Sci-Fi On Film & The World Of 1955

We now bid farewell to 1954, a very diverse year for sci-fi on film. We have now arrived at the midpoint in our journey through the golden decade of classic sci-fi movies. The door is about to open wide to let in the modern era and helping to usher it in we have…..

1955 promises to offer up a smorgasbord of sci-fi classics, low-budget B grade films and movies containing largely tried and true sci-fi plot formulas. Here are some of the films from 1955 that will be featured in this blog.....

Conquest of Space: George Pal's masterpiece about a space station and a future voyage to and landing on Mars with some serious consequences for those involved.

Revenge of the Creature: a respectable sequel to "Creature from the Black Lagoon" set this time in Florida and featuring the stunning Lori Nelson.

This Island Earth: A true sci-fi classic ahead of its time. Aliens try to use earth's nuclear scientists to help them avoid defeat in an interplanetary war.

King Dinosaur: an expedition from Earth finds "dinosaurs" on a rogue planet.

The Quatermass Xperiment: A British film about a formless alien space creature that comes to earth in an astronaut.

Beast With a Million Eyes: A film about an alien that feeds on fear.

It Came From Beneath The Sea: A giant octopus causes havoc in San Francisco. It features the magic of special effects genius, Ray Harryhausen.

Creature with the Atom Brain: A mobster exacts revenge from others by means of electronically re-animated dead people.

Tarantula: Another classic sci-fi film about a scientist’s quest for developing synthetic food resulting in the creation of giant creatures, among them being one very large tarantula. This film carries on the big-bug themed movies started by Them! the previous year and is still a treat to watch.

Day the World Ended: a post-apocalyptic film directed by Roger Corman and starring Richard Denning is about a group of people who survive in a sheltered valley after an atomic war destroys human civilization.

Phantom from 10,000 Leagues: Ocean life is mutated into a horrible monster by a strange radioactive rock on the sea bottom, and as radioactive bodies come ashore a scientist and government agent investigate.

Before we launch into this year’s sci-fi film feast, let’s pause and take a look at the significant people and events that helped to shape the world of 1955 and beyond even to the present day….

Military Developments

• USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.

• The Pentagon announces a plan to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons.

International Affairs & Relations

• United States Congress authorizes Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa (Taiwan) from the People's Republic of China.
• The Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy assists the Republic of China evacuate Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan.
• U.S. President Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam.
• Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (S.E.A.T.O) is established.
• Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom due to ill-health at the age of 80. Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• Warsaw Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is signed (Warsaw Treaty Organization)

• Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty (Warsaw Pact) in Warsaw, Poland.
• West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by important Western countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

• The President of Argentina, Juan Peron, is overthrown in a military coup.
• Ngo Dinh Diem declares Vietnam to be a republic with himself as its President and forms the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
• US begins sending $216 million in aid to Vietnam.
• US intervenes militarily in Iran
• U.S. installs powerful radar system in Turkey to spy on the Soviet Union

Political & Human Rights Struggle & Protest

Claudette Colvin (a fifteen-year-old African-American girl) refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is forcibly carried off the bus backwards and then kicked, handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station.

• A few months later In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott.
• The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate a Black people's boycott of all city buses.
• Racial segregation is outlawed on trains and buses in interstate commerce in the United States.

Entertainment & Popular Culture

• Disneyland opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
• Actor James Dean is killed at age 24 when his automobile, a Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknamed "Little Bastard," collides with another car at a highway junction near Cholame, California
• The first footage of Elvis Presley is filmed as part of a film short about the Cleveland, Ohio, disc jockey Bill Randle.
• Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show for the CBS-TV network.

Movies

      The Seven Year Itch         Rebel Without A Cause

Blackboard Jungle

Evan Hunter's movie adaptation of the novel Blackboard Jungle premieres featuring the song, "Rock Around the Clock", by Bill Haley and His Comets. Teenagers dance to the song during the film’s showing.

Academy Award, Best Picture: On the Waterfront, Sam Spiegel, producer (Columbia), Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Eva Maria Saint), and Best Director (Elia Kazan).

