One great thing about this movie is the development of the characters. Without spending tons of time focusing on each member of the flight crew, for instance, you feel like you know them and believe they've been to war together. Also I love the fact that the smartest guy on the plane is not Captain Hendry, but his Flight Engineer, a sergeant, whom Hendry respects and has the good sense to listen to. So well done.
From what I've heard, much of the cast spent a lot of time waiting for shooting times playing poker, which I think gave them time to become familiar enough with each other for their dialogue to feel authentic. Not to mention that Margaret Sheridan and Kenneth Tobey had good chemistry, which sold the budding romance story.
I was a little kid back in the 1950's when I saw this movie the first time. It scared me pretty good. When the door was opened and the creature came in, well YOW! Holycow! There it is! Back in the 1950's there were lots of flying saucer 'sightings.' So we were kind of prepped for this kind of thing. And people living on Mars was very much possible as far as we knew. So, I am just saying that the context of the times was very important. That added tremendously to the 'scare value.'
Re the "lack of response" angle when the characters find the alien ship: Remember these guys had lived through World War Two. The Air Force guys had flown bomber missions over Nazi Germany, had seen the development of jet fighters and bombers (from the P-26 to the Me 262 is an extraordinary leap), the breaking of the sound barrier, etc. They'd seen the emergence of the V-1 and V-2. So maybe finding a flying saucer wouldn't be so much beyond some of the wild stuff they'd already seen. (Maybe they'd even encountered a Messerschmitt 163 rocket fighter in action. What could be more WTF than that?) As for the scientists, they had seen the progress of science as well, and reacted, as the movie says, like kids with a new toy. Just about right, I'd say.
the UFO flap was just beginning....and would culminate with them flying over DC in '52...displaying our impotence for all to see...after that the govt. went into full cover-up mode...what else could they do?
A thought on your point in the beginning about them not being excited enough: what I always took from that scene is that after the initial look of excitement they realise that they have to get to work quick. So looking for familiar things and how to get it out right away was great in my view. Like in any high stakes situations with proffesionals, they ofc get excited and happy, but reality and the realization that they have to do something takes over. Just my view. Not an original english speaker so might be hard to understand what i mean :)
we get you...they were professionals and expected to act like it....and they did...so typically American.."we've got a problem...so let's figure out how to solve it".....
I think what makes this movie really good is the characters, and the characterization and dialog, and the side-romance. You have the hard-boiled military man, the sexy tom-boy girl, the loyal officers, the relentless newspaperman, and the inscrutable scientist. It is a classic indeed, and still my favorite by far in the series. I love this movie and remember seeing it in black on white, on a real black and white TV as a kid.
I have always loved this version. One thing I did notice watching this and have always missed before is at 35 :53 in this video (this is in the final confrontation with the Thing) it comes thru the door at the end of the corridor by pulling the door outward. There are boards barricading the doorway put there by the men to prevent the Thing coming in, but as the door opens outward, the barricades are useless to prevent anyone coming IN that way. It just pulls the door open, knocks the boards away and it's in! Just an observation. I love their analysis of the movie.
Man the 1950's gave us some great creature flicks and some great science fiction from Them to Forbidden Planet to The Blob and so on an so on and this along with Forbidden Planet has always been some of my favorites from the amazing 50's flicks. Was glad to see you gents engage on this.
I remember my father telling me about seeing this film in the theater when he was in the Navy at the base theater. He said the fear was so thick you could cut it with a knife and you could've heard a pin drop in that theater full of GI's.
In 2001 the thing from another world was inducted into the library of Congress's national film registry of films that were deemed essential for preservation. These films began being inducted into the LOC in 1989.
is it weird that i just like listening to these guys review a movie , it doesint even matter the movie i just generally enjoy what these guys have to say lol
One of the bits of magic with this movie is that you "know" all the people right away. That is, none of them have any 11th hour secrets to twist the plot. They are just folks, as if you stepped into the room, cracked a beer and started talking about yesterdays ball game. Except for Ash, Alien has this feel of everyday people, people you know, trapped in an extraordinary situation. "The Thing from Another World" and "Alien" have a lot in common.
... I was born in '51 (American), so it was a few years until I got to see the film. I first saw it on one of those 4:30pm-6pm "Afternoon Movie" TV time slots, interrupted by many commercials ... yet it nevertheless literally gave me recurring nightmares for a couple of years. I of course now have it on DVD, and I derive a strange comfort from watching it yet again, now and then. I watch it on my MacBook Pro, and I discovered a viewing adjustment control that enables me to expand the film's original 1:1 "Academy" aspect ratio horizontally, so it completely fills my laptop's 1:5 screen ratio. True, everything looks a bit stretched, but I don't mind that. The bigger, wider picture works much better for me. And the MacPro somehow "remembers" the adjustment, and automatically defaults to it whenever I again need that special "Thing" yet again. Cheers!!!
