The scene where the little girl starts screaming still unnerves me, even though Ive seen the movie dozens of times.
As a matter of luck, Them! would be blessed with a stellar cast, including, James Arness, who would spend the next two decades playing Marshal Matt Dillon on the hit television series, Gunsmoke, along with James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon.
Yeh, I was going to say, watch Them! first, but I couldnt honestly say that the film is better than Kong or Godzilla.
Of all the giant bug films produced throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Them! truly stands out as the best ever produced. Many even regard the film as one of the best science fiction films of Hollywoods golden age.
Meanwhile, at Warner Bros, director Gordon Douglas and producer David Weisbart were working on their own monster film, Them!, a movie about colonies of giant ants that were unleashed upon the world due to atomic testing in the New Mexico desert.
Trying to inter cut stop-motion animated ants just wouldnt have worked out as cleanly, and as we have learned from such films as Empire of the Ants, using real ants, blown up to gigantic size and inserted into scenes, was out of the question.
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And the special effects werent that badI dont compare those movies with todays 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 tvhey Im not quite that old yet), people were a lot more willing to suspend disbelief on monsters and special effectsif 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. Im not knocking technology, but peoples ability to let their imaginations do the talking is an overlooked avenue today.
If you dont like them, please dont direct your comments at Loren.
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.
Even the minor roles, like the drunks and the grouchy railroad cop, are well played, with a good deal of humor.
I have the greatest respect and admiration for Loren Coleman, so I truly dont want him to have to field items that should be sent my way.
8 Responses to Them! (1954)(Warner Bros)
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.
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. Seehere.
The film is good, yes. And it can be watched for free on-line (and even downloaded) for those who dont 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.
I believe, that given time, you will see the humor and hopefully learn a thing or two from them.
Graham arrives to the scene quickly with the reinforcements, and kills the ant attacking Peterson, but rushes over to Petersons side with only enough time to hear Petersons last words confirming that the boys made it to safety, before Peterson dies in his arms. Graham respectfully orders Petersons body to remain undisturbed, and then returns to the battle, nearly getting killed himself when a cave-in temporarily seals him off from the rest of the men as they march towards the egg chamber; several ants charge him, but Graham is able to hold them off long enough for the other troops to tunnel through the debris and come to his rescue. The nests queen and egg chamber are then destroyed with flamethrowers after a short but fierce battle, but the senior Dr. Medford issues a grim warning that the atomic genie has been let out of the bottle, and further horrors may await mankind.
Granted, I have a weird style of writing, and a weird sense of humor, so these new items wont be for everyone.
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I do want to point out that it is an honor to be part of a great site like Crytomundo.
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When Gen. OBrien announces martial law, he is filmed from a very low angle. The microphones that surround him seem to loom up menacingly.
Given the social climate of the times, Weldons 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.
Being a horror movie junkie, this is one of my all time favorites (dont tell Godzilla I said that). Its a quality monster/horror film with great suspense and it delivers on a lot of levels. And I agree, its one of the best of those types of movies to hit the screen.
Ultimately the success of the film would spawn two decades of imitators, including, Universals Tarantula and Deadly Mantis, American Internationals Empire of the Ants, Transcentury Pictures The Giant Spider Invasion, and even Warners The Black Scorpion.
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The FBI sends in Ellinsons fellow agent Robert Graham (James Arness) to assist. A single strange track is found in the desert. When the FBI is unable to identify the track, they attract the attention of Doctors Harold (Edmund Gwenn) and Pat Medford (Joan Weldon), a father/daughter team of entomologists from the Department of Agriculture.
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I have to say that I was a bit surprised to find this article this morning when I logged on to Cryptomundo.
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John Agar and Leo G. Carroll (TVs Topper) in TARANTULA
And the Mystery Science Theater 3000 send up of THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Here are more photos from Them!:
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The elder Doctor Medford arrives on the scene with a theory, but will not disclose it until he tries an experiment on the Ellinson girl, having her smell the contents of a vial of formic acid, which frees her from her state of near-catatonic withdrawal, screaming Them! Them! Returning to the destroyed trailer with Peterson, Graham, and his daughter, Medford has his theory dramatically given its final proof when the group encounters a patrol of foraging ants, mutated by atomic radiation to the size of automobiles. The lawmen kill one of the ants with a Thompson sub machine gun after finding that their revolvers have little effect. They aimed for the antennae on Medfords advice that they were helpless without them.
Make me a Sargent, give me the booze!! This is a CLASSIC monster flick! Thanks for the reminders Loren. Think ill watch my VALLEY of GWANGI dvd tonite!!
The special effects teams decision to go with life-sized giant mechanical ants for Them! would net them an Oscar nomination, but ultimately not the trophy.
Yes, please dont blame Loren for the weird stuff that I have been adding to the site. He has nothing to do with it.
What truly stands out to me, is just how well the film stands up some 50+ years after it was produced, a true testament to the film making talents of Gordon Douglas, David Weisbart and their crew.
Have a good weekend all you CryptoHeads!!
In the early developmental stages of the film, Warner Bros had big plans for Them!, intending to shoot it in color, and in 3D, to compete with Universals 3D Creature film.
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.