Books

• Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita
• First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London

Music

Rock and Roll music continues to grow in popularity with such idols as, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and the Comets, Chuck Berry and The Platters.

Number One Songs: Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes; Let Me Go, Lover - Joan Weber; Hearts of Stone - Fontane Sisters; Sincerely - McGuire Sisters; The Ballad Of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes; Unchained Melody - Les Baxter; Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets; Yellow Rose Of Texas - Mitch Miller; Love Is a Many - Splendored Thing - The Four Aces; Autumn Leaves - Roger Williams; Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford

Television

• The long-running program Gunsmoke debuts on the CBS-TV network in the United States.
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts on the CBS-TV network in the United States.
• The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.

Most Popular TV shows: 

1. The $64,000 Question (CBS)
2. I Love Lucy (CBS)
3. The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS)
4. Disneyland (ABC)
5. The Jack Benny Show (CBS)
6. December Bride (CBS)
7. You Bet Your Life (NBC)
8. Dragnet (NBC)
9. The Millionaire (CBS)
10. I've Got A Secret (CBS)

Fashion

• For young men: pink shirts and charcoal grey suits.
• For ladies…..

• For youngsters….

Sport

"Sugar" Ray Robinson wins world boxing championship

Scientific & Technological Advances

The race is on for real…

First pocket transistor radios available

• The Salk polio vaccine receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
• The first nuclear-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering the town of Arco, Idaho.
• American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.
• Narinder Kapany (England) develops fibre optics.
• Owen Chamberlain and Emilio Segrè discover the antiproton, a form of antimatter.
• Severo Ochoa at NYU synthesizes DNA- and RNA-like molecules.

TV remote control becomes public

• Microwave oven invented

• Felker and Harris program TRADIC, the first fully transistorized computer. It contained nearly 800 transistors instead of vacuum tubes. Transistors enabled the machine to operate on fewer than 100 watts, or one-twentieth the power required by comparable vacuum tube computers.

UHF television developed

Disasters & Tragedies

• Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.
• Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608, the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster.
• A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B airliner flying above Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board..

Other

• 
  
• World Population: 2.780 billion 
• Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois.

• US President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
• US Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
• US Population: 165,931,202
• US Life expectancy: 69.6 years
• US Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.5

• Albert Einstein dies
• In the US, 7 out of 10 families own a motor car often with this result…

• The average wage (US) $3,851 per year and the minimum wage raised to $1.00 per hour
• Yearly Inflation Rate USA: 0.28%
• Average cost of new house: $10.950.00

• Average cost of a new car $1,900.00 
• Cost of a gallon of gas: 23 cents
• Black and White TV would set you back $99.95
• The first cans of Coca-Cola sold

Still, some things never change all that much!

Then again........ 

Oct 15, 2015 ... 

Playboy magazine plans to eliminate nudity!

A lot can happen in 60 years....

©Chris Christopoulos 2014

Tobor The Great (1954)

Enjoyable adventure sci-fi

Directed by Lee Sholem
Written by Carl Dudley, Philip MacDonald
Produced by Republic Pictures
Running time 77 min.

Cast

Charles Drake: Dr. Ralph Harrison
Karin Booth: Janice Roberts
Billy Chapin: Brian 'Gadge' Roberts
Taylor Holmes: Prof. Arnold Nordstrom
Steven Geray: The Foreign Spy-Chief
Henry Kulky: Paul - Spy-Henchman
Franz Roehn: Karl
Hal Baylor: Max - Spy-Henchman

Trailer

(Spoilers follow below) 

WASHINGTON GLOBE

Special Report 

ROBOT RUINS RED SPY PLOT!

By Bob Denver

(Science Editor)

As has been recently reported, a young boy-genius, Brian “Gadge” Roberts, together with his grandfather's robot named “Tobor”, thwarted plans by Soviet spies to obtain information about the construction of the revolutionary new robot.

The boy hero’s grandfather, Prof Nordstrom is the inventor of “Tobor”, a robot he built to replace humans on spacecraft. Prof Nordstrom has often been in heated dispute with the CIFC (Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission) Commissioner over his agency’s questionable practices for preparing humans for space exploration.