I own this movie and watch it fairly frequently. There seems to be a theme in many of these 1950's sci-fi movies where the women characters in the movies seem to be there just to make coffee and sometimes food for the men in the movie. Margret Sheridan does this in one or more of the scenes as does Ann Robinson in the 1953 movie War Of The Worlds. Not to say the female characters in this movie are not strong or unimportant they certainly are just an observation that probably has more to do with the times in which these movies were made. Regardless I do love this movie! One more observation, in the final scene when "The Thing" opens the door to come in the door is barricaded with timber to prevent anyone or anything from pushing the door open towards the inside however when he opens the door it opens to the outside and all of the timber just falls down on to the floor!
I always assumed the ship blew up from a self-destruct internal command to prevent it being looked at closely. The alien may have been trapped in the ice before the explosion as he was leaving the ship. Being vegetable-based. he just froze as we can do with many vegetables ourselves. The trope of the electric blanket on the frozen alien is needed to move the story along and so I can forgive the cliche. The little romance is used to give us a break in the action and tension. The overlapping dialog is typical Howard Hawks (i.e. The Big Sky) and I greatly appreciate its realism. Dewey Martin was perfect for how Hawk's directed his movies. The Hayes Code kept it from being as violent as the movies made starting in the 70s. As with all creatures, procreation is a primary motive, so it makes perfect sense to be propagate the seeds. It is one of my favorites too.
two additional films of this story made...one the sequel to the other...and both set at the other end of the earth....and unlike this one...neither has a happy ending....
James Arness and his brother Peter Graves had to deal with their height problem in the early movies. Most actors hovered around 5'8" , they were 6'7" and 6' 5" accordingly.....so "hiding" them required some creative camera work ( lots of sitting down). Obviously not needed in the The Thing. Peter Graves in "Them" sat down in a few scenes.
This is one of my favorite sci-fi movie of the 50s along with the great ”The Day The Earth Stood Still”..and of course Forbidden Planet, War of The Worlds..etc..even It The Terror from Beyond”
interest in space was huge at this time...remember people standing around the walls to see "Destination Moon"...something I never saw before or since...
The scenes in the compound i believe were filmed in a meat packing plant in California. Often the opening scene where the army brass is assigning the military to go check out the saucer is cut and it starts with the plane looking for the saucer.
@28:17 The Thing swipes at Nikki behind the mattress, and as it turns around to head towards the window, a man throws more kerosene on the Thing, the surrounding flames nearly engulfs Nikki!
As usual Hawks gets away with murder in TTFAW. The airmen disobey orders, screw up, own their mistakes, tease their captain relentlessly, mock atom bombs, take the fact of an actual alien in stride as if it was just another enemy to fight, and don't trust their own government with a shred of the Thing, not even a seed or a hand. Half the scientists want to examine the body in the least sterile environment as possible. Pat makes no good ideas but he decides which idea to go with, which Hawks views as the real mark of a leader. And despite their teasing, when the Captain says jump, they jump. There is even a homoerotic moment between Pat and crew chief Bob. Pat even trusts Nikki's cool to bring her into the group, giving her a job in the big fire scene with only a mattress for protection. And the salaciousness! In 1951 "if I start burning up again who's going to out my fire?" "We're very proud of our captain-oof" and "looking for polar bear tail" , the kinky foreplay between Pat and Nikki, and my God,YOU untangle the story of their date 3 weeks prior to the action. Supposedly they sat at a table and drank until Pat passed out, so how does Nikki know what his legs look like? And she hangs a sign around his neck in the morning just before she leaves? But she doesn't sleep with him? Wtf! Well.of course she did. And Hawks does everything he can to say that without saying that in 1951. And the F/X? This movie had an a-list budget but other than the full body burn, Hawks just hired short actors, built low ceilings, and got a six-six actor to play the Thing. Then he merely slapped a bald wig on him and put him in platform boots. The real money went to A-list writers and location shooting in British Columbia. Just look at THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Universal spent nearly a year on the suit and probably spent five bucks on the.story,.content to copy the Thing but underwater. As for continuity, take.a.close look at the end credits. And is Barnes a corporal or a sergeant? He's referred to as both. And the novella makes mention of.telepathy. This horror trope is dispensed with in one crack from the co-pilot thus eliminating the tin foil hat brigade. And what the hell kind of gun does Bob use in the classic greenhouse scene? A short BAR? It penetrates the iron door as if it were cardboard and even goes through the greenhouse and out the other side, since Mac says "be careful where you aim that cannon, Bob". He and the co-pilot had gone around to the outside in back of the greenhouse. Huh? But I love that scene. They know the thing is in the greenhouse but not in the effing doorway! And this exchange: "ready,.Bob?" "No." And check the similarities between Carpenter's movie and Hawks'. Not just the block of ice but the thermite the Norwegians are shown using, the spread out shown to get a sense of size of the space ship, a burning Palmer-thing jumping out the window into the snow, and the rushed use of wood to reinforce the doors. In 2001 the Library of Congress inducted the movie into the National Film Registry. When Carpenter did the dvd commentary for RIO BRAVO, he called Hawks his favorite director,.as well he should. Hawks has 11 films in the NFR, Hitchcock has 10, Capra has 3, John Ford has 10, and Billy Wilder has 7. And Hawks never received a competitive Oscar and was only nominated once, for SGT. YORK. THE National Film Registry is not the American Film Institute, which is composed of critics who vote on 100.films each year and so the AFI changes as tastes change. The NFR is the Library of Congress, picking movies for preservation in the Library until hell freezes over.
