The Thing From Another World!

In my opinion movies don't get better than The Thing from Another World! Based on John C. Campbell's novella "Who Goes There?"" (also released recently under the title The Frozen Hell) this epic 1951 B-movie tells of a group of stalwart soldiers and scientists at the top of the world in the frozen Arctic who repel a deadly invader from the depths of space. 

James Arness, who would go on to portray Marshall Matt Dillon for decades in the television show Gunsmoke plays the titular "Thing". Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Margaret Sheridan headline one of the strongest casts I've ever seen in a movie of this kind. Dewey Martin is ideal as an airman who despite not being an officer proves to be of great value to the defense effort. Douglas Spencer as an eager reporter adds just the right small smidge of light-heartedness to this spare story of death in the cold. So many good parts and great actors just slinking in the background of every scene. 

Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks create a spare movie without a single wasted frame. Every line communicates something necessary for the audience, speaking to story or character or both. The pace and momentum of the story is just right, no sense of panic or rushing, but good speed all along. The story never drags, even in the quietest moments. Dimitri Tiomkin's score is punchy and dark in all the right places, adding drama to an already drama-laden yarn. 

This movie is a wonderful depiction of the American ideal, men (and some few women I'll admit) of all stripes working in concert for a noble goal. This is a smart military unit, which values life though ready to take it if necessary. There's very little bitterness in this movie, which is filled with civility. When asked to identify my favorite movie the answer is either The Thing from Another World or The Maltese Falcon, another classic I love for almost all the same reasons. 

The story has been famously adapted to film on two other occasions, the first in 1981 by John Carpenter in which he cleaves a bit closer to John Campbell's original story with a shape-shifting monster from deep space. The other serves as a prequel of sorts to the Carpenter film and was made in 2011. These are wonderful flicks and do their job of scaring the viewer quite well, especially the Carpenter outing. But for me, I'll take the original The Thing from Another World in all its floral glory every time. 

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Things That Go Bump!

I finally got hold of a copy of The Thing, the 2011 movie prequel to The Thing by John Carpenter. Carpenter's 1982 movie starring Kurt Russell tells the horrifying tale of a gang of isolated scientists confronting the shape-changing menace of an alien invader which has escaped from a neighboring Norwegian science station. The 2011 movie tells us the story of that Norwegian station and how the creature came to escape to raise such a ruckus all those years ago.

It's a pretty reasonable effort all things considered. Among those elements is the fact that the movie strives diligently to be true to the Carpenter effort, so much so that I think that really retards the way in which this movie can develop. We know how it ends to no small extent, like any prequel and so it becomes for much of the movie an exercise in how the film dovetails into its proper place alongside the earlier effort. It does that job wonderfully, but as a scary flick it falls just a tad short, because most of the scares are pretty predictable. That's fine by me, because as a fan of any "Thing" movie, I'm watching it as part of a larger piece, and not as a fresh moviegoer, hence the relative failure of the movie financially because frankly there aren't that many of us John Carpenter fans left I suspect, at least not enough to constitute a mass audience.

Like the Carpenter effort to some extent this movie is a revision and updating of the film The Thing From Another World from 1951, one of the seminal sci-fi movies of that decade, of any decade. If I'm shoved to name a favorite movie, this one usually gets the nod. I find its economical storytelling breathtaking and the character development is concise and powerfully effective. I consider the movie to an ode to the American Dream, the ideal of different kinds of folks mingling to successfully work together for the greater good. This movie like all the subsequent flicks, has the core dilemma of people isolated and forced to deal with dangerous circumstances on their own. It's a surefire scenario.  The alien/monster is a hoot in classic thorn-fingered 50's fashion, and overall effect of the movie is exquisite.

That said, this latest effort is really more like the classic Howard Hawks effort in plot structure than it is the Carpenter movie. In this one we get to see the discovery of the alien in the ice, we get to see the space ship that brought it, and we get to see it escape the ice and terrorize a group of scientists, mostly male but having a tiny contingent of two women. The pacing is remarkably similar to the 1951 classic though the effects are an echo of the 1982 flick. 

All "Thing" movies of course are adaptations of "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, a haunting tale, his most famous by a large margin. I need to fish out my copy of the story and give it another reading, it's been quite a while.

Overall I have to give a thumbs up to this latest "Thing" movie. It was entertaining and while the filmmakers seem overwhelming deferential to John Carpenter, they actual end up making a movie that is a decent adaptation of Campbell's story and a lively update of the Hawks movie.

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No Thing To Be Found!

Frankly I've always been a bit surprised that a really good DVD of the the classic Howard Hawks movie The Thing From Another World (officially my favorite sci-fi flick) has not come onto the market. The one that is available has been so for years and is a bare bones offering.


I own the movie a few times on VHS, getting a super cheap one ages ago back in the stone age of video, and then updating with a new black and white copy and the colorized version many years ago now. I've not gotten the DVD because I figured the week after I dropped a dime on it, they'd come out with a really cool version with all the fringe benefits. I'd love to hear a solid commentary on this movie.


Then I heard about the prequel that's due to be released to theaters about any time and I assumed that would be the launch date for a new version of the classic. But I cannot uncover it if it exists. I guess I'll just have to cave in at last and get the one that has been lounging on the racks all these years.

Sheesh!

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Watch The Skies!

When I'm asked to list my favorite movie, The Thing From Another World is usually the one I mention. It's not always my favorite all the time, but it's always on the short list. It's a great movie, exquisitely paced and offering up a superb image of the ideal American, a no-nonsense man of grit, determination, savvy, and a man willing to collaborate and sacrifice for the greater good. The scientists in the story are a mixed lot, some obsessed by their craft and overcome by intellect as opposed to wisdom, and some striking a better balance. But the soldiers are a gang of good men who have worked together in tough times and who trust one another and who respect the chain of command when it works. There's a practical problem-solving quality to this movie as they and The Thing match wits and strategy at the top of the world with only the winner surviving.


The message of Cold War paranoia is leavened in this one by practical men facing up to the tough requirements a proven enemy demands. They must respond with force and more importantly with wits or they will all be lost. What they think is most important as well as what they feel. It's a battle for the heart as well as the head, for a balance between the two. That's why they win, because they make room for both.

As I said, it's a great movie. They don't make them like that anymore.

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