At the mid-point of this decade in the middle of the 20th Century, our nation is poised to launch the first human being into space. To this end, the CIFC was formed and is tasked with developing newer and more efficient rocket motors and nuclear power plants, as well as alloys to house such motors.

The CIFC’s methods of handling the human elements of space travel have become a bone of contention not only with Prof Nordstrom, but also with leading CIFC scientist, Dr Ralph Harrison. After intervening in an experimental centrifuge test of an astronaut candidate’s ability to withstand G force acceleration, Dr. Harrison recently submitted his resignation to the CIFC commissioner, declaring that he would not be party to condoning such unsafe human performance tests.

Dr Harrison in a recent interview stated that he wouldn’t “stand by and see manslaughter become a part of the Flight Commission’s policy” and that he would rather “resign than see human beings become guinea pigs.”

As a way of providing a potential solution to the dilemma, both Dr Harrison and Prof Nordstrom decided to team up to complete work on the project of constructing a robot to replace humans on spacecraft.

According to Professor Nordstrom, “it is ill-advised to use human beings on the basis of guess work. It is essential that we observe and know the conditions prevalent in outer space before we send them up there to face any number of unknown hazards.”

This science editor, along with various others from among our nation’s esteemed science journalists, were invited to attend a demonstration and unveiling of Nordstrom’s robot at his secluded and secure Los Angeles residence. The electronic security measures and elaborate security checks he had in place needed to be seen to be believed!

At the long anticipated unveiling, the metallic “monster” that stood impassively before us suddenly came to “life” with glowing eyes and movement of its limbs like the awakening of an electronic Frankenstein’s monster.

According to Nordstrom, this remote-controlled, electronic simulation of a man is endowed with synthetic sentience and extra-sensory perception (ESP), enabling it to distinguish between constructive and destructive emotions of others and to react to emotional stimuli appropriately.

Professor Nordstrom went onto explain that Tobor is “already a sentient being” possessing a “synthetic instinct” and a sense of “self-preservation.”

After demonstrations involving Nordstrom’s daughter, Janice and one of our slightly embarrassed colleagues interacting with Tobor, it became quite apparent that the robot could be controlled by ESP, that it is sentient and that it can react to emotion!

At that stage, both Harrison and Nordstrom hoped to perfect its long-range communication system and intended that the robot named “Tobor” would eventually travel into space, thereby obviating the need for human beings to face the dangers of interstellar flight.

Disturbingly, it was later determined there were too many people at the demonstration as 12 people were initially invited but 13 actually attended. The implications of this development were at once apparent since Tobor could easily be reprogrammed as a weapon with destructive patterns.

One can only imagine what our nation’s enemies could do if they had the capability to produce thousands of Tobors. As Janice Roberts has been reported as saying about such a prospect, “what a terrifying thought!”

At the time Dr Harrison and Professor Nordstrom managed to develop a new communication device to telepathically control Tobor, a group of Soviet spies triggered an alarm at Nordstrom’s residence by gaining access to its compound by means of a special extending ladder to get over the electric fence on the north boundary. Their aim was obviously to break in and steal the newly developed technology to be used by their Communist masters’ for their own nefarious purposes.

Fortunately, Professor Nordstrom used new security measures to spring a trap for the intruders involving such things as night time “infra-vision” and automated intruder alarms, as well as a series of light and sound effects causing the spies to believe that they were under attack and to beat a hasty retreat.

Soon after this incident, our young hero, Brian (“Gadge”) received an invitation to a science show First Flight to Mars at the planetarium in Los Angeles. Accompanied by his grandfather, they arrived at the planetarium only to realize that no one else was there. It turned out that the spies used the invitation as a ruse to kidnap Nordstrom’s grandson and use the boy to gain access to Tobor and the new technology’s secrets by threatening that they would hurt Brian if Nordstrom did not tell them the secrets of the formula for the extra sensory perception method.

At the time of the kidnapping a presentation was to have been given to military personnel. As Brian and Professor Nordstrom were an hour late returning, concerns for their welfare began to mount.

It turned out that the spies did not take account of Professor Nordstrom’s cunning and intelligence.

