Rating: 
Summary: As good now as it was then!!!!
Review: Back in the 70's when I was a kid black & white films were on tv were almost as common as they were back in the 50's. Many a time I remember staying up to see this film on the midnight movie during the weekend or during the Saturday Monster Matinee. The film was both suspenseful and frightening. I have always enjoyed this film and despite todays better movie making technique think this film is as enjoyable now as when I was a kid.The films running time is just around 90 minutes. The movie moves fast and this helps to hold the viewers attention. Christian Nyby directed the film and is a master of keeping the story moving and putting as much story into every scene as he can. Nyby later directed the PERRY MASON television show that ran during the 50's and 60's. That show required a director who could condense as much story as possible into a very limited time slot. The actors, while not well known, except for James Arness who played the alien Thing, but that does not detract from the films acting quality. There is a romance between two of the characters but it is a small back story. The man focus is on the alien Thing and the survival of the base personnel. Some people may not enjoy the film if they are going to hold it to the same technical standards of the 82' remake or other more modern Sci-Fi films. However, if you are someone who can just sit back and let the films suspense and story carry you away this film should prove and enjoyable view. Lastly, the DVD in typical Warner Brothers tradition is underdevoped. This is a 50 year old classic and deserved better treatment. There are enough cast members alive to have put together a decent documentary or commentary. A retrospective feature with interviews from other Sci-Fi actors and film makers would have been nice as well. Thank goodness the DVD producers at least included the original trailer. I wonder just how much money Warner Brothers saves by using cardboard boxes with the plastic clip connectors as oppossed to using the standard clam shell casing most other DVD producers use?
Rating: 
Summary: Attack of the Giant Carrot
Review: That's how the alien character played by James Arness, in a pre-Gunsmoke role, is described in some publications that review the movie. Unlike in the remake that starred Kurt Russell, the alien isn't some shape-shifting monster, but, rather, just your ordinary blood-sucking vegetable monster. The cast, headed by Kenneth Tobey, does a wonderful job. There is a moviemaking term for the simultaneous multiple conversations that take place during several scenes in the movie, but I just can't remember what it is. The technique can be annoying at times, but also enhances many of the scenes in which it takes place. The story is an elementary one: alien spaceship crashes, team sent to investigate, retrieves monster, monster escapes and begins hunting the humans. Actor Robert Cornthwaite, in the role of the smug and smarmy Dr. Carrington, is the most enjoyable aspect of the movie. He sees the monster as a superior life form and is willing to protect it even at the expense of the lives of his fellow human beings. In his words, "We have a duty to science to stand here and die." He's not what you'd call a team player. The special effects are minimal, but the suspense is definitely there as the monster begins stalking the arctic camp members. The monster's demise is pretty neat in terms of the thought that went into it. And I love the scene when the monster shows Carrington the back of his hand. It was hilarious to watch him spouting off to the monster almost as it he were addressing some deity. Some people have to have pain as part of the learning process. Definitely a classic and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: "The Thing" defines the 1950's sci fi movie genre'!
Review: Many film historians agree that there are but a handful of 1950's sci fi movies that stand out from the hundred or so that were produced during that decade. They include: "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Them", "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers", "War of the Worlds", and "The Thing From Another World". Produced on a miniscule budget, "The Thing" features a relatively unknown cast of a dozen or so method actors. Filmed in glorious black and white, the movie uses a great score by Dmitri Tiomkin using electronic music created by an instrument known as a theramin. It's eerie melodies add greatly to the film. The plot revolves around the mysterious crash of a craft north of the Arctic Circle. When Capt. Pat Hendry and his men are asked to escort a group of scientists to investigate the craft, they soon realize that the craft is not of this earth. After taking the craft's strange looking pilot back to the base for study, they soon find themselves fighting for their lives when the alien thaws out and begins HIS fight for survival. The rest of the movie revolves around the military's desire to keep the alien in check (even if that means destroying him) versus the scientist's desire to keep the alien alive so that they can learn from him. Rapid-fire dialogue and creepy "around-the-next-corner" scares are big parts of this classic film. "The Thing" plays just as well to a 21st Century audience as it did to fans from the '50s.
If you haven't seen this great film, you need to add it to your "must see" list. Highly recommended for all sci fi fans, but especially to those who enjoy the schlocky, campy films of the 1950's and early '60s!
Rating:
Summary: Hmmm smells like cooked carrot
Review: Although it doesn't follow the short story at all, this is a very enjoyable '50's sci-fi. It's peppered with fast talking characters and good scenes. One of my favorites is when the crew lines up to get an idea of the shape of the ship they found.
Enjoyable rainy afternoon movie, team it with THEM and make it a James Arness "festival".
Rating:
Summary: Great Classic Horror
Review: "The Thing From Another World" is great classic horror, and the good guys win in the end. Too bad the original movie was not in color, but I would not have a colorized version. If you like old movies, science fiction, or horror add this to your collection. You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Recipe for successful filmmaking - scary too.
