The Thing from Another World

Dir: Howard Hawks, Christian Nyby

1951

*****

John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic The Thing was based on John W. Campbell’s 1938 short story Who Goes There? but it wasn’t the first adaptation. In 1951, Christian Nyby – under Howard Hawk’s guidance – directed his version of the now famous story and in doing so changed the horror film forever. Back in 1951 horror films were sensational and very few relied on real science or indeed intelligent ideas. Horror films were generally directed by what special effects the studios could come up with and which big name actors they could get to star in them. The Thing from Another World enjoys great special effects and some great actors and you could even call it sensationalist, but what really makes the film so great is the intelligent script and screenplay. There is no overacting and the ‘mystery’ follows logic and only logic. It is a thinking man’s horror, if you will. The film stars Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer, none of them found great success in their acting careers although Kenneth Tobey and Robert Cornthwaite both became cult heroes in later life. I’ve never understood it, as their performances are so real and perfect in the film. Melodrama was sadly the style of the day and this is the only reason I can think of as to why they were so often overlooked. I love an old 50s b-movie and often the lower the budget the better the film was but there was something different about The Thing from Another World that made it feel a little more mature than all the others. I certainly never felt the same levels of suspense or horror than I did with the others, with William Cameron Menzies’s 1953 Invaders from Mars being the only exception. The Thing from Another World was still the first. It begins as a United States Air Force crew is dispatched from Anchorage, Alaska at the request of Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite), the chief scientist of a North Pole scientific outpost. They have evidence that an unknown flying craft has crashed in their vicinity, so reporter Ned Scott (Douglas Spencer) tags along for the story. Dr. Carrington later briefs Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and his airmen, and Dr. Redding (George Fenneman) shows photos of a flying object moving erratically before crashing - not the movements of a meteorite. Following erratic magnetic pole anomalies, the crew and scientists fly to the crash site where the mysterious craft lies buried beneath refrozen ice. As they spread out to outline the craft's general shape, the men realize they are standing in a circle; they have discovered a crashed flying saucer. They try de-icing the buried craft with thermite heat bombs, but only ignite its metal alloy, causing an explosion that destroys the saucer. Their Geiger counter then points to a slightly radioactive frozen shape buried nearby in the refrozen ice. They excavate a large block of ice around what appears to be a tall body and fly it to the research outpost, just as a major storm moves in, cutting off their communications with Anchorage. Some of the scientists want to thaw out the body, but Captain Hendry insists on waiting until he receives further instructions from the Air Force. Later, Corporal Barnes (William Self) takes the second watch over the ice block and to avoid looking at the body within, covers it with an electric blanket that the previous guard left turned on. As the ice slowly melts, the Thing inside revives; Barnes panics and shoots at it with his sidearm, but the alien escapes into the raging storm. The Thing is attacked by sled dogs and the airmen recover a severed arm. A microscopic examination of a tissue sample reveals that the arm is vegetable rather than animal matter, demonstrating that the alien is a very advanced form of plant life. As the arm warms to ambient temperature, it ingests some of the dogs' blood covering it, and the hand begins moving. Seed pods are discovered in the palm. The Air Force personnel believe the creature is a danger to all of them, but Dr. Carrington is convinced that it can be reasoned with and has much to teach them. Carrington deduces their visitor requires blood to survive and reproduce. He later discovers the body of a dead sled dog hidden in the outpost's greenhouse. Carrington has Dr. Voorhees (Paul Frees), Dr. Olsen (William Neff) and Dr. Auerbach stand guard overnight, waiting for The Thing to return. Carrington secretly uses blood plasma from the infirmary to incubate seedlings grown from the alien seed pods. The strung-up bodies of Olsen and Auerbach are discovered in the greenhouse, drained of blood. Dr. Stern is almost killed by the Thing but escapes. Hendry rushes to the greenhouse after hearing about the bodies, and is attacked by the alien. Hendry slams the door on the Thing's regenerated arm as it tries to grab him. The alien then escapes through the greenhouse's exterior door, breaking into another building in the compound. Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan), Carrington's secretary, reluctantly updates Hendry when he asks about missing plasma and confronts Carrington in his lab, where he discovers the alien seeds have grown at an alarming rate. Following Nicholson's suggestion, Hendry and his men lay a trap in a nearby room: after dousing the alien with buckets of kerosene, they set it