The Thing from Another World

The Thing from Another World
1951 theatrical poster
Directed by	Howard Hawks (uncredited) Christian Nyby
Screenplay by	Charles Lederer Howard Hawks (uncredited) Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Based on	Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Starring	Margaret Sheridan Kenneth Tobey Douglas Spencer Robert O. Cornthwaite James Arness
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography	Russell Harlan, ASC
Editing by	Roland Gross
Studio	Winchester Pictures Corporation
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s)	April 29, 1951 (1951-04-29)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Thing from Another World (often referred to as The Thing before its 1982 remake), is a 1951 science fiction film based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell (writing under the pseudonym of "Don A. Stuart"). It tells the story of an Air Force crew and scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who are forced to defend themselves from a malevolent plant-based alien being. It stars Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite and Douglas Spencer. James Arness played The Thing, but he is difficult to recognize in costume and makeup, due to both the lighting and other effects used to obscure his features. No actors are named during the film's dramatic opening credits; the cast credits appear at the end of the film. The movie was partly filmed in Glacier National Park and interior sets built at a Los Angeles ice storage plant.

In 2001 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Screen story

A United States Air Force re-supply crew is officially dispatched by General Fogerty (David McMahon) from Anchorage, Alaska at the unusual request of Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite), chief of a group of scientists working at a North Pole base, Polar Expedition Six. They have evidence that an unknown flying craft of some kind has crashed nearby. Ned Scott (Douglas Spencer), a reporter in search of a story, tags along. A minor romantic sub-plot unfolds, involving Captain Patrick "Pat" Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and Carrington's secretary, Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan), who its clear he knows from past association.

Dr. Carrington briefs the airmen, and Dr. Redding (George Fenneman) shows high-speed photos of a very heavy object moving downward, then up, and then on a straight line briefly before falling out of frame; not the movements of a meteor. Hendry comments to the doctor: "20,000 tons of steel is an awful lot of metal for an airplane." "It is for the sort of airplane we know, Captain," Carrington responds. From Geiger counter readings, Pat's crew and the scientists fly to the crash site aboard the supply team's ski-equipped C-47 transport. The mysterious craft lays buried beneath melted, then refrozen ice, with just the tip of a rounded airfoil protruding from the ice's surface. As they slowly spread out to see where the boundaries of the craft lie, they suddenly realize they are standing in the shape of a circle; they have discovered a crashed flying saucer. They then try to uncover it with thermite heat bombs, but in doing so accidentally ignite the ship's metal alloy, causing an under-ice explosion that destroys the saucer. Then Crew Chief Sergeant Bob's (Dewey Martin) Geiger counter locates what looks like a frozen body buried nearby in the ice.

With pick axes they excavate a block of ice around the tall body to be able to move it and then fly back with their discovery to their research outpost, just as a major winter storm is moving in, making communication with Anchorage very difficult. Some of the scientists want to thaw out the alien visitor immediately, but Hendry orders everyone to wait until he receives further orders from Air Force authorities. Feeling uneasy guarding the body, Corporal Barnes (William Self) covers the ice block with a blanket, not realizing it is a still plugged-in electric blanket; as the ice slowly melts, the creature slowly thaws, revives, and then escapes to the outside snow storm and sub-zero cold.

The creature wards off an attack by twelve sled dogs, and the scientists recover a severed arm, bitten off by the dogs. As the arm warms up, it ingests some of the dead dogs' blood covering it, and the hand begins to move. From seed pods taken from beneath the palm, they learn that, while appearing humanoid, the creature is in fact an advanced form of plant life. Dr. Carrington is convinced that it can be reasoned with and has much to teach them, but Dr. Chapman (John Dierkes) and his other colleagues disagree; the Air Force personnel are just as sure the alien visitor may be quite dangerous.

Carrington soon realizes the creature requires blood, any available blood to survive and reproduce. He later discovers in the base's greenhouse the hidden body of a dead sled dog, still warm; their alien visitor has forced the lock on the greenhouse's outside door lock and bent it back in shape. Carrington has volunteers from his own team, Dr. Voorhees (Paul Frees), Dr. Olsen and Dr. Auerbach, stand guard overnight, waiting for the creature's return.

Later, Carrington secretly uses human blood plasma from the infirmary to incubate and nourish seedlings grown from the seed pods of the severed arm; he fails to advise his colleagues or Captain Hendry of what he has done. Later, in the greenhouse, the strung-up upside down bodies of Olsen and Auerbach are discovered, their bodies being drained of blood. Dr. Stern (Eduard Franz) is almost killed by the returned creature but escapes to warn his colleagues. Nikki reluctantly updates Hendry when he asks about missing plasma supplies and confronts Carrington in his lab, where he discovers the seeds have sprouted and are growing at an alarming rate. Dr. Wilson (Everett Glass) advises Carrington that he hasn't slept, but Carrington is unconcerned. Hendry then rushes to the greenhouse after hearing what happened there: The alien visitor is standing right behind the door as Hendry opens and then immediately slams the door on the creature's extended, regrown arm as it tries to grab him; a portion of the door's wood casing is ripped to splinter's by the sharp barbs on the creature's knuckles as it pulls its arm back.

It then escapes through the greenhouse's exterior door and breaks into another part of the camp. Following a suggestion from Nikki, Captain Hendry and his men set a trap in a nearby room: They set the crearture afire using a flare gun and buckets of kerosene, forcing it to jump through a nearby window into the howling, sub-zero snow storm, burning out the whole room in the process.

