Review of The Thing from Another World (1951) by Danny R — 17 Dec 2011
The original scary sci-fi classic and one of the most influential films of its genre, brilliantly directed by Christian Nyby and produced by the great Howard Hawks, which is why it has his signature touches all over it.
The tension in this claustrophobic thriller develops effectively as small group of U.S. airmen and scientists from a remote research station at the North Pole investigate and discover a crashed UFO buried in the ice.
While trying to recover the spacecraft by using thermite bombs to melt the ice they accidentally blow it up, its 8 foot tall extraterrestrial occupant is frozen fast in the ice. Its body is then removed and taken back to base in a block of ice, where it inadvertently gets thawed out and begins a murderous rampage for blood.
"The Thing" which looks humanoid but is really an intelligent plant-like being which lives on blood and must also have it in order to reproduce itself from the seed pods located under the soft tissue of the palm of its lethal multi-throned fingered hands, this deadly alien is memorably played by the late James Arness (1923-2011), a towering 6'7" physically imposing character actor that delivers a effectively creepy performance as the thing from another world.
The cinematography by Russell Harlan is fabulous with extensive use of light and darkness to heighten the suspense by keeping the menacing thing mostly in the shadows. The rest of the cast all deliver uniformly fine performances beginning with Kennth Tobey's solid and authoritative turn as the leader of the U.
S. airmen, Capt. Henndry, Robert Cornblaithe's superb perfomance as the foolish Dr. Carrington who believes that it is possible to communicate with the murderous alien, Dewey Martin's nice turn as Bob, the brave crew chief, and Douglas Spencer's wonderfully amusing performance as Ned "Scotty" Scott the newspaper reporter, he add a welcome comic relief to the film.
The film ends with a great wrap up line from Scotty the reporter, when he tells the world press over the radio about their horrific encounter with alien thing, and them warns all of us to "watch the skies, keep watching the skies!" A masterfully crafted sci-fi gem.
Highly Recommended.
This review of The Thing from Another World (1951) was written by Danny R on 17 Dec 2011.
The Thing from Another World has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