“I had managed to trick the spies into placing my newly developed telepathic transfer device on my head, convincing them it was merely a hearing aid. By means of triggering a new transmitter concealed inside a pen, I was able to activate Tobor and allow the robot to come to our rescue,” Professor Nordstrom explained.

Amazingly Tobor set about his rescue attempt by stealing a jeep, closely followed in hot pursuit by Dr Harrison!

“The spies become frustrated with my delaying tactics and decided to torture Gadge to convince me to cooperate. Unfortunately they discovered that I was using the pen as a transmitter and so they destroyed the device.” Professor Nordstrom said.

When asked about what happened to Tobor after the transmitter was destroyed, Dr Harrison informed us that Brian was close enough for Tobor to be able to develop a telepathic connection. Reactivated, Tobor attacked the spies and prevented their ring leader escaping by car by ripping his car’s hood away and disabling the wiring.

At the time of writing this special report, I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of a grateful nation to wish Tobor God’s speed as he takes the controls of the space rocket that will prove to be an important small step paving the way for mankind’s eventual giant leap into the final frontier.

Points Of Interest:

Tobor the Great is a small budget film with minimal special effects. It is pitched at mainly younger viewers while maintaining entertainment value for older audiences. Lee Sholem’s direction maintains the film’s story at a steady pace and the acting is solid and genuine.

Tobor's design was the creation of Robert Kinoshita, who was a film and TV effects man and prop designer. He was also responsible for the design of Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet (1956), as well as the B9 environmental control “robot” (“Warning! Warning! Will Robinson!”) in the 1960s Lost In Space sci-fi series.

The character of Tobor the robot comes across as being an implacable, mysterious, potentially dangerous but oddly human-like being. Tobor, like the robot Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), does not speak. Unlike Gort, he does have the ability to sense human thoughts and emotions and he can move around with greater agility. The sense of a human being wearing a robot costume is somewhat counteracted when Professor Nordstrom opens up Tobor's chest to reveal his inner workings to a group of reporters at Tobor’s unveiling.

The film did quite correctly highlight the negative and dangerous aspects to space travel. The history of the space program is unfortunately punctuated by tragic events including the three Apollo crew members who perished in a fire in a capsule during a test on the pad, the close call of the Apollo 13 mission, the loss of two space shuttle crews and the tragic deaths of cosmonauts throughout the former Soviet space program.

Such disastrous events, however, have not stopped the willingness and desire of human beings to venture into space and the unknown. Rather, it seems to have been the huge expense involved with launching people into space that has placed a brake on manned space missions. As an alternative we have tended to rely more on unmanned robotic craft and vehicles to make the unknown known to us, thereby helping to pave the way for possible future manned missions. Perhaps one of our future orbiters or rovers could be called Tobor?

Consider the premise of a robot that is able to think and display and respond to emotion. A character such as Tobor raises all sorts of questions and dilemmas that we will have to contend with as our technology becomes endowed with artificial intelligence and is increasingly integrated into all aspects of our lives.

What rights would a technological / artificial being have if it is accepted that it is sentient: Namely, that it is self-aware; that it can progress beyond its programming; is able to act in an autonomous manner; can make independent (moral?) decisions and choices; has the capacity to interact with people and its environment; can replicate itself; posseses a sense of self-preservation and so on? Should such a being merely exist to serve the needs of human beings like some kind of a slave?

A sentient robot, infra vision, talking grandfather clocks, ESP communication. Such visions of a world of technological advancement has moved beyond the realm of science fiction. It is fast becoming a fact of life for all of us and will be the “new normal” for those growing up in that brave new world. Fridges that order the food you need; whole lives contained in mobile devices; cars that tell us how to get to places, park for us and one day soon drive for us; using the power of the mind to control devices around the home; computer technology integrated into our clothing and accessories; more and more technology augmenting and monitoring our physiology; technology ultimately directing the direction of our evolution. Science fiction may point the way but is often easily outpaced by reality!

