Mon 14 Dec 2009
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , SF & Fantasy films[4] Comments
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. RKO Radio Pictures, 1951. Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James R. Young, James Arness. Based on the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell. Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks (the latter uncredited).
John W. Cambell’s classic short story, “Who Goes There?” (Astounding Science Fiction, August 1938, under his Don A. Stuart pen name) should be taught in Creative Writing courses for the way it propels a fast-moving story across a vivid background of bitter isolation.
Set at the South Pole, “Who” sketches the tale of a group of scientists discovering a flying saucer, complete with scary alien, frozen in the Antarctic ice for countless years. They lose the saucer but manage to bring the frozen monster back to their spartan base camp — with unexpected and very unpleasant results.
Campbell’s writing is terse and to-the-point, with every word exactly right, and none of them wasted. The characters may be a bit two-dimensional, but they serve their purpose and get out of the way of a story-line that stops for nobody. A classic of its genre.
“Who Goes There?” was filmed in 1951 by Howard Hawks, and I’m afraid all the best things about this fine movie have already been said, mostly by Robin Wood, in his book Howard Hawks (Doubleday, 1968.)
I can only echo his points about The Thing (from Another World) coming across as a quintessential Hawks film, which is pretty high praise wherever you take it.
Wood observes that the groups in this film (scientists or soldiers) are not so much cohesive units as ad hoc collections of individuals, each with something to contribute. He describes Margaret Sheridan as the equal of any of the men, yet intensely feminine, in the mold of other Hawks heroines, like Lauren Bacall and Angie Dickenson.
And he points out how the action, as in Rio Bravo, consists of gradually increasing tension, punctuated by short, sharp bursts of coordinated violence. Yes, The Thing is a brilliant film, fun to watch, and just I wish I’d said all those nice things about it before Robin Wood did.

December 14th, 2009 at 1:14 am
This is a good one to do here, since both the story and the film develop as something of a detective story in many ways. The “Thing” of the title is not merely a monster, but a thinking being far more dangerous than some raging monster.
Of course Christian Nyby II gets credit for the direction, but it is clear Hawks was at the helm for much of the film, as even the camera setups look like his work.
John Carpenter’s remake has its own pleasures, but for all its special effects, and the fact it is a bit closer to Campbell’s original, I don’t think it is even a pale shadow of this film. With the exception of Robert Wise’s Day The Earth Stood Still, I don’t think there are many other examples of major directors working in the science fiction genre until Spielberg and Lucas come along unless you go back to Lang and German Expressionist silent cinema.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Hawks’ version of THE THING is still one of my favorite SF films.
“… the action, as in RIO BRAVO, consists of gradually increasing tension, punctuated by short, sharp bursts of coordinated violence.” Exactly.
The film is filled with great set pieces—e.g., the murderous swipe from behind a just-opened door, the fire sequence—but my favorite moment comes when someone opens a storage locker, and out falls …. A stunning surprise moment heightened by one of the most effective knife chords in film music history.
Hawks’ THE THING proves beyond doubt how an intelligent film maker can scare the bejabbers out of the audience without grossing them out with gore.
December 15th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I have to jump to the defence of the Carpenter version a little bit. I love the Hawks version (it feels like an SF version of THE FRONT PAGE, with lots of overlapping dialogue and sizzling sexual chemistry between the male and female leads), but the remake cuts to core of the original story. The special effects have not dated very much, if at all, and the whole thing is wonderfully paranoid.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:50 pm
How good a movie is this? I first saw ‘The Thing’upon it’s release when I was nine years old & I couldn’t sleep for weeks thereafter. But it wasn’t until my later years that I came to appreciate the movie as one on the very best acted,written, edited, scored & directed films ever; one that has had a profound influence on later generations of scifi/horror filmakers.