The 1951 version of The Thing, Howard Hawks
11-03-2016, 01:37 PM
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The 1951 version of The Thing, Howard Hawks
Made before the age of commercial jet flight, computers, smart phones, lasers, space travel,etc....
The story line is simple: Military finds a crashed flying saucer, they rescue an angry Carrot who wishes to suck their blood, they microwave cook him and that's it!
This is one of my favorite top 10-1000 movies. Every time it comes around to Turner Classic movies i have to watch it or dvr it. What I don't care much for are the outdated special effects, ok....what gets me every time is the dialogue, the writing, the actual interpretation of the Sat Eve. Post short Story "Who Goes There". The writing and directing are so good....each character is well cast, lots of very very good bit part players doing their bit to elevate this B movie. Even the scientists talking theory is believable to a point given it's 1951. The characters interrupt each other, talk over each other (Howard Hawk's touch), the dialogue is very 1940's with lots of military, nuclear war talk, fear of the unknown, are there aliens?, and general every man stuff...Everyone is handy, they all know how to construct, destruct, and fabricate stuff. The light "sexual" banter between the lead and his girlfriend is touching for it's time. Even when they make mistakes it's all ok in the end. The monster is hoaky and even though it was carefully crafted it still looks second rate, when you finally see it. The tension is great, if you don't know the story you don't know what comes next.
Sure it was remade a couple of times later on, the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell film was great on it's own. Superior special effects and a story perhaps more true to the original short story it was based on.
This black and white film is just a great example of "the low budget black and white 1950's alien monster film", done by a first rate studio who just wanted to churn out another B movie, Republic...but for me I think it's just perfect and a good watch if you can suspend your modern mind and go back to that era where "everyone" was watching the skys, thinking about alien invasion, and afraid of radiation.
9.5 outta 10, cause it has a bit part by George Fenneman(Groucho Marks show MC) and he is not even listed in the cast and Kenneth Toby who plays the "Military man dealing with an unknown menace" perfectly.
The story line is simple: Military finds a crashed flying saucer, they rescue an angry Carrot who wishes to suck their blood, they microwave cook him and that's it!
This is one of my favorite top 10-1000 movies. Every time it comes around to Turner Classic movies i have to watch it or dvr it. What I don't care much for are the outdated special effects, ok....what gets me every time is the dialogue, the writing, the actual interpretation of the Sat Eve. Post short Story "Who Goes There". The writing and directing are so good....each character is well cast, lots of very very good bit part players doing their bit to elevate this B movie. Even the scientists talking theory is believable to a point given it's 1951. The characters interrupt each other, talk over each other (Howard Hawk's touch), the dialogue is very 1940's with lots of military, nuclear war talk, fear of the unknown, are there aliens?, and general every man stuff...Everyone is handy, they all know how to construct, destruct, and fabricate stuff. The light "sexual" banter between the lead and his girlfriend is touching for it's time. Even when they make mistakes it's all ok in the end. The monster is hoaky and even though it was carefully crafted it still looks second rate, when you finally see it. The tension is great, if you don't know the story you don't know what comes next.
Sure it was remade a couple of times later on, the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell film was great on it's own. Superior special effects and a story perhaps more true to the original short story it was based on.
This black and white film is just a great example of "the low budget black and white 1950's alien monster film", done by a first rate studio who just wanted to churn out another B movie, Republic...but for me I think it's just perfect and a good watch if you can suspend your modern mind and go back to that era where "everyone" was watching the skys, thinking about alien invasion, and afraid of radiation.
9.5 outta 10, cause it has a bit part by George Fenneman(Groucho Marks show MC) and he is not even listed in the cast and Kenneth Toby who plays the "Military man dealing with an unknown menace" perfectly.
Last edited by hirev; 11-03-2016 at 01:40 PM.
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