As technology permeates our civilisation, is only right to question aspects of its application and be mindful of its dangers and negative consequences. Hints surrounding society’s concerns and fears of new technology occur in the film, Tobor The Great. For instance, at one point Brian finds Tobor’s controller and manages to operate the robot. However, things go wrong when Tobor advances menacingly on the terrified boy. As Brian continues to manipulate the controller to deactivate Tobor, the robot begins to run amok throughout Nordstrom’s residence by going on its own redecorating spree. Although Brain does manage to regain control of Tobor, the disturbing possibility does remain that technology could and probably will act beyond our ability to exercise control over it and that it can act in ways that are detrimental to our welfare and very survival.

Later on, while performing a series of increasingly complex navigation exercises including a simulated meteor shower, Tobor seems to require the use of a straight jacket as he apparently suffers a mechanical version of a nervous breakdown. Tobor is then shut down to allow its circuits to cool. Could a machine that is critical to human beings one day face a series of decisions or a dilemma which it is unable to resolve, can only resolve in a machine-logic manner or for which it is not programmed to handle? In such a situation, could it suffer its own version of a mental or psychological meltdown with disastrous consequences for society? Could the decisions that it does make or the actions it does execute cause harm to humanity? Could technology one day be imbued with a sense or ethics and morality or even the power of intuition and foresight to aid its decision-making processes and judgements?

Yes, be hopeful….but be cautious lest our technological Tobors are made too much in our own image!

©Chris Christopoulos 2014

A Tribute To Richard Denning

Sci-Fi Cult Classic Hero

As this blog deals mainly with classic science fiction films from the Golden Age of screen sci-fi, it is no surprise that tribute should be made to actor, Richard Denning. Richard Denning is best known for starring in science fiction films of the 1950s, including Unknown Island, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Target Earth, Day the World Ended, Creature with the Atom Brain, and The Black Scorpion.

Unknown Island

Richard Denning was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger, Jr., on March 27, 1914 in Poughkeepsie, New York (USA). He was the son of a garment manufacturer who relocated and set up shop in Los Angeles when Denning was 18 months old.

Creature For The Black Lagoon

After finishing school, Denninger enrolled at Woodbury Business College and majored in business and accounting, graduating with honours with a master's in business administration. Despite his father wanting him to join the family business and not being enthralled with accounting, Denning took a night-school course in drama, became involved in little theatre groups and competed in a radio contest called, "Do You Want to Be an Actor?", winning a screen test at Warner Brothers in 1936. Warners Brothers, however, wasn't interested in him because he resembled another well-known actor (Errol Flynn) they had under contract. With his heart set on a movie career, Denninger was eventually signed by Paramount, who required him to change his name to Richard Denning since Denninger sounded too much like the gangster, John Dillinger's name! From 1937 to 1942 Denning appeared in over 50 films for Paramount, many being bit roles.

Target Earth

After roles in films including, Hold 'Em Navy (1937), Campus Confessions (1938), Hiding (1939), Queen of the Mob (1940), Adam Had Four Sons (1941-Columbia), Denning secured the leading role opposite Dorothy Lamour in Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942).

The Black Scorpion

Denning’s military service in the Navy as a First Class Petty Officer in the submarine service during World War II disrupted his acting career. It was a year and a half after his discharge from military service before Paramount Pictures offered him any more acting work. During that time, Denning and his family lived in a mobile home in Malibu and Palm Springs. During that period, they made a good living by catching, eating and selling lobsters.

The Day The World Ended

Denning was at last hired to star on radio with Lucille Ball as George Cooper in My Favorite Husband (1948–1951). Apart from starring roles in classic science fiction films, Richard Denning also appeared in the film An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant. He also shared title billing with Barbara Britton in the detective series Mr. and Mrs. North (1952–1954). He was later cast as Dr Greg Graham in the 1959 series, The Flying Doctor and starred as the title character in the detective series Michael Shayne (1960–1961).

Later in his career, after completing his last film, I Sailed to Tahiti, Richard Denning was offered the role as the governor of Hawaii, Paul Jameson, in the CBS television crime drama series, Hawaii Five-O (1968–1980).

Richard denning was married to 1940s horror film queen, Evelyn Ankers (m. 1942–1985) and then to Patricia Leffingwell (m. 1986–1998). He died on October 11, 1998 in Escondido, California (USA).

