Quatermass 2 (1957)

Starring Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn
Directed by Val Guest
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Professor Quatermass stumbles upon a factory protected by armed guards which he discovers is connected to projectiles descending to Earth, and hiding a secret that could menace the world.

The second of Hammer's adaptations of Nigel Kneale's Quatermass serials brings back Brian Donlevy as the driven rocket scientist.  Although Donlevy's been criticized for turning Quatermass into a more forceful bully than his portrayers on television, in my opinion, he provides the dramatic thrust the film needs, enlivening the tale, particularly with most of the filming taking place in routine settings, such as an oil refinery.  James Bernard's eerie music helps as well.  Kneale and director Guest collaborated on the script, and it's a great story, with special effects that hold up pretty well in the terror-fraught climax.  With most of the film involving largely faceless villains, I don't think it fares quite as well as the earlier The Quatermass Xperiment, with Richard Wordsworth's transforming menace, but it's certainly another work of quality, thanks to Donlevy, Kneale, Guest, and the Hammer cast and crew.

Satellite In The Sky (1956)

Starring Kieron Moore, Lois Maxwell, Donald Wolfit, Bryan Forbes, Jimmy Hanley
Directed by Paul Dickson
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The commander of a British mission to fly a spacecraft outside the Earth's atmosphere is told just before takeoff that the craft will also carry an atomic bomb to be detonated in space.

A combination of sci-fi adventure and old fashioned melodrama, the picture is probably most notable for the presence of Maxwell, who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in numerous James Bond films.  She has a much more substantial role here as a romantic lead and reporter who stows aboard the spacecraft.  The special effects would have been passable at the time the film was released, but haven't aged well, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the movie.  It's acted well enough, with familiar heavy Wolfit standing out as the professor in charge of deploying the bomb, and the script poses some valid questions about the quest to explore space while the world is preoccupied with other problems.