wow, we get 2 reviews this week. thanks fellas. always enjoy your reviews. :)) can I request a review of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil? have many requests, but love to see you guys to this one. have a great weekend, boys.
The Nyby-Hawks film doesn't really belong in the same "series" as Carpenter's film in any major way, since it bears so little in common with the WHO GOES THERE story. A shame Carpenter wasn't able (or inclined to?) name his film after the story than the earlier film, which would've helped demonstrate the vast differences between the two projects.
know what that's like!...once watched "The Fog" then got up to make a round and as I opened the outside door I was met with a thick swirling fog....YIKES!.....
Great review of my favorite me. I'm glad you two had respect that it is a movie of it's time and how audiences would have reacted to it. Good job guys.
OK...granted all the inconsistancies in story logic, this being the FIRST of a what would become a new species of film genre, I myself willingly accept all of it for it's mastery of suspense...ESPECIALLY the talk-over dialog...the off-hand informality of the crew keeping us connected to reality despite facing an unimaginable unreality...I've LOVED this film for sixty years!!!!
As a former member of the military the idea that upon discovery of this that anyone would do shit without reporting to higher and having a million Virginia suits showing up to assess the situation is absolute fantasy.
I LOVE this incredible film. It's DIALOGUE alone is freaking amazing. I introduce into evidence the scene where military dudes are desperately preparing to douse The Thing with kerosene in one of arctic compound's rooms, BUT how to ignite the kerosene?!!!!! Well they suddenly remember they've got a flare pistol available, but one character asks the other character who is thereafter wielding this vital flare gun if he actually knows how TO USE IT, whereat he licks his forefinger and then, with the finger thusly moistened wipes the tip of this weapon's barrel, saying, "I saw "Sargeant York.", A CLASSIC Gary Cooper movie from the late thirties WHICH HOWARD HAWKES also famously directed, Cooper having stunned his target practice instructors, trying to coach raw recruits to shoot Germans in WW1, by licking his finger and wiping it on the tip of a Army carbine!!!!!! Woah, that's classy writing!!!
kind of creepy to watch late on a winters night...with the snow swirling and whirling about right outside the picture window as I once did as a kid....if somebody had suddenly popped-up in that window it would have totally freaked me out!
This is an un-alloyed classic. It captures a paranoid vibe that was very real back in the day. It really delivers the zeitgeist of post war America. And as others have said, the overlapping dialogue, the Hawksean vibe and pacing delivers a consistently enjoyable and creepily effective time capsule It also has a great score by Dmitri Tiomkin
Some wag once said that the "super carrot" was James Arness' most animated performance LoL ! I heard somewhere that some of the cast members went out to a drive-in window to get something to eat. James still had on the arm-hand piece of his costume, so when the server handed out their lunches, James accepted them with his monster hand, and the lunches went all over the place, accompanied by the hysterical screams of the server!
Best line in the 1951 Thing. They’re about to take on the Thing......one of Capt. Hendry ‘s guys has a consern. He aked one of his biddies “ I have a concern...... “suppose he can read minds” his buddie, while holding pick axe answers.....”he’s goner be especially mad when he gets to me......” A little history, when the movie was first premiered in a San Amonica, people were getting sick and leaving the theatre in droves....they sent it back, reworked it again.....had to stop again, people were leaving the theater. I would pay dearly if anyone has a copy of the uncut version. Also, seems they couldn’t get James Arnes’s make up right.After a night of drinking they got it! They sent Arness off to Howard Hawks home to show off their make up job. Arness stopped for a red light , a cop just happened to pull up next to Arness,......he almost didn’t make it to Hawks residents.AGAIN has if anyone has a copy of the or
derektate 1951 I can't tell you how long I have waited to hear from anyone that their was actually an unedited version . I saw this movie on TV I believe around 1964. I swear I saw those two scientists hanging upside down.... hanging in the green house. Tobey actually says. "I just took a look through that door..." But we never saw it in the edited version. Comment if you can.
