Good movie but grossly overrated

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Movie Review: "The Thing From Another World" (1951)In the year 1951 when the final distributing decade for Golden Age Hollywood Mini Major RKO Radio Pictures had toll the first bell before closure of the studio in 1959, "The Thing From Another World" based on a story by John W. Campbell Jr. optioned by producer Howard Hawks, denying his own direction on the picture, focus on "The Big Sky" starring Kirk Douglas and the comedy "Monkey Business" (both 1952), considering the picture even all too silly at the time of release with the wish to pull his entire name from the production.Now in retrospective and after an indulging remake directed by John Carpenter, called just "The Thing" (1982) starring Kurt Russell, which eventually brought out the horror with skillful camera work and engaged acting towards splatter gore f/x, where the original version from 1951, just before television invaded citizen's living room, giving still some entertainment for the classic movie lovers with striking on stage pyro-effects of the inflamed creature from outer space, behaving mainly like Frankenstein's creature on acid, making this picture directed by future "Bonanza" (1959-1967) television director Christian Nyby, who occasionally moves the 35mm camera set through above-average B-movie, close-to A-listers, production design and hammering score by composer Dimitri Tiomkin.The acting ensemble surrounding by professional Industry actors from again future television cast as Kenneth Tobey and Magaret Sheridan keep face as North pole scientists discovering an invading parasite from outer space and confront it as a team toward annihilation, tolling the bells together with "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951) directed by Robert Wise for an era of an Hollywood Horror revival as Universal monsters in the 1930s, stating clearly that filmmaking, story-wised drive, runs in circles to be hyped again.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

The earlier first version loosely based on short story ¨Who goes there¨ by John Campbell (published in 1938) is titled ¨The Thing from another world¨ by Christian Nyby and under the guidance of Howard Hawks with Kenneth Tobey , Margaret Sheridan , Edward Franz , Dewey Martin , John Dierkes , and James Arness as the monster , later to win fame as Marshal Matt Dillon from ¨TV's Gunsmoke¨ . Being a potent lesson how to direct a film in low budget and it holds a subtle but efficient intrigue . It deals with a team of military and scientists at a remote outpost discover a buried spaceship , as the astonishing crew form a ring around the flying saucer frozen in the ice (it was shot at the RKO Ranch in the San Fernando Valley in 100-degree weather) . Monster movie in which an alien menaces an isolated scientific community , it is a giant seed-dispersing vegetable and runs amok . It is set in Arctic : an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty . It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival . It deals with a lonely group of scientists who take on the most dangerous creature of universe that sucks the blood from sled dogs and scientific alive and unaffected by missing body parts , cold or bullets . Then , the creature , accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony , in this vast , intense land a parasite will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish . In the thriller ¨The Thing¨ , paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers when an accident frees the alien from its frozen existence . Acceptable , estimable and well-made action/terror/thriller in which scientists and military in the Arctic are confronted by an alien craft and a monster that is accidentally thawed and wreaks havoc . Being professionally directed by Christian Nyby , assisted substantially by Hawks (and its said filmmaking) , who provides a punchy suspenseful Sci-Fi about an unwelcome alien survivor alive . The gradual as well as notable built-up suspense is quite superb as when the monster is shown largely to create a real menace , though some moments looks a little clumsy as well as awkward and when the creature is doused with kerosene and set ablaze is believed to be the first full body burn accomplished by a stunt man . There are also some implausibities but they are carried some measure of conviction thanks to Howard Hawks . This exciting film packs chills , thrills , guessing , paranoia , absence of all characterization and spectacular FX by that time , though nowadays dated . It takes a liberal stand in exposing the tension of men when confront an alien that is unearthed by a crew of international scientists . It packs a thrilling and intriguing musical score by Dimitri Tiomkin . Cameraman Russell Harlan contributes an evocative as well as appropriate cinematography , though there is available a horrible colorized version . And being partly filmed in Glacier National Park and at a Los Angeles ice storage plant . ¨The thing¨ emerges as a distinctly Sci-Fi/terror movie and one might be recommending for its solid cast , FX , special makeup , cinematography by Harlan , and being masterfully made by Christian Nyby and supervised by the great Howard Hawks . It is one of the best of the Cold War allegories and a lot of filmmakers cited the movie as a key , influential film in their lives. This one was remade in 1982 , being the best version directed by John Carpenter , it was starred by Kurt Russell and an all-star-secondary cast as Wilford Brimley , T.K. Carter , David Clennon , Keith David , Richard Dysart , Charles Hallahan , Peter Maloney , Richard Masur and Donald Moffat ; here the monster has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being , it can look just like you or me , but inside , it remains inhuman . And the modern version in which producers convinced Universal Studios to allow them to create a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing instead of a remake , as they felt Carpenter's film was already perfect with a shape-shifting alien .¨The Thing (2011)¨ by Mattijs Heijmingen with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton resulting to be inferior to previous but still being acceptable . This ¨The Thing¨ serves as a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name that is one of the great Sci-Fi classics . However , the filmmaker copies several scenes from Carpenter movie and Christian Nyby film .