A Little Side Note:

Denning’s wife, Evelyn Ankers often co-starred with Lon Chaney Jnr who drank heavily and with whom she did not get along. At one point during a Universal function, matters reach a boiling point between Lon Chaney and Denning when Denning threw his sundae into Chaney's face. Chaney had to be physically restrained from throwing hot coffee into Denning's face!

©Chris Christopoulos 2014

Them! (1954)

A suspense story

A murder mystery

A horror story 

A science fiction story 

A first of its kind

Directed by Gordon Douglas
Produced by David Weisbart
Screenplay: Ted Sherdeman, Russell Hughes
Story by George Worthing Yates
Music: Bronislau Kaper
Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Editing: Thomas Reilly
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Running time: 94 minutes
Box office: $2.2 million

Cast

James Whitmore: Police Sgt. Ben Peterson
Edmund Gwenn: Dr. Harold Medford
Joan Weldon: Dr. Patricia 'Pat' Medford
James Arness: Robert Graham
Onslow Stevens: Brig. Gen. Robert O'Brien
Sean McClory: Maj. Kibbee
Chris Drake: Trooper Ed Blackburn
Sandy Descher: The Ellinson Girl
Mary Alan Hokanson: Mrs. Lodge 
Don Shelton: Trooper Capt. Fred Edwards
Fess Parker: Alan Crotty
Olin Howland: Jensen

What would cause a little girl to be wandering alone out in the desert? What has happened to have given her sightless eyes that seem to have seen too much? What has stretched the fabric of her psyche to form an unresponsive protective psychological bubble shielding her from horrific memories of real-world horrors too vast for a young innocent mind to grasp? The answer lies with……..

Something not US 

Something dangerous…..

Trailer

The Story

Near Alamogordo, New Mexico, Police Sgt Ben Peterson and his partner find a young girl wandering in alone the desert. To Sgt Peterson it “looks like she’s in shock.”

Who Done It?

The two state troopers investigate a trailer situated “12 Miles North Of The Crossroads” that the little girl was staying in with her parents and sibling. The trailer presents a whirlwind scene of destruction and tragedy. From this point on the police are confronted with “lots of evidence with clues, but (where) nothing adds up.”

Clue 1: Money not taken
Clue 2: Presence of blood
Clue 3: Revolver located
Clue 4: Top of girl’s doll’s head found sliced off.
Clue 5: “This (side of trailer) wasn’t caved in. It was caved out.”
Clue 6: SUGAR
Clue 7: Mysterious print found nearby: “No cat ever lived laid down a print like that.”
Clue 8: The fabric of reality being rent by a strange, unearthly, piercing and pulsating sound that momentarily triggers a reaction from the little girl. The ambulance medic seeks a more earthly and rational explanation for the sound as being the wind which “gets pretty freakish is these parts.”

Gramps Johnson’s Store

And so the investigation is carried along with the desert wind to old Gramps Johnson’s store. Once again a scene of destruction confronts the two troopers, along with more clues. As they look around, the radio broadcast informs listeners about “strides in the field of medicine” with cholera and sleeping sickness having been wiped out in many areas. Human beings are capable of much good, but as it later becomes apparent they are capable of unleashing great evil upon the world, even unwittingly. And outside Death continues to moan and howl across the desert and through the gashes in the walls of Gramps Johnson’s mutilated store.

Clue 1: "Gramps" Johnson is found dead: “Looks like he was dragged and thrown down there.”
Clue 2: The store has also been torn apart from the outside: “This wasn’t pushed in; it was pulled out.”
Clue 3: No cash was taken from the register.
Clue 4: A barrel of SUGAR was smashed open. Ironically the tiny ants on the sugar are disturbed by Peterson’s fingers.
Clue 5: Gramps' Winchester rifle was fired and is now twisted out of shape.

Peterson leaves Ed Blackburn to guard the store alone as he goes by car to check on the little girl and make a report. Upon hearing the strange, pulsating noise outside, Blackburn cautiously investigates. We are left to imagine the nightmarish horror as Blackburn moves off-screen and off-camera gunshots are fired. The strange pulsating sound speeds up and grows in intensity, and Blackburn's death-scream is carried aloft by the wailing wind.

