Anchor Bay and Artisan are known for milking the most out of their DVD releases with several editions of the same film, a practice that has hardly endeared them to collectors.  However, with the onslaught of new DVD releases featuring both contemporary and catalog titles, studios are not going to be able to get away with charging premium prices for recycled catalog fare any longer -- there are simply too many other DVDs available.  Anchor Bay, which has already put out overpriced ($29.95) editions of both Quatermass 2 (1957) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967), is now preparing a DVD that includes both films (for an srp of $24.95) and which will be released this week with little fanfare.  However serious science fiction fans know that these are two of the most interesting science fiction films of the 1950s and 1960s.

Based on TV serials written by Nigel Kneale for the BBC, the Quatermass films are never less than intriguing and intelligent reflections of those turbulent decades.  Quatermass 2, which features Hollywood retread Brian Donlevy as Professor Bernard Quatermass, perfectly captures the collective paranoia of the 1950s, which was also brilliantly reflected in Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which came out in 1957.  In Quatermass 2 the good professor discovers a secret government base -- a vast industrial complex incongruously constructed in a remote rural area where there have been an inordinate number of 'meteors.'  Stark black-and-white photography and an engrossing tale of paranoia (a la the X-Files) make Quatermass 2 a key film in understanding the mindset of the 50s.