The Quatermass Experiment

This is perhaps one of the most celebrated Science Fiction thrillers of all time and was the one that put back the word ‘Great’ in Great British films, but it’s also the thriller that put Hammer Films on the road to becoming the worlds favourite horror movie studios. Based on the 1953 BBC 6 part TV series ‘The Quatermass Experiment’ it exploited the use of the ‘X’ certificate by dropping the ‘E’ and renaming it “The Quatermass Xperiment”, something, it seems, that Derann decided to ‘correct’ with this standard 8mm release! Produced by Hammer Films in 1955, it led to a short series of black and white science fiction thrillers before their first colour production ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ and the rest, as they say is history. The BBC themselves produced and new version in 2005, which was a live broadcast to mirror original, but  whereas the original series would often overrun, this production, which was given a two hour slot, finished in under one hour and forty minutes. There was a brand new label prepared for the Super 8 release, of the 1955 production released a number of years later, featuring a far more colourful and eye catching design.  

I’ve never found this style of lettering used for the title in use anywhere else, so rightly or wrongly I assume that this was something deigned and printed at Derann at the time, probably by Derek.    

Label courtesy of Peter Brooke at ‘SPROCKETS’