This undervalued classic has sadly had most of its impact taken away by John Carpenter's remake which followed thirty years later. While that was admittedly a masterpiece, most people forget that the first version of the story "Who Goes There?" was also a classic of the genre, a '50s monster movie with more atmosphere and suspense than you would find in a dozen imitations. The influence of this forgotten chiller can still be seen today in films like ALIENS, and in many aspects this is one of the first "people in isolated location face enemy while being picked off one by one" formula which worked so well for all those slasher/monster movies of the '80s and beyond.The acting is great along with the script, which helps to breath life into the stuffy military characters that this film has at its core. I'm pretty sick of all the boring army types we have to put up with in '50s movies, but THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD bypasses all of that by making them real people. There is a varied cast of characters, from the heroic captain to the sneaky, misguided doctor, the love interest (who isn't too bad), and also an irritating bald reporter. The usual arguments between the scientists and the army take place, except unusually it's the army who is right in this case, not those devious scientists. The sole flaw of this film is the quick-fire dialogue, where in some instances a number of characters are all talking at the same time, which makes it impossible to hear what they're saying.Along with the intelligent script, there are plenty of atmospheric, scene-setting visuals to enjoy, like the bit where the men discover the huge spaceship under the ice. We don't actually get to see the spaceship, but by some fairly simple effects, we might as well have. There's an eerie feel hanging over the first part of the film which erupts into outright fear and horror once the alien comes to life. Unlike Carpenter's remake, the special effects here don't threaten to overwhelm the film, but are used sparingly and effectively. They range from the simple (a moving hand) to the great (a fine electrocution complete with crackling electricity) but all are nicely impressive.This is a genuinely frightening film, with the best moments being scenes of foreboding. For a lot of the time the Thing stays out of sight, so it could be hiding anywhere around the complex - the fear of the unknown is what makes this work. That combined with the helplessness of the characters and the totally remote, isolated location turn this into an exercise of growing terror. Occasionally the film will burst into shock - I loved the scene where a character pulls open a door, only for the monster to burst right in from the other side - or excitement, where they attempt to burn the creature alive, scenes which help to counter and strengthen the otherwise unseen menace.James Arness, who plays the Thing, is pretty good. He's encased in a makeup job which seems to have been heavily inspired by Karloff's FRANKENSTEIN. The film only threatens to become cheesy when the scientists are describing the monster and call it a "giant carrot" - something to have the audience rolling with laughter rather than recoiling in terror, I fear. Otherwise, this is an expertly-paced, fine little example of the genre at its finest, and genuinely one of the best monster movies of the '50s, if not of all time.

"The Thing" doesn't date well and seeing this now after the remake, I must admit that the remake, despite its gorishness, is more suspenseful after all. Despite a good build-up of atmosphere at points (the team forming a circle around the ice, the electric blanket melting the frozen alien) and some effective staging in the action spots, the film tends to be over-weighted with dialogue and one-dimensional characterizations (the scientist who wants to communicate, the army man who lives by the book, the eager-beaver subordinate. But by far the most irritating of all is the single- mindedly-after-a-scoop newspaperman breezily perpetrated by Douglas Spencer. Why the other characters defer, kowtow and play along with such a cretin is not satisfactorily explained despite a lot of lip about freedom of speech, the U.S. constitution and the taxpayer's money). Some of the special effects are not much either (e.g. the plasma-grown "plants"), despite all the hoo-haa that is made about them in the film, and continuity tends to be somewhat choppy. Just as suspense is being built up, the alien is pushed out of focus for some dull dialogue scene frequently featuring the tedious Mr. Spencer. The very careful staging of the players and the way they are grouped and the careful cutting indicates to me that a lot of the film was certainly directed by Nyby and not by Hawks as is often claimed. It's dull, over-respectful-to-the-script direction which, despite a great use of overlapping dialogue, does not ultimately convey the realism or the semi-documentary approach the director is obviously aiming for. A music score which is silent for many sequences and then suddenly obtrudes doesn't help either. Production values are very moderate. Despite the film's classic status it is not — and never was — all that good. It would have been more suspenseful with much tighter direction, with slicker continuity, with about 15 minutes trimmed from the running time and with more concentration on atmosphere rather than talk. The players are an uninteresting, B-grade lot too!