Review: Take a group of good ol boys from WW11, add a mad scientist (he must be mad wearing a yachting jacket in the Arctic); a wisecracking dame cup size D; isolate them; throw in some snappy dialogue, a rampaging blood sucking monster that doesn't mind the cold, winces a little when set alight, and is a threat to the world as we know it; and top it off with a scene stealing prop - a geiger counter with a flashing light; and you have one hell of a movie. If you willingly suspend disbelief, turn the lights off, and watch it uninterrupted, it will also give you a thrill or three.
Rating:
Summary: At Last!...The Thing on DVD
Review: OK! we all know the plot. We all know the Hawks-Nyby controversy.
We were all scared out of our wits when we were eight years old and saw this in neighborhood theaters (Circa 1951-1954)
Why?... It's all about that "Door" scene. When that door is opened, The Thing actually looks Ken Tobey in the face for a scant second before he swings. That's when we lost it kids! It's that eye contact we can't forget. Has anyone ever noticed that about one or two seconds before the door is opened, a round "Soft Focus" effect covers The Thing's face? Even when the door is closed, the soldier's guns gleam in Soft Focus. I rate this DVD 4 stars, only because there are no extras...However, the Lost scenes have been restored very nicely. The Thing is finally complete (for now.) Perhaps in the future it will be re-issued with all the "Extras" it deserves.
Rating:
Summary: Vegetarians Beware
Review: Despite a no-name cast and several scenes shot in a Los Angeles meat locker, this fx-deprived film remains a science fiction classic. Modern moviemakers should take lessons from Howard Hawks in how not to lose the human element while letting your imagination take over. And though I am skeptical of the film's underlying message, at least the conflicts are plausibly posed and intelligently handled. Then too, there's the dialogue, long a Hawks trademark, that at times flows so effortlessly the rhythms approach the poetic as they underscore a free and easy banter among military professionals. Seldom has camaraderie under pressure been more persuasively portrayed, or the responsibilities of command more democratically depicted. Having seen the movie on first release, I am glad to say the highlights have lost little over the years, though I still puzzle over a super space-traveler who communicates only in grunts. And while flying saucers and nuclear-age mutants have passed into yesterday's lore, the clarity of the Lederer script and the excitement of the Hawks staging still happily endure, especially when compared with the muddled, over-fx'ed remake. All of which shows once again why more is so often less, and less is so often more. As the studio hosts at TCM like to say : this is a movie Essential.
Rating:
Summary: Out of this world.
Review: *The Thing from Another World* was Howard Hawks' right-wing answer to the Robert Wise's left-wing *The Day the Earth Stood Still*. (Technically, Christian Nyby got the director's credit, but let's not kid ourselves: Hawks directed Nyby.) In this classic, the alien is not a benefactor, come for the sake of our own good, as in *Stood Still*; it's a grunting killer with a sort of rudimentary genius. His plan? Harvest the human species for his own race, which lives off of blood. He's not even properly human, like Michael Rennie from the other movie: he's a walking Venus flytrap, or, as one of the bluff military guys terms him, "a walking carrot". (He's made of vegetables, or something.) Ah, but the alien didn't count on Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, and their gang of wisecracking flyboys! Also included in the mix is a cynical newspaperman frustrated by his inability to deliver the ultimate scoop, and a gaggle of effeminate scientists who'd rather "study" the creature than simply put out its lights. Indeed, the movie is outright hostile to science in general: the A-bomb is mentioned in a non-complimentary way, and the lead scientist, mincing around in a turtleneck and Van Dyck goatee, emerges as a sort of limp-wristed villain of the type that novelist Trevanian perfected years later. Contrast this attitude with the set-up in Wise's movie, which features a benignant, Einstein-y genius who is the only person that Michael Rennie can relate to. THIS movie demonstrates the virtues of guns, muscle, and good old American know-how, and the U.N. can mind their own damn business, thank you very much. The humorous, overlapping dialogue, delivered like cackling chickens on speed by the actors, along with the non-sentimental romance between Tobey and Sheridan (some sort of sordid outcome of a drinking game between them is alluded to but never fully described), are garnishes to what is a perfect science-fiction repast. A must-own -- highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best - finally on DVD.
Review: A fantastic movie. I'm happy they finally got around to getting this on dvd. Except for the fact that there's no extras, everything about this release is great. The picture and sound is top-notch. You'd think that, as an anniversary edition, they would have made an effort to include a variety of extras to expand on the making of this beauty of a film and maybe some history behind it. God knows it was a benchmark for a great deal of the sci-fi movies to come out afterwards. Regardless, you get a great movie at a good price so I guess we should be happy with that. Maybe someone will release an expanded edition at a later date.
| 