The Plot Thickens

Further clues emerge when Peterson's superior points out that Gramps was a crack shot and had time to fire all his ammunition at whatever attacked him. Added to this is the coroner’s finding as to the cause of Johnson’s death detailing a litany of horrific injuries: a broken neck and back, skull fracture, crushed abdomen, and ……."enough formic acid in him to kill 20 men."

FEDS & Egg-heads 

The FBI sends agent Robert Graham to investigate after the bureau is unable to identify the footprint. He, together with myrmecologists from the Department of Agriculture, Dr Harold Medford and Medford’s daughter, Dr Pat Medford visit the footprint's site, where Dr Harold Medford conducts an examination of the footprint.

As a way of confirming his suspicions, the senior Dr Medford later tries an experiment (a “jolt”) on the Ellinson girl by exposing her to formic acid fumes. She quickly awakens from her catatonic state of “hysteria conversion” and begins screaming and yelling out, "Them! Them!"

For the viewer, anything that can produce that much terror in one so young must by its very nature be evil and must be eliminated. We have enough examples in the real world and our own time of innocent children having to endure the trauma and horrors of death and destruction from monsters of human-kind’s making.

Dr Harold Medford will not at this point reveal his theory as doing so prematurely might “risk a nationwide panic." Shouldn’t people have the right to know about matters that might affect them, instead of being treated like children and wrapped in the security blanket of secrecy?

Ellinson Campsite Encounter

While investigating the Ellinson campsite, Dr Pat Medford is confronted and startled by a giant, eight-foot long scouting ant. The images conjured up in our minds from the clues and the conjecturing up to this point in the film is confirmed by the presence of an impressive-looking Gulliver of the insect world. Pat’s screams of terror bring the upholders of the law racing to her rescue brandishing.38 revolvers which with great alacrity they proceed to empty into the six-legged leviathan with little effect. Dr Harold Medford then instructs Peterson and Graham shoot at the ant's antennae thereby blinding it. This they do and Peterson uses his Thompson submachine gun to extinguish the ant’s life once and for all.

Victory at this impressive skirmish is merely a prelude to a greater battle with the very existence of humanity being at stake. Dr Harold Medford finally reveals his theory that the giant ant was probably mutated by radiation from the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo 9 years previously. He believes that, “we may be witnesses to a biblical prophecy come true”;

“'And there shall be destruction and darkness come over creation, and the beasts shall reign over the earth.’" 

(OK, so it’s not from the bible. Blah! Blah! Still, it’s biblical / Revelations-sounding and adds a bit of a dramatic flourish to what is after all a good screen story. So get over nit-pickers!)

Dangerous Decent

The Medfords, Graham and Peterson, together with Air Force General O'Brien manage to locate the giant ants' nest by helicopter. Dr Medford states his belief that “time is important, more so than (any of them) realize” and he comes up with a plan to destroy the ants in their nest by bombing them during the hottest part of the day, “noon tomorrow.” The plan involves using enough heat to drive the ants down into their nest and then drop cyanide gas to kill them.

After an impressive display of bazooka-firing at the ants’ nest opening, poison gas bombs are then tossed into the nest. After the obligatory 1950s-style, “this is no place for you or any other woman” followed by the retort, “someone with scientific knowledge has to go” hassle, General Graham, Peterson and Dr. Pat Medford descend into the nest to kill any surviving ants. 

Deep inside the nest, we witness an impressive display of the use of flame throwers and the depiction of giant ants tunnelling into the corridor. Equally impressive is Pat’s commanding and authoritative tone of voice as she orders the others to “Burn it! I said, burn it! Burn everything!” Who would dare argue? Ogle and patronize all you want Ben and Robert, this lady knows what’s what and takes charge-get used to it!

The Beginning Of The End Of…..

