particularly difficult to play, but they are the kind of roles that are easy to overplay, and that often are overplayed. Here the actors make their characters lifelike without trying to grab the attention, and it works pretty well.

Dean Jagger has good presence as Professor Royston, yet he avoids the kinds of stereotypes that sometimes make such characters annoying. Some of his little habits and mannerisms help to make the professor more human. Leo McKern also turns in a good performance. Edward Chapman's character is quite one-dimensional, yet he does a creditable job with it. It's also rather fun to see a very young-looking Anthony Newley in a small but entertaining role.

All of the cast members do a good job with a script that is plain but workmanlike. The special effects are rudimentary in technique, but they are good enough, and it's certainly preferable to have plain-looking special effects and a good story than to have flashy visuals and a dreary, pointless story. As a whole, "X the Unknown" delivers good science fiction without frills or padding, and it's easily among the better of the 1950s low-budget sci-fi movies.

Jimmy Sangster delivers first screenplay

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 29 July 2010]

Hammer Films had done a few low-key genre features before they struck gold with a science fiction horror called "The Quatermass Xperiment," from 1935's "Mystery of the Marie Celeste" (starring Bela Lugosi), 1950's "Room to Let" (a Jack the Ripper story), 1952's "Stolen Face" (a plastic surgeon models a convict's face into that of his former lover's), 1952's "Four Sided Triangle" (another scientist clones a duplicate of the woman he loves), and 1952's "Spaceways" (the first British sci-fi set in outer space). After numerous discussions about subject matter, production manager Jimmy Sangster was instructed to compose the screenplay for "X the Unknown," their followup to "The Quatermass Xperiment," because he was the one making most of the suggestions. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful career as a screenwriter and producer (and director of 3 Hammers in the early 70's-"The Horror of Frankenstein," "Lust for a Vampire," and "Fear in the Night"). This initial script is typical of Sangster's work, strong on character and building tension through the fear of the unknown. A good cast performs well despite a director, Leslie Norman, who was most unpleasant (and never did another for Hammer). Genuine moments of terror proved too much for many audiences, and this was before the phenomenal success of Sangster's second script, "The Curse of Frankenstein," which was criticized for excessive gruesomeness. Following "X the Unknown," Hammer did the sequel, "Quatermass 2," before casting the coveted Peter Cushing in his first co-starring film opposite Christopher Lee, repeating his Baron Frankenstein in 5 sequels. By the early 70s Sangster had moved to the US, thereafter working almost exclusively for television (GHOST STORY, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER).

Blobby, blobby, blobby

[JohnSeal · 6/10 · 28 November 2010]

Hammer didn't delve into science fiction much—their blood and butter was always the horror genre—but when they did, the results were generally good. X the Unknown, the tale of a dangerous Blob-like creature and it's battle against the British Army on the moors of the Scottish Lowlands, was one of the studio's earliest sci-fi outings and remains a firm fan favorite. Yank Dean Jagger stars as Adam Royston, an atomic scientist who theorizes that X is searching for, and absorbing, as much radioactive material as it can find. With the assistance of Police Inspector McGill (Leo McKern), Royston develops a plan to take down the amorphous entity, but it's a risky endeavor which threatens to endanger the entire world. Jimmy Sangster's screenplay is reasonably intelligent (well, at least as intelligent as you can hope when your subject is a radioactive blancmange), but the film suffers a little thanks to its cheap shot-in-Bray look. Nonetheless, I've watched X the Unknown on multiple occasions since I was a wee lad, and recommend it without hesitation.

How do you destroy a thing that feeds on energy?

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 23 May 2011]

X The Unknown is directed by Leslie Norman and written by Jimmy Sangster. It stars Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley and Jameson Clark. Director of photography is Gerald Gibbs and James Bernard scores the music.

During a British army training exercise in the Scottish Highlands, mysterious fissures open up in the ground and unleash a radioactive being. The authorities call in atomic scientist Dr. Adam Royston (Jagger), who sets about defeating the entity before it destroys mankind.

Following the success of The Quatermass Xperiment the previous year, Hammer Film Productions quickly realised that a market was open for some sci-fi horror from the British Isles. Wanting it to be a sequel to Quatermass Xperiment, producer Anthony Hinds was dealt a set back when Quatermass writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass to be used. Undaunted he fetched in Sangster and paired him with exiled American director Joseph Losey. American actor Dean Jagger was brought in to play the Quatermass like role of Royston, but he refused to work with Losey on account of his suspected sympathies to communism; the reason the director was in flight from America for. So in came Leslie Norman and the film was finally made.