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Early 3D tests shots of the mechanical giant ants created for the film proved very promising, but when yet more tests were ordered by the Warner execs, the companies All Media 3-D camera rig broke down, causing both 3D and color to be scratched from the film entirely.
Way back in 1954 monster movies were going through a renaissance. Over at Universal, they were preparing to unleash the Creature From The Black Lagoon, the last of their great line of classic monsters, on the world, while over in Japan, Toho was finishing up on their own monster film, Gojira (Godzilla), which would launch a 50 year movie series.
The film begins with New Mexico State Police Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) discovers a little girl wandering the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico, mute and in a state of shock. More mysterious deaths and disappearances occur in the area. When a store owner named Gramps Johnson is found dead, his store literally torn apart, his empty rifle bent and twisted beside the body, the cops theorize that there is a maniac killer on the loose. But, as Petersons boss points out (after Petersons patrol partner Ed Blackburn, played by Chris Drake, disappears without a trace), Gramps 30-30 was emptied and Ed Blackburn was a crack shot. He could hit anything he could see. So unless your killer is armored like a battleship, theres no maniac in this case. Its up to the coroner to deliver the verdict that Gramps Johnson could have died in any one of five ways: his neck and back were broken, his skull was fractured, his chest was crushed, and heres one for Sherlock Holmes. There was enough formic acid in his body to kill twenty men.
During the assault, Peterson finds the two missing boys, named Mike and Jerry, alive, trapped by the ants in a sewer tunnel, which is also the entrance to the nest. Peterson calls in for backup, but instead of waiting for it, he bravely goes in alone, heroically rescuing the two boys and killing numerous ants with his flamethrower. Peterson leads the two boys back to the pipe through which he came, intending for he and they to crawl back through it to safety. After hoisting up the first boy, Jerry, however, another ant appears from behind, and thinking quickly and selflessly, Peterson saves the second boy, Mike, but after lifting the boy into the pipe, Peterson is left without time to save himself. As he tries to climb up into the pipe at the last minute, the ant grabs Peterson in its mandibles and crushes him at the waist, the man crying out in agony all the while.
But I digress. Them was and is still a classic. It belongs high in the top 10 of movie monsters. Im not saying 1 because well, G-zilla and I go way back:)
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Actor, Booth Colman also had a small part in the film, and he would go on to play Dr. Zaius on the short-lived Planet of the Apes television series.
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A company of the US Air Force is brought in, led by General OBrien (Stevens), which locates the ants nest and exterminates the inhabitants with poison gas. The younger Dr. Medford, who accompanies Peterson and Graham into the nest, finds evidence that two young queens have hatched and flown away to establish new colonies. Trying to avoid a general panic, the government covertly monitors and investigates any reports of unusual activities as sightings of flying saucers. One of the queens ends up in the hold of an ocean-going freighter loaded with sugar, which is then overrun by the ants and subsequently sunk by a US Navy cruiser. From the rantings of an alcoholic, and an investigation into the death of a father protecting his two young, now missing, sons from an apparent ant attack, the other queen is finally tracked to the Los Angeles storm sewer system, forcing the Army to openly declare martial law and launch a major assault.
Unbenounced to Dougles and Weibart, the film that they were about to release would change the landscape of American monster movies for the next two decades. For you see, after the success of Them!, film makers on this side of the Pacific would decide to leave the giant dinosaur movies to the Japanese, and instead, focus their attention on what would happen if the bugs decided to step on us humans for a change.
Trust me, though, Them! is excellent, and a must see for all sci fi and monster movie fans.
Founder of the popular monster and sci-fi blogs Monster Island News and Godzilla 3D News and Information. Ken Hulsey began his writing career in 2000 when he founded a popular site with fans of Japanese sci fi/monster movies (Godzilla, Gamera and the like) and other B movies. In 2008, he closed down his original site and created the blog Monster Island News a showcase for classic horror/monster films and independent/alternative cinema.
The film would also serve as vehicle to boost the careers of television actors, Fess Parker, who would go on to star in Disneys Davy Crockett, though the studio originally wanted Arnes for the part, and Leonard Nimoy, who as everyone knows, would go on to play Spock on Star Trek.
Opting to use three life-sized mechanical ants, instead of either stop-motion animation, or men in suites, was a big risk for the production. To date, no other film had attempted something that ambitious. Though, costly, in the end the use of the remote controlled giant ants worked quite well, especially in scenes where they had to interact with their human costars.
The film would end up being a huge success for Warner Bros, in fact it was their top grossing film for 1954.
Indeed, Them! is a very well executed monster film. The script, written by Ted Sherdeman, Russell Hughes and George Worthing Yates, is simple and effective. The effects are surprisingly realistic, especially for a film made in the 1950s. The acting is very believable and heartfelt, something not normally seen in many of the decades sci fi outings.
It is my intention to educate, entertain and expose the readers here to stuff that they may not know about.
Thats an amazing movie, one of the best 1950s films of any genre in my opinion.
If you choose to see one giant monster film in your life..well watch King Kong or Gojira, but if those get ya interested in more, watch Them! next.
I can only hope that everyone can look past my limited writing skills to be able to enjoy my articles.
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