I like how there is that one scientist who tries to reason with an alien plant man and doesn't realize there are two problems with this: one, its an alien so I doubt it understands humans, and two, its a vegetable.
Cleansing your palette after Ab Fab huh? Yeah great movie, my favourite scene is the one where the Flight Sgt says "C'mon sir, I need you for some heavy labour" and he replies "Well you know I am the officer" and the Flight Sgt goes "Well you can supervise me whilst you're lifting". Can't believe you didn't say more about the music?
Tiomkin's main theme from "The Thing" still never fails to give me the creeps. Being cursed with insomnia, I come awake through the night. I remember once being awake at about 1:30 a.m., and I turned on the TV to see if there was anything interesting on. As it happened, "The Thing" was just coming on, with its terrifying theme. I said, "Oh, no, I can't take this at 1:30 a.m.," and quickly changed channels. The only other that can compare to it for sheer creepiness is the "Fear" theme from that old series, "One Step Beyond"/"Alcoa Presents." Great work all around!
Again if anyone has a copy of the original of of the original, uncut version, you”ve been sitting on it for like 80 years.Time to share.......”share,share that’s fair!!!!!”
I especially like the scene when our heroes are examining the fin, or stabilizer, or whatever it is (Stephen King writes admiringly that this single fin saved the special effects department a lot of $, not having to build a whole spaceship), but find that it is impossible to scrape off some samples of the fin. Then someone says they need some tools, and someone calls out, "Barnes, bring some tools!" They don't say what kind of tools, so maybe they expect that Barnes is a mind-reader, too!
They didn't intend to blow it up. They were trying to free it from the ice, so they could study it. As the other fellow said, The Thing was trapped and its only recourse was to start killing off everyone and to use their blood to grow an entirely new generation of giant, walking carrots. The Thing was played by James Arness, , who was 6'6". He went on to play Matt Dillon in Gun Smoke, which virtually ran forever.
I don't think Hawks could have gotten away with the kerosene burning or arm-ripping scenes if it weren't an alien; the Hays Office would have raised hell if it were a human character. It's a brilliant movie that was very daring and innovative and is still terrific entertainment today.
they made some shocking films back then too...."Try and Get Me"....where the leading characters are violently lynched by a rabid mob...left me a bit shaken as a kid...movies aren't supposed to end like that...even if it did happen in real life
I'm going to stop watching this review at 5:21. I've heard enough to buy it and watch it thanks fellas. I'll come back and watch the rest of your review later.
I watched this on a two disc DVD and enjoyed it. The version I have also has John Carpenter commentary which is a nice bonus. I wasn't keen on the Frankinstein-looking creature but this movie must have really been an experience to watch back in the 1950s.
One fact that today's Reaction that is not considered is the movie's budget... A script had to move along economically and come-in at no more than about 80-90 minutes because in 1951 there were Double-Features and Short Films and Cartoons and Coming Attractions... And to make films under those conditions, they had many one scene scenarios that were "cheaply made" to move the story along...
People from the last couple of generations do not apparently realize people in the 50's and 60's were not criticizing sci-fi movies as they enjoyed the horror and science fiction films of the time. The effects were raw due to many of the effects were being invented at the time. It was another twenty or thirty years before action and special effects became more important than well written dialogue. 'The Thing from Another World' is a GREAT FILM from this period of film making.
...."Them" could stand a remaster...make the ants move faster like the real ones do...somebody tell that guy hiding out in New Zealand...and, yes...I taught with your mom...nice of you to take her to the oscars....
This is such a great Movie. From the overlapping dialogue, through the way the story has been adapted, along with a cast of relative unknowns... To the Legendary Dimitri Tiomkin's Soundtrack. I just love this Movie. By all means "Watch The Skies". Better yet "Watch This Movie!". (Then Watch John Carpenter's 'The Thing'. Read the Book and Listen to the BBC Radio Drama).
Today's films so often neglect where this film shines: Giving us multi-dimensional characters we can identify with and care about. Even the bad guy of the film isn't really bad. "Good for you, Scotty." Its accomplishments have aged very well.
