The Thing from Another World! (1951) [a.k.a. Attack of the Super Carrots from Outer Space!]

This Howard Hawks production (also rumored to at least partially directed by Hawks as well) was the inspiration for John Carpenter’s far superior remake–The Thing. (As a nice little touch Carpenter copied exactly the opening title shot where light pours out through the black to spell “The Thing”.) Perhaps modern science fiction and horror have just jaded me, but there’s not too much of interest in this film, especially when compared to Carpenter’s version. Because of the limitations of fifties film making the horror side of the movie falls pretty limp (although I’m sure it had good scares back when it was originally released). For obvious reasons the only gore in the movie consists of a dead dog (a dog lying still with a tiny bit of blood around its mouth) and the Thing’s cut off arm, which has no blood on it. Also, I don’t think there is a single close-up in the entire film, so if you really want to know what the monster looks like, you might as well look at the film poster on the DVD box cover.

That said, there is enough in the movie to keep you interested for its full 90 running time. Probably most obvious is the running banter going throughout the movie typical of a Hawks movie. People talk quickly and overlap each other, often adding in witty quips, which adds some much-needed juice to scenes that would otherwise probably be pretty dull. There is a nice back and forth relationship between the Air Force Captain and the female secretary of the North Pole base where they find the spacecraft (finally a woman in sci-fi that can hold her own with the boys!) She constantly bringing coffee to the Air Force men, not because it’s her “job” as a woman but because she brings it as an excuse to hang out with the guys (and to see the captain). She’s very bright and witty, and the two of them talk in those great double entendres that you had to use because you couldn’t actually talk about sex.

The movie is ultimately a battle between science and survival, since the lead scientist (whose turtleneck and sports jacket combo combined with his Russian style beard make him look like the Communist love child of Captain Nemo and the evil Doctor from Lost in Space) wants to keep the Thing alive in order to study it while everyone else wants the damn thing dead because it keeps killing people. There seems to be a recurring theme of military ineptitude, for when they try to uncover the spaceship buried in the ice they use way too much thermite and end up blowing it up, and then later on one of the guards doesn’t want to look at the ugly Thing so he throws a blanket over it, not realizing that it was an electric blanket.

The good Doctor figures out that the Thing is a super intelligent being that evolved from vegetable matter (in a hilarious scene where one of the dumb Air Force guys keeps calling it a Super Carrot) after examining its cut off arm that contains no blood, and instead feeds off of the blood of other creatures. Then in a truly bizarre twist the Doctor finds a seedpod on the arm and starts growing it in a back room while using stored blood like water to feed it. The Doctor is amazed at the implications for science of a super intelligent vegetable, and values keeping the Thing alive over everyone else’s objections, even though two of his fellow scientists were killed by the Thing and hung up from the rafters like cattle in order for it to feed on their blood. I don’t really know how super intelligent it is though, since all it seems to do is scream and hit things. Another great scene involves the Doctor rushing in from of the Air Force guys, pleading with the Thing to stop its rampage, and pleading to the beast’s super intelligence, to which the Thing just hits him in the head.

The film is pretty well shot, using actual location shots at parts and using a real Air Force arctic plane. There is at least one really good special effects scene where the Thing burst in and they throw kerosene on it in an effort to burn it to death, which has some really impressive pyrotechnic displays. The movie is pretty tame and doesn’t really offer anything new, but still it’s really well made and fairly entertaining in a campy sort of way.

(B)

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COMING UP: I review Lifeforce and Humanoids from the Deep! Prepare for the cheese! ALSO: Another Blockbuster weekend!