Saturday Night Cinema: The Thing From Another World

Tonight’s Saturday Night Cinema selection, “The Thing From Another World”, “set the template for a decade of alien invasions.” The Thing is considered as one of the best science fiction films of the 1950’s and, in 2001, it was entered into the National Film Registry. This movie  is particularly enjoyable because it takes the ‘conservative’ view on dealing with our enemies. Hollywood applauds appeasement, capitulation and America-hating. This film doesn’t and it’s grand.

Even though Christian Nyby was given the directorial credit, it is Howard Hawks who directed the film.

A group of soldiers led by no-nonsense Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) travel to the North Pole to examine an aircraft crash located near a scientific outpost. What they discover is a flying saucer and a sole extraterrestrial pilot, whom they bring back to the lab, frozen in a block of ice, for further study. It’s not long before the Thing (James Arness)—essentially a super-intelligent vegetable man with the ability to both regenerate lost limbs and reproduce through spreading seeds—thaws out and begins to wreak havoc, although Nyby (or, um, Hawks) wisely maintain tension by keeping the creature hidden from view and focusing on the clash between mad scientist Dr. Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) and Captain Hendry.

The film’s controlled atmosphere of dread, as well as its abundant rapid-fire repartee between the primary players, seem to have been molded according to Howard Hawks’s trademark template.

Frequent Hawks screenwriter Charles Lederer wrote a spectacularly clever script filled with slangy one-liners and good-natured gibes the cast delivers at breakneck speed.

Classic-Horror: The Thing from Another World, appropriately abridged and known more commonly as The Thing, is one of the seminal 1950s creature feature films that paved the bridge between the horror and science fiction genres. Filmed in Montana’s Glacier National Park and an ice storage plant in Los Angeles, The Thing launched the 1950s onslaught of alien invader science fiction classics including War of the Worlds and the cultish Invaders from Mars. The Thing also established the chilling, claustrophobic tone for later sci-fi horror classics such as Alien, and of course, John Carpenter’s faithful remake, The Thing.

Christian Nyby and Hollywood icon Howard Hawks co-directed the film; however, some have disputed Hawks’s contributions. Nevertheless, most agree that Hawks was the film’s primary creative force. By 1951, his reputation for directorial dexterity was solidified in Hollywood annals with classics such The Big Sleep, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, and Red River, and many could easily detect the auteur’s brands: sharp dialogue, brisk pacing, relaxed performances from all characters, and an astute understanding of a genre’s conventions. The Thing has all of these elements.

Nyby’s directorial credit was also an extension of Hawks’s generosity. Apparently Nyby, who previously served under the dynamic Hawks as editor, needed some directing credits to satisfy his union obligations. Hawks obliged by allowing him to direct portions of the film, but some have suggested Nyby directed only a few scenes and barely warranted such a credit.

Hawks’s stature in Hollywood hovers over The Thing like a noir shadow. He used his clout to solicit assistance and expertise from the U.S. Air Force, but officials refused to help because such assistance would sacrifice their public denial of UFOs and alien life. After all, this was the early 1950s, a period in American history replete with Communist fears, space travel, and reported UFO sightings, all of which blended for some creepy realizations among the American public. Ben Hecht and Hawks co-wrote the screenplay, and some critics argue the legendary wordsmith William Faulkner, a long-time buddy of Hawks, may also have assisted. Rumors that Orson Welles contributed to the script have generally been dismissed.

The film has historically been linked with two other genre classics. Also released in 1951, The Day the Earth Stood Still is considered the liberal version of a utopian dream, a world where peaceful ideals and social harmony are touted as supreme answers to a world growing increasingly more dangerous and chaotic. The 1951 Nyby-Hawks classic is considered this film’s counterpoint: it is the conservative version, where military officials and scientists grapple over the nation’s destiny and ultimately restore peace with force and aggression. Each film serves as a wonderful parallel to the other.

Though the nominal director is Christian Nyby (who was still toiling away at TV movies in the mid-80s), this 1951 science fiction classic is steeped in the personality of its producer, Howard Hawks. The special effects are largely limited to the rubber suit worn by James Arness in the title role, but the film has more frissons than most of today’s mega-budget productions, simply because it has the grace to construct a meaningful situation and coherent characters. With Robert Cornthwaite, Kenneth Tobey, and Margaret Sheridan. By Dave Kehr