Nikki notices that the temperature inside the station is beginning to drop quickly; a fuel line has been sabotaged by their alien visitor. The cold forces the scientists and the airmen to make a final stand near the generator room. They rig an electrical "fly trap", hoping to electrocute the creature. As it advances on them, Carrington twice tries to save it, once by shutting off the power in the generator room, and then by trying to reason directly with it; the alien throws him aside and continues its advance. The airmen throw a pick axe along the side floor of the dimly lit corridor, forcing the creature to step back on to their hidden electrical grid; a switch is thrown and it is reduced to a smoldering pile of ash at Hendry's direct orders. He then orders all traces of the alien visitor, including its still growing seedlings, to be destroyed without a trace.

When the weather finally clears, Scotty is finally able to file his "story of a lifetime" by radio to a roomful of his fellow reporters in Anchorage. During his report on the harrowing events at the top of the world, Scotty broadcasts a plea and warning to the reporters listening intently on the other end of his broadcast: "Tell the world. Tell this to everyone, wherever they are. Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies."

Cast

• Margaret Sheridan as Nikki Nicholson
• Kenneth Tobey as Captain Patrick Hendry
• Robert Cornthwaite as Dr. Arthur Carrington
• Douglas Spencer as Ned 'Scotty' Scott
• James Young as Lt. Eddie Dykes
• Dewey Martin as Crew Chief Bob
• Robert Nichols as Lt. Ken 'Mac' MacPherson
• William Self as Corporal Barnes
• Eduard Franz as Dr. Stern
• Sally Creighton as Mrs. Chapman
• James Arness as 'The Thing'

Production notes

The film was loosely adapted by Charles Lederer, with uncredited rewrites from Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, from the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr.; it was originally published in Astounding Science Fiction under Campbell's pseudonym Don A. Stuart.

There is debate as to whether the film was directed by Hawks, with Christian Nyby receiving the credit, or whether Nyby directed it with considerable input in both screenplay and advice in directing from producer Hawks for Hawks' Winchester Pictures, which released it through RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

The film took full advantage of the national feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. The film reflected a post-Hiroshima skepticism about science and negative views of scientists who meddle with things better left alone. In the end it is American servicemen and sensible scientists who win the day over the alien invader.

The screenplay changes the fundamental nature of the alien as presented in Campbell's novella: Lederer's "Thing" is a humanoid lifeform whose cellular structure is closer to vegetation, although it must feed on blood to survive; one character even describes it as an "intellectual carrot". The internal, plant-like structure of the creature makes it impervious to bullets. In Campbell's original novella, the "Thing" is a life form capable of assuming the physical and mental characteristics of any living thing it encounters; this characteristic was later realized in John Carpenter's 1982 remake of the film (see below).

One of the film's stars, William Self, later became President of 20th Century Fox Television. Appearing in a small role was George Fenneman, who at the time was gaining fame as Groucho Marx's announcer on the popular TV show You Bet Your Life.

Reception

The Thing from Another World was released in April 1951 and by the end of that year had accrued US$1,950,000 in distributors' domestic (U. S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's 46th biggest earner, beating all other science fiction films released that year, including The Day The Earth Stood Still and When Worlds Collide.

Bosley Crowther in The New York Times observed, “Taking a fantastic notion (or is it, really?), Mr. Hawks has developed a movie that is generous with thrills and chills…Adults and children can have a lot of old-fashioned movie fun at The Thing, but parents should understand their children and think twice before letting them see this film if their emotions are not properly conditioned" "Gene" in Variety complained that the film "lacks genuine entertainment values.” More than twenty years after its theatrical release, science fiction editor and publisher Lester del Rey compared the film unfavorably to the source material, John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", calling it "just another monster epic, totally lacking in the force and tension of the original story."

The Thing is now considered by many to be one of the best films of 1951. The film holds an 89% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that the film "is better than most flying saucer movies, thanks to well-drawn characters and concise, tense plotting". In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Also in 2001 the American Film Institute placed the film at #87 on 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies. It was also on the ballot for several other AFI 100 Series lists, including AFI's 10 Top 10, under the science fiction category, the tenth anniversary edition of the 100 Movies list, 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes for the line "Watch the skies, everywhere, keep looking! Keep watching the skies!", and 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, for the Thing in the villains category. Additionally, Time magazine named The Thing from Another World the greatest 1950s sci-fi movie.

Remake

In 1982 John Carpenter made a more faithful version of Campbell's novella Who Goes There? under the title The Thing. It was already well-known that Carpenter was a fan of the original film, as he included considerable footage from it in his own Halloween.

Certain story elements of Carpenter's remake were heavily suggested by the Hawks' film, most notably the film's effective "slow burning letters" opening title sequence.

Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. made a prequel to Carpenter's 1982 version with the identical title of The Thing. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as protagonist Kate Lloyd.

In popular culture

• The last line of the film, "Watch the skies", was the working title of the film that would become Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A sequel to that film was then considered that would have been titled Watch the Skies, except this time with malevolent aliens terrorizing a farm family. That film project eventually became the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.^{[citation needed]}
• Keep Watching the Skies! is the title of Bill Warren's multiple volume, extensive survey of science fiction films from the period 1950 to 1962.
• The first two episodes of the Doctor Who story The Seeds of Doom borrows some of the elements from the plot of this film.

References

Notes

External links

• The Thing from Another World at AllRovi
• The Thing from Another World at the Internet Movie Database
• The Thing from Another World at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Thing from Another World at the TCM Movie Database