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The Thing From Another World - FlickerOfLight - 09-20-2024
This was one of my dad's favorites. Him and I used to watch this when I was growing up. On his birthday it was something him and I would sit down and watch together. I believe it reminded him of his own childhood memories with this film.
Today would be his 73 birthday, and so I am going to sit down, with some alien grass, and watch this like him and I used to.
I also really enjoyed this film growing up. An oldie, but a goodie.
The Thing from Another World
In Anchorage, journalist Ned Scott, looking for a story, visits the officer's club of the Alaskan Air Command, where he meets Captain Pat Hendry, his co-pilot and flight navigator. General Fogarty orders Hendry to fly to Polar Expedition Six at the North Pole, per a request from its lead scientist, Nobel laureate Dr. Arthur Carrington; Carrington has radioed that an unusual aircraft has crashed nearby. With Scott, Corporal Barnes, crew chief Bob, and a pack of sled dogs, Hendry pilots a Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft to the remote outpost.
Upon arrival, Scott and the airmen meet radio operator Tex, scientists Dr. Chapman and his wife, and colleagues Vorhees, Stern, Redding, Stone, Laurence, Wilson, Ambrose, and Carrington. Hendry later rekindles his romance with Nikki Nicholson, Carrington's secretary. Several scientists fly with the airmen to the crash site, finding a large object buried beneath the ice. As they spread out to determine the object's shape, they realize that they are standing in a circle, outlining a flying saucer. The team attempts free it from the ice with thermite, but a violent reaction with the craft's metal alloy completely destroys it. Their Geiger counter, however, detects something buried nearby, a frozen body. It is excavated intact in a large block of ice and flown back to the base as an Arctic storm closes in on them.
Given the discovery, Hendry assumes command of the outpost and, pending radio instructions from General Fogarty, both denies Scott permission to send out his story and the scientists' demands to examine the body. Tex sends an update to Fogarty, and the airmen settle for the storm. A watch is posted; relieving the first shift, Barnes is disturbed by the creature's glare through the clearing ice and covers it with an electric blanket he does not realize is plugged in. The block slowly thaws and the creature, still alive, escapes into the storm. It fights with the sled dogs and kills two, but loses most of its right forearm.
An airman recovers the stump after the attack and the scientists examine its tissue, concluding that the creature is an advanced form of plant life. Carrington is convinced of its superiority to humans and becomes intent on communicating with it. The airmen begin a search, which leads to the outpost's greenhouse. Carrington stays behind with other scientists, having noticed evidence of alien activity there. They discover a hidden third sled dog, which had been bled dry, revealing the creature as a vampire that feeds on blood. Carrington and the scientists post a secret watch of their own, hoping to encounter it before the airmen do.
The next morning, the airmen continue their search. Tex informs them that Fogarty is aware of their discovery and demands further information, now prevented by the fierce storm. Stern appears, badly injured, and tells the group that the creature has killed and bled two scientists. When the airmen investigate, they are attacked, but manage to barricade the creature inside the greenhouse. Hendry confronts Carrington and orders him to remain in his lab and quarters.
Carrington, obsessed with the creature, shows Nicholson and the other scientists that he has been growing small alien plants from seeds taken from the severed arm and feeding them with the base’s blood plasma supply. Hendry discovers the theft when plasma is needed to treat Stern, which leads him to Carrington. Fogarty transmits orders to keep the creature alive, but it escapes from the greenhouse and attacks the airmen in their quarters. They douse it with buckets of kerosene and set it aflame, forcing it to retreat into the -60F storm. After regrouping, they realize the creature has sabotaged the base furnaces’ oil supply, plummeting temperatures indoors. They retreat to the station's generator room to keep warm, and rig a high-voltage electrical "fly trap". The creature continues to stalk them. At the last moment Carrington pleads with it, but is knocked violently aside. The creature walks into the trap and is electrocuted. On Hendry's order, it is reduced to a pile of ash.
When the weather clears, Hendry and Nicholson are careening toward marriage, and Scotty is finally able to radio his "story of a lifetime" to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage. He ends his broadcast with the warning: "Tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are. Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies...".
RE: The Thing From Another World - EndtheMadnessNow - 09-20-2024
Here's a historical deep dive into The Thing From Another World that you might enjoy.
"It is important that we don't confuse the Frankenstein-type of film with the science-fiction picture," Hawks continued. "The first film is an out-and-out horror thriller based on that which is impossible. The science-fiction film is based on that which is unknown, but given credibility by the use of scientific facts which parallel that which the viewer is asked to believe. Forgetting that almost every Hollywood studio has at least one science-fiction story on its production agenda, one need only check the growing popularity of the science-fiction magazines to learn of the ever-increasing demand for this type of literature."
— Howard Hawks
RE: The Thing From Another World - FlickerOfLight - 09-20-2024
(3 hours ago)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: Here's a historical deep dive into The Thing From Another World that you might enjoy.
"It is important that we don't confuse the Frankenstein-type of film with the science-fiction picture," Hawks continued. "The first film is an out-and-out horror thriller based on that which is impossible. The science-fiction film is based on that which is unknown, but given credibility by the use of scientific facts which parallel that which the viewer is asked to believe. Forgetting that almost every Hollywood studio has at least one science-fiction story on its production agenda, one need only check the growing popularity of the science-fiction magazines to learn of the ever-increasing demand for this type of literature."
— Howard Hawks
That was an interesting read. Chop full of behind the scenes information that I never knew. For one, I never saw a picture of the actor who played "The Thing."
There were two tid bits that were most notable to me.
The location change, and the military's response to them making the film.
Location change
The location was changed from an unidentified research base in the frozen wastes of Antarctica to a United States Air Force base on the frozen wastes north of the Arctic Circle. The change from the South Pole to the North Pole was less radical than the jettisoning of the central concept of the novella: the ability of the alien to take over the bodies and personalities of others
The letter from the military
The script of Winchester Pictures' proposed production The Thing has been reviewed, and it is regretted that we will not be able to extend cooperation as the story revolves around flying saucers and their possible contents.
The Air Force has maintained the position for some time that there are no such objects as flying saucers and does not wish to be identified with any project that could be interpreted as perpetuating the myth of the flying saucer. Also, the Air Force seriously objects to any mention of Air Force personnel and equipment, or pictorial sequences representing Air Force personnel or equipment, being included in the film.
Providing your company plans to proceed on the production without Air Force cooperation, we request every consideration be given to the Air Force objection in the interest of maintaining goodwill and relations.
The Air Force has dispatched a wire to the Commander-in-Chief, Alaska Theater stating their objections.
Sincerely,
DONALD E. BARUCH
Chief, Motion Picture Sect. Pictorial Branch
The timing of this is what's interesting. The fact that this is six years after WW2 and only 4 years after the supposed crash at roswell. I also find it amusing that the military denies "ufo's" completely.
Fast forward 73 years, and we have an entire program, run by the Pentagon, to find out what all these weird "ufo's," (cough cough) I mean "UAP's" are in the skies.
Neat tidbits. Thanks ETMN. Cheers