Comments on: Them! (1954)(Warner Bros)

By: Cass_of_MPLS

Cass_of_MPLS — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:55:41 +0000

The film is good, yes. And it can be watched for free on-line (and even downloaded) for those who don't wish to spend the money for the DVD. Jim Arness (who was also the title character in Howard Hawks' THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD) and his brother, Peter Graves were both from right here in Minneapolis and Peter had a giant bug movie of his own: THE BEGINNING OF THE END about some giant grasshoppers which (as I have commented elsewhere) would have chopped about 90 minutes off of THE SWARM had Michael Caine chanced to see it first. THEM

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD

John Agar and Leo G. Carroll (TV's Topper) in TARANTULA

And the Mystery Science Theater 3000 send up of THE BEGINNING OF THE END

By: coelacanth1938

coelacanth1938 — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:20:58 +0000

This film is magic. Period.

By: SamSquanch

SamSquanch — Fri, 21 May 2010 23:55:30 +0000

That’s an amazing movie, one of the best 1950s films of any genre in my opinion.

The lighting and camera work are brilliant. For example when the cops are searching the wrecked store, the ceiling light is blowing in the wind, so everything, including the mangled body, is illuminated only in flickers of light, heightening the suspense.

When Gen. O’Brien announces martial law, he is filmed from a very low angle. The microphones that surround him seem to loom up menacingly.

The scene where the little girl starts screaming still unnerves me, even though I’ve seen the movie dozens of times.

Even the minor roles, like the drunks and the grouchy railroad cop, are well played, with a good deal of humor.

Given the social climate of the times, Weldon’s character is interesting. No damsel in distress, she delivers a stinging verbal smackdown to Arness when he says that the ants’ nest is “no place for a woman”.

By: Ken Hulsey

Ken Hulsey — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:42:19 +0000

I have to say that I was a bit surprised to find this article this morning when I logged on to Cryptomundo.

Yes, please don’t blame Loren for the weird stuff that I have been adding to the site. He has nothing to do with it.

Craig invited me to join the staff here after he became a fan of my blog, “Monster Island News”. He thought that the readers here would like the kind of articles that I am posting there.

Granted, I have a weird style of writing, and a weird sense of humor, so these new items won’t be for everyone.

If you don’t like them, please don’t direct your comments at Loren.

I have the greatest respect and admiration for Loren Coleman, so I truly don’t want him to have to field items that should be sent my way.

I do want to point out that it is an honor to be part of a great site like Crytomundo.

I can only hope that everyone can look past my limited writing skills to be able to enjoy my articles.

I believe, that given time, you will see the humor and hopefully learn a thing or two from them.

It is my intention to educate, entertain and expose the readers here to stuff that they may not know about.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:56:15 +0000

I need to clarify, for those folks that are not reading the authors of the Cryptomundo blogs closely, I am not the writer of all the sci-fi movie postings of late. See here. Loren Coleman

By: Dr Kaco

Dr Kaco — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:52:05 +0000

“Make me a Sargent, give me the booze!!” This is a CLASSIC monster flick! Thanks for the reminders Loren. Think i’ll watch my VALLEY of GWANGI dvd tonite!!
Have a good weekend all you CryptoHeads!!
~Peace

By: fmurphy1970

fmurphy1970 — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:37:50 +0000

One of my favourite movies as a kid! My dad saw the film in the cinema in the 50s, so when it came on TV he said it was one I would enjoy. I was always into monsters and dinosaurs as a kid, so ‘Them’ really appealed to me. A lot of people have a fear of insects, so what better way to up the fear factor in a movie, than to make the insects gigantic. I can still hear in my head that weird noise the giant ants made in the movie, and I think its probably 20 years since I last saw it.

By: springheeledjack

springheeledjack — Fri, 21 May 2010 00:43:37 +0000

Being a horror movie junkie, this is one of my all time favorites (don’t tell Godzilla I said that). It’s a quality monster/horror film with great suspense and it delivers on a lot of levels. And I agree, it’s one of the best of those types of movies to hit the screen.

And the special effects weren’t that bad–I don’t compare those movies with today’s because for the time it was good stuff. And besides, I think that during that time frame (and I admit I was seeing those movies in re-runs on tv…hey I’m not quite that old yet), people were a lot more willing to suspend disbelief on monsters and special effects…if you showed them a crappy paper mache’ monster people just accepted it and reacted as if it were a “monster” instead of having to have all the CGI details of today. I’m not knocking technology, but people’s ability to let their imaginations do the talking is an overlooked avenue today.

But I digress. ‘Them’ was and is still a classic. It belongs high in the top 10 of movie monsters. I’m not saying #1 because well, G-zilla and I go way back:)