It appears that two other queen ants have hatched and along with winged male ants have left to establish new colonies. Dr Harold Medford believes that “we haven’t seen the end of THEM. We all had a close view of what may be the beginning of the end of us.” The dire nature of the emergency is repeatedly reinforced by Dr Harold Medford when he states that “not a police force in the world can handle the panic” that would result from public disclosure. He believes that the ants’ 50 million years’ worth of evolution have bestowed on them the kind of industry, social organisation and savagery that “makes man look feeble.” Dr Medford can only conclude that “Man as the dominant species on earth will be extinct within a year.” In order to avoid generating panic, the government soon launches an investigation of any reports of unusual activity, including sightings of "flying saucers."

Meanwhile, a giant queen has managed to hatch her brood in the hold of a freighter, SS Viking, heading to South America. The giant ants attack the ship's crew and only a few survivors manage to escape and are rescued. The freighter is later sunk by US naval power.

Further reports lead the investigators to a rail yard with a smashed boxcar minus its 40 ton cargo of sugar purloined by the six-legged kleptomaniacs with a sweet tooth. Next, they pay a visit to a state psychiatric hospital in Brownsville, Texas and interview a pilot who swears that while flying his small plane he almost collided with three UFOs “shaped like ants.” Agent Graham while believing his story, requests that “the government would appreciate it if he were kept here” In other words, to have his civil and legal rights violated by being forced to remain hospitalized until further notice. An act worthy of any Soviet or Chinese Communist government of the time!

Information from an alcoholic in a Los Angeles hospital drunk ward together with the body of a mutilated man is connected to a report of a missing man and his two young sons. This leads the investigators to determine that the man had been flying a model airplane with his sons near the hospital in close proximity to the Los Angeles River and that he was killed by the ants.

With martial law and a curfew declared for Los Angeles, the hunt is on to see;

If the two young boys can be saved! 

If the ants’ nest can be destroyed before any other ant escapes! 

If the world as we know it can be prevented from being destroyed by…..

Points Of Interest

The film Them! reflected Cold War era fears and concerns about of the effects of nuclear technology on our planet and human civilisation. In this case the effects are manifested in the form of creatures being exposed to radiation and growing to unnatural sizes. The film was the first of the "big bug" movies whose lineage includes Tarantula, Earth vs. The Spider, Beginning of the End through to Alien and Starship Troopers.

The film's opening title was printed in a vivid red and blue against a black and white background which leaps out at the audience and gives the opening of the film a strong dramatic impact. When the film began production it was originally intended to be in 3-D and Warner Colour. During pre-production when it was time to shoot the 3-D test, the 3-D camera rig malfunctioned and no footage could be filmed. It was consequently decided that the colour and 3-D aspects of the production were to be scrapped. The film was to be shot in black and white and widescreen, but even the widescreen format was scrapped. The opening titles and the flamethrower shots aimed directly at the camera are the only remaining camera set-ups for 3-D in the film.

Among the many features that make this film work include:

• Build up of suspense: You would have noticed that it is not until quite well into the film that the giant ants make their appearance. A great deal of mystery and suspense is generated before the ants appear on screen. We hear the ants high pitched, pulsating sounds and see their carnage long before we actually see THEM!

• The impressive performance of Sandy Descher playing the role of the little girl traumatised and terrified out of her wits.

• The humorous scenes involving Dr. Medford played by Edmund Gwenn. For instance, trying to communicate with his daughter’s helicopter using radio headphones and fumbling the “over” protocol. Edmund Gwenn is perfectly cast as the kindly, eccentric and absent-minded professor.

• The mechanical giant ants, even without the benefit of CGI technology, looked quite impressive and menacing and were quite a special effects achievement for the time. They were constructed and operated by concealed technicians under the supervision of Ralph Ayers. The giant ants were purple-green in colour. At least we didn’t just have magnified shots of real ants doing ant things and being passed off as monsters.

You may have noticed that there are similarities between Them! and movies such as James Cameron's Aliens (1986.) which featured an orphaned girl “Newt” wandering around a base in shock, an almost hostile and windy setting, passageways with danger lurking around the next turn, alien creatures armed with deadly acid, egg laying queens and hatchery chambers and lots of flame-throwers! I guess modern Sci-Fi blockbusters owe a great deal to such a well-acted, frightening, and engaging 1950s progenitor film as Them!

©Chris Christopoulos 2014