Sangster brought a new spin to the 50's craze of sci-fi schlockers and creaky creature features. Having observed mankind come under threat from all manner of aliens or beasties, from space, land, sea, air or otherwise, Sangster hit on the idea of having the threat come from the Earth's bowels. Thus X The Unknown was spawned, in a big blob of malevolent alien energy. Photographed in shadowy monochrome by Gerald Gibbs, "X" taps into the general unease that was pulsing in America and Europe at the time. The Cold War was gathering apace and the threat of a nuclear based WWIII was at the back of everyone's minds. 1956 was also the year of the Suez crisis, the makers of "X" had pitched their film at just the right time.

It proved to be a hit with critics and cinema goers alike. Sangster's script is tight and intelligent, but never losing the necessary sci-fi schlock factor, and it's very well acted, especially by a straight faced and serious Jagger. Bernard scores it with strings and percussion, creeping menace style, while the effects team provide good 1950's style ick and grue. It may not have the quality of the Quatermass films, but it makes for a nice companion piece to that series. While it for sure towers above the bubblegum candy floss that was The Blob that followed two years later. 7/10

A better than average 50s sci-fi monster film.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 7 December 2009]

What's with Leo McKern's voice?! I've seen Leo McKern in many movies and TV shows over the years and his deep resonant voice is one of his trademarks. However, in this film with a younger McKern, his voice is nothing like it was in films made just a few years later. He must have had a lot of voice lessons, as I've never heard an actor's voice change THAT much.

And, speaking of voices, you'll notice that Hammer Films put an American, Dean Jagger, in the leading role. They never even mentioned why everyone in the film but Jagger had British accents. He wasn't bad in the film--just a bit out of place.

The film is about some sort of monster from below the Earth's surface. Whenever it comes out, it emits enormous amounts of radiation and turns many people into something resembling KFC! Overall, it's better than most monster films of the 1950s. While you might laugh when you finally see the atomically charged creature, for the time it wasn't bad--plus the rest of the film was played quite convincingly. Plus, it's worth seeing just so you can see cameos with Ian McShane and Anthony Newley--but watch close, as the both snuff it soon after they are introduced!

Passable low-budget sci-fi flick, helped by sincere performances.

[barnabyrudge · 5/10 · 7 February 2007]

Following the tremendous success of The Quatermass Experiment, the folks at Hammer give us this sci-fi/horror flick with American Dean Jagger in the leading role. In the 50's it was not uncommon for an American actor to top the cast in a British film, as this was how the British companies ensured their movie would attract a Stateside audience. Jagger had won an Oscar just a few years previously for his work in Twelve O'Clock High, and he brings that kind of authoritative performance to his role here. One of the strengths of X The Unknown is that the characters behave, react and speak in a plausible manner - something that can't be said of the majority of films in the genre - and this is entirely down to the believable character nuances fashioned by the stars.

In Scotland, one army soldier is killed and one severely burned when a mysterious crack appears in the ground. No-one is quite sure what has caused the crack to appear, nor how deep it is, nor even why those in the immediate vicinity seem to develop serious radioactive burns. An American scientist, Dr Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) is working in the nearby area, carrying out unofficial research into ways of neutralising radiation. Royston recognises that science and technology rely more and more on radioactive materials, and is worried that mankind might be slowly but surely poisoning the planet with radiation. When news of the soldier's death reaches Royston he investigates…. from the available evidence, he soon concludes that some kind of subterranean organism has been awakened which feeds off radioactivity. With mankind using increasing quantities of nuclear energy, the unknown organism – basically a moving, oozing mass of goo – has been attracted up to the surface. Since the ooze feeds off radiation and cannot be destroyed with weapons, the only hope of stopping its destructive progress is if Royston's experiments on neutralising radiation can be put to use against it. Joined by the sceptical Inspector McGill (Leo McKern), Royston races against time to find a solution to the threat…..

