Review of The Thing from Another World (1951) by Michael R — 27 May 2011

The 1951 version of The Thing is a cheesy low budget black and white movie. They threw in a couple of female characters so they could have some sexy banter between the Air Force Capitan and a secretary.

They even had a scene where she ties him up. It's set in Alaska and the North Pole in the winter. The North Pole should have been dark but they land a plane in bright sunlight. It's based on a short story written in the 1930's.

The original short story is set in Antarctica at the southern magnetic pole. In this movie they moved it to the North Pole so you'd think the enemy might be the Russians. This was made during the Korean War and movie has a war movie feel to it.

There is a group of scientist doing some kind of experiments on the ice pack. The rest are military personnel. The main theme of the plot is that a flying saucer has recently crashed into the ice pack near the North Pole.

The Air Force Capitan is sent to investigate the reports sent by the scientist at the North Pole camp. In the first half of the original short story they've found a space ship that has been buried in ice for thousands of years.

In both the short story and this movie they go out and carve out The Thing out of the ice. They try to melt the ice with thermite bombs and catch the space ship on fire. They take The Thing back to camp in a block of ice.

In the short story it's only four feet tall. In this movie it's played by six foot six inch tall James Arness. They have so much makeup on him you can't tell it's him in the one scene where you see his face.

The ice block melts and The Thing escapes. He goes out and fights the sled dogs. The Thing never kills anybody on screen although they talk about three dead scientists in the greenhouse. You never see any dead bodies except for a dead dog.

That's the scariest scene in the movie when the dog falls out of the wooden cabinet. In this movie they decide The Thing is an animated plant. They create an electrical trap and lure The Thing in and electrocute it.

The closing line is when the reporter radios back in his report with the headline of "Watch The Skies." What he really means is "watch the skies, the Russians are coming".