I always thought that the thawed alien sneaking up behind the guy (William Self) was taken from a similar scene at the beginning of THE MUMMY (the Karloff film). Thermite charges had been used successfully by the military for melting ice, so seems logical it might be used here, showing how even scientists were somewhat over-eager to see this unexpected find. As if humanity hadn't blundered scientifically or militarily in the past?---this seems to be part of the point of the tale: Tread cautiously when dealing with the unknown. A shame they decided on such a bland idea for the alien, rather than the 3-eyed/tentacled monstrosity described in the script: A test creature was made but vetoed by the censors, as being too gruesome, according to the first art director. Beh Hecht took his name off the script: He was the key writer. He was, in contemporary terms, a "JFO buff". He was reportedly unhappy with the "human-looking monster" (my quote).
just an over-sized version of the "biologics" we've recently heard about....same deal with the "beings" encountered by the russian divers in that deep water lake...why is it so hard to believe they might look like us?
They're at the North Pole, right? When they find the saucer the sun is directly overhead. Later on it's pitch dark. I don't think that occurs at the pole in summertime. Always bugged me that such a good production company would net that fly. Ed Wood? Sure, why not. I still love the movie, though.
actually thought that "prequel" was the better film of the two...right down to the block of ice...never did figure out what happened to that chick at the end.....kind of left you hanging.....
Get a copy of Stephen King's non-fiction "Danse Macabre," where he discusses "The Thing" at length and with a great deal of humor. There's only one way to deal with this Thing [read commie]--"Shoot 'em if they stand and cut 'em if they run!"
the original is one of the ten best sci/fi films ever made . the kurt russell one was boring. i love the subtle jokes by capt.tobey for everyone to get some sleep , ya right ,with a 9ft goon walking around who just wants to kill ya , sweet dreams . i also like the tall norwegian looking scientist he got a level head on him . carrington is the stupid fool. ann sheridan is nice to look at too.
The only gripe I have about this movie is that it derails too much from the book: It turns more into a frankestein movie instead of a creature that takes over human bodies and copies them. That is why I love Carpenter's version and the Invasion of the bodysnatchers. Will you do reviews of the bodysnatchers movies?
Yup this is good movie despite being a very loose adaptation. John Carpenter’s The Thing is less a remake of the 1951 Thing from another world as it’s actually a new adaptation of John Campbell’s novella and is the definitive adaptation of the book. Now The Blob is a true remake since it’s based on the movieb
LOL about blowing up the ship. Back in those days, people blew up things first and then talked about it. Seriously, that was the mindset. See something you don't understand? BLOW IT UP!! When I saw this movie in the 1950's it seemed perfectly normal to blow it up LOL.
One Of The First But Nowhere Near The Best If Nothing Else, this was a First in many ways. Deadly Serious, this Flying Saucer Movie has Cold War Overtones, Horror Movie Conventions, and a Right-Wing Conservative Ambiance that is as Subtle as a Meat (Vegetable) Cleaver. On the Surface this is all Tension, Nervous Talk, and Suspense. It moves so quickly that it has no Time for any real Contemplation or Analysis as the Events unfold at an Alarming Rate. But, while Entertaining and Exciting the Filmmakers were on Thin Ice here. It was quite a "new", Modern Concept this UFO Stuff and until the Post War Years was relegated to Pulp Sci-Fi and Serials. But in the hands of a handler like Howard Hawks this becomes another of His Manly Male Attitudes about Machismo and a World not fit for Intellectuals, Homosexuals, or Commies. Just about Anyone or Anything that goes against His Way is bound for the Highway. Here the Scientist is Portrayed as an Effeminate, Left Leaning Nut-Case and is given Lines like..."We owe it to humanity to stand here and die", all the while wearing a Ruskie Hat. The Grand Captain is fawned over by his Crew that follows Him around and snuggles up like so many puppy dogs. He is clearly the ONE in charge and the Hero to the Woman, the Journalist, and Everyone else in the Picture, except the Creep Scientist. As aforementioned, the Film does Deserve a lot of Credit for breaking the ice, and is at first glance, quite Enthralling and Delivers the goods. But if you go much deeper into it, the Movie is not quite the Great Film many proclaim and is a Stark Example of a certain Myopic Worldview that Reeks of Propaganda both Political and Social.
Awesome! Are you going to review John Carpenter's version aswell? And the shitty 2011 prequel too? :D Edit: Ah they did say they would do the other two in the series aswell! Next time I shut up and watch the entire video before moaning :p
If they made this movie today the Thing would be disemboweling people, ripping off heads, and punching through people and animals, he would be a true RIP -- TILE !!!😀😀😀
