THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)

 

(Director: Christian Nyby and an uncredited co-screenwriter Howard Hawks. Co-screenwriter: Charles Lederer.)

Plot: An American Air Force crew and scientists discover an alien space craft and a frozen-solid alien in the Arctic. They bring the supposed corpse back to their nearby outpost, where the Thing─later described as a deadly “super carrot”─thaws, awakens, stalks and begins feeding on the outpost inhabitants and its dogs.

 

Review

Based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1948 story “Who Goes There?” (a rework of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1936 novella At the Mountains of Madness), THING is an influential, waste-no-time science fiction horror film that makes simple-but-excellent use of chiaroscuro (courtesy of cinematographer Russell Harlan), great camera shots, a fast-moving and smart-minded plot, an underlying sense of humor, and fun, solid acting. James Arness’s makeup as the titular creature is more Frankenstein’s Monster than shapeshifter (like it is in Campbell’s story) because of THING’s limited funding─in Campbell’s tale, the Thing has seaweed-like hair, three crimson eyes, a puckered mouth and blue skin.

THING‘s genre-true achievements are  highlighted by Dimitri Tiomkin’s spare, spooky (and science fiction-familiar) score, as well as mood-appropriate art direction by Albert S. D’Agostino (THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, 1944) and John Hughes, billed as John J. Hughes. There’s also a bit of PG-rated, light-hearted kink, involving two characters and rope!

Kenneth Tobey (HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE, 1996) played Capt. Patrick Hendry─in THE NAKED MONSTER (2005, his last film) he played another character with the same name. Other notable cast members include Margaret Sheridan (I, THE JURY, 1953) as Nikki Nicholson, scientific secretary, and Hendry’s romantic interest; Robert Cornthwaite as thorny lead scientist Dr. Arthur Carrington─like Kenneth Tobey, he re-used his character’s name from THING in THE NAKED MONSTER (2005). Douglas Spencer (THIS ISLAND EARTH, 1955) played sarcastic news reporter Ned Scott.

THING is one of my favorite films in its subgenre, a love that filmmaker/composer John Carpenter shares, as evidenced by his television-background use of it in HALLOWEEN (1978) and his 1982 THING remake, titled THE THING.