Some have interpreted the crack that releases the ooze at the beginning of the film as a symbol for Mother Earth's vagina, opening to give birth to a natural monster from its core (or should that be "womb"?) Such an interpretation is amusingly interesting, but I'm not so sure that scripter Jimmy Sangster and director Leslie Norman are really using symbolism to such an extent in this film. To me, it's more of a straightforward story – science awakens a fearful force, fearful force threatens the world, scientists try to figure out the nature of the threat, scientists try to destroy the fearful force. Leslie Norman (father of revered film critic Barry) invests the film with some effectively stark images and Hammer's most prolific composer James Bernard provides an appropriately creepy score. Within its parameters X The Unknown is a fun sci-fi romp, very much of its era, but not a film that resonates in your memory for years and years after seeing it.

'My name is Mud - Radioactive Mud.'

[punishmentpark · 7/10 · 13 October 2013]

I saw 'Quatermass 2' (the film, not the series) once and that had a similar 'oily ooze monster' in it; that one was filmed partly in a Shell (yes, the oil company) location. This one wasn't, as far as I know, though both did come from the legendary Hammer Studios.

This is an enjoyable little horror sci-fi flick with some melting corpses, the aforementioned radioactive oily oozer, a brilliant, headstrong professor, some impressive army machinery, some scientific watchemecallits, and several 'look aghasted and scream into the camera'-victims. Some scenes are particularly cute, such as the ones with the mischievous boys and the wandering toddler. And, of course, there's lots of jibber jabber about the origins of the monsters and how to exactly - finally - destroy it. Och!

A small 7 out of 10.

A scientific breakthrough ends up as humanity's worst nightmare.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 24 February 2024]

Not the first time that this theme has been utilized, especially in the 1950's where film script writers went after the nuclear and atom age with often campy or unintentionally funny results. This isn't campy or funny, just a ho-hum thriller that takes forever to show what's going on underneath the muck of a Scottish highland swamp.

There's definitely intrigue in waiting to find out what's causing all of these smokey bursts coming up from the dirt, and when it happens, it's sudden and pretty unexpected. With Dean Jagger, Leo McKern and Anthony Newly in the cast, it's not exactly a star vehicle, but sometimes the best things in film come to those who wait. Not a great sci-fi film by any means (considering the classics from that era), but not as deadly dull as I recalled it from an earlier viewing.

Scary As A Kid!

[shanfrina · 9/10 · 14 October 2005]

First saw this excellent British Sci-Fi film when I was 10 or 11 at our local neighborhood theater. It seems like yesterday, since the invisible monster scared the Hell out of all of us.

This was the first of many other Brit Sci-Fi movies we would scream our guts out at. They were far ahead of U.S. film makers in suspense and realism. The casts were also superior in their acting skills for this genre.

I hope to locate many more movies like "X The Unknown" to see how I view them now as an adult. The initial impact may be less than it was originally.

It's almost a Quatermass film but not quite.

[mwilson1976 · 6/10 · 21 May 2020]

It's almost a Quatermass film but not quite. Originally intended by Hammer to be a sequel to the previous year's successful The Quatermass Xperiment, writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass to be used. Instead we get Dean Jagger playing the role of Dr. Adam Royston in a terrible tale of an ancient horror emerging from the Scottish moorland with a hunger for radioactivity. The monster manifests itself as a huge slab of glowing radioactive mud and goes on the rampage. Featuring some gruesome special effects that were pretty strong for the period (a hospital radiologist is melted down into a gloopy mess), some effective scares and a characteristically menacing score from James Bernard, X The Unknown is jolly good fun. It may not have been as commercially successful as The Quatermass Xperiment, but it was nevertheless a significant film for Hammer steering them towards Gothic horror, and also cementing within British cinema a trend for science fiction/horror hybrids.

Before The Blob We Had X The Unknown

[Rainey-Dawn · 4/10 · 2 February 2017]

Two years before The Blob (1958) we had X The Unknown (1956). X takes a more serious approach and a bit more adult of the two films, whereas The Blob is a bit more comical and teenager-ish. Both are good creature features if you like that sort of thing. I like The Blob better.

The copy of X I watched had a weird wave to the entire film that is hard explain. It's not wavy lines though it. It's not a rocking motion of the camera man I don't think but almost as if the film was sliding around during the recording to DVD but it could have been originally filmed that way - it's hard to say. I can say that it made me a bit nauseous and dizzy watching it. (I watched it via YouTube).

I would not go out to buy this film and would not care to watch it again, but I am not saying it's a terrible film... it's just not that much fun to watch.

4/10