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The Thing From Another World Movie Review
Posted by: MacReadyIn 1951 one of the best and most famous, science-fiction movies hit the big screen. Based on John W. Campbell jr.´s "Who goes there ?" (this novel later was voted to be "The best Sci-Fi short story" before 1965 by the "Science Fiction writers of America"). The script was written by Charles Lederer , Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht (HH+BH uncredited), the film directed by Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks (HH again uncredited) who also produced.
I have to say, that I own 2 versions on VHS. One in black/white and one digitally colourised. I’ll now give you an advise: NEVER WATCH COLOURISED VERSIONS ! THEY SUCK !
They ruin the whole feeling of the movie. Everything the cameraman had in his mind with the game of light and shadows, and the suspense that is build with it, is gone. And it doesn’t help either to turn of the colour of your TV, because the colourising completely destroys the shading. As you may guess now, i just watched the B/W version for this review. Now for the story:
Pilot Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Toby) flies a group of scientist, from their artic outpost, to a place an unidentified object landed. They figure out, that when the spaceship landed it melted the ice, sank down and the water froze again. As they try do free it (with explosives), they accidentally destroy it (have you ever tried to free something frozen at your fridge with explosives ? -> it just won’t work !). Only the pilot of the UFO seems to be unharmed. Frozen in an icecuboid, they bring him to their base.
Because of an accident "The Thing" (played by James Arness – most of you will now him from the TV series "Gunsmoke"), defrosts. The creature turns out to be a bloodthirsty alien. After killing a man it manages to escape and kills all the huskys. The men follow the beast, but the only thing they find is an arm the dogs have bitten off the thing.
The station’s scientists examine the arm and find out, that the extraterrestrial is not a fleshly, but herbal organism. They also find seeds in the arm and come to the conclusion, that the creature lives on blood.
From this point on, the Thing besieges the outpost. It conquers the hothouse (which is standard at arctic bases) and tries to reproduce by planting it’s seeds. When Hendry and his men manage to destroy the seedlings, the Thing really gets angry ! But Nikki (Hendry’s girlfriend played by Margaret Sheridan) knows how to deal with nasty vegetables. They need to be boiled. So a high voltage trap is build to kill the alien.
There are many differences between this movie and the novel.
For example: In the novel the outpost is situated at the Antarctica and in the movie its at the North Pole.
The Thing was a 3-eyed, tentacle using, green blooded creature. With blue eyes, the ability to change its shape and assimilate with any living tissue, which gave it the perfect disguising. No one knew who was still human or already monster. In the movie, we see a "Frankenstein" looking monster. But that’s o.k. it was 1951,the special effects were not what they are now and since John Carpenter’s version in 1982, we can imagine how Campbell intended the monster to look like.
This movie also was one of the first, typical American science-fiction movies of the 50’s, with (behind the lines) propagandistic massages. To sharpen the peoples consciousness. To Alarm them of alien (communistic) infiltration, invasion and occupation.
You also recognize, that the movie has an antiscientific touch. The scientists are shown weak, helpless with ineffectual ideas, while the soldiers are displayed as brave men that know what to do, when they are needed.
Beside some of the complaining, i have to say, that i really like the movie. It is well filmed, with really nice light/shadow scenes and truly represents the "classic" science-fiction/horror movie. I watch it every time it’s on TV, and if it was on TV too long ago, I watch it on VHS (black/white of course). If you also like "old" genre movies, you shouldn’t miss this masterpiece. Many movies tried to copy the style, all failed. Also I love the last sentence of the movie, when the reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott (Douglas Spencer) takes the radio to warn the world saying: "WATCH THE SKY ! ….. WATCH THE SKY !"
At a scale 1-10 (10 best) this movie gets 8 points.
Runtime: approx. 83 min
Rated: unrated in the US, 12-15 (min. age) in most other countries
I have to say, that I own 2 versions on VHS. One in black/white and one digitally colourised. I’ll now give you an advise: NEVER WATCH COLOURISED VERSIONS ! THEY SUCK !
They ruin the whole feeling of the movie. Everything the cameraman had in his mind with the game of light and shadows, and the suspense that is build with it, is gone. And it doesn’t help either to turn of the colour of your TV, because the colourising completely destroys the shading. As you may guess now, i just watched the B/W version for this review. Now for the story:
Pilot Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Toby) flies a group of scientist, from their artic outpost, to a place an unidentified object landed. They figure out, that when the spaceship landed it melted the ice, sank down and the water froze again. As they try do free it (with explosives), they accidentally destroy it (have you ever tried to free something frozen at your fridge with explosives ? -> it just won’t work !). Only the pilot of the UFO seems to be unharmed. Frozen in an icecuboid, they bring him to their base.
Because of an accident "The Thing" (played by James Arness – most of you will now him from the TV series "Gunsmoke"), defrosts. The creature turns out to be a bloodthirsty alien. After killing a man it manages to escape and kills all the huskys. The men follow the beast, but the only thing they find is an arm the dogs have bitten off the thing.
The station’s scientists examine the arm and find out, that the extraterrestrial is not a fleshly, but herbal organism. They also find seeds in the arm and come to the conclusion, that the creature lives on blood.
From this point on, the Thing besieges the outpost. It conquers the hothouse (which is standard at arctic bases) and tries to reproduce by planting it’s seeds. When Hendry and his men manage to destroy the seedlings, the Thing really gets angry ! But Nikki (Hendry’s girlfriend played by Margaret Sheridan) knows how to deal with nasty vegetables. They need to be boiled. So a high voltage trap is build to kill the alien.
There are many differences between this movie and the novel.
For example: In the novel the outpost is situated at the Antarctica and in the movie its at the North Pole.
The Thing was a 3-eyed, tentacle using, green blooded creature. With blue eyes, the ability to change its shape and assimilate with any living tissue, which gave it the perfect disguising. No one knew who was still human or already monster. In the movie, we see a "Frankenstein" looking monster. But that’s o.k. it was 1951,the special effects were not what they are now and since John Carpenter’s version in 1982, we can imagine how Campbell intended the monster to look like.
This movie also was one of the first, typical American science-fiction movies of the 50’s, with (behind the lines) propagandistic massages. To sharpen the peoples consciousness. To Alarm them of alien (communistic) infiltration, invasion and occupation.
You also recognize, that the movie has an antiscientific touch. The scientists are shown weak, helpless with ineffectual ideas, while the soldiers are displayed as brave men that know what to do, when they are needed.
Beside some of the complaining, i have to say, that i really like the movie. It is well filmed, with really nice light/shadow scenes and truly represents the "classic" science-fiction/horror movie. I watch it every time it’s on TV, and if it was on TV too long ago, I watch it on VHS (black/white of course). If you also like "old" genre movies, you shouldn’t miss this masterpiece. Many movies tried to copy the style, all failed. Also I love the last sentence of the movie, when the reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott (Douglas Spencer) takes the radio to warn the world saying: "WATCH THE SKY ! ….. WATCH THE SKY !"
At a scale 1-10 (10 best) this movie gets 8 points.
Runtime: approx. 83 min
Rated: unrated in the US, 12-15 (min. age) in most other countries
Editors note: Thanks to MacReady for a spifftastic review. You can discuss this review with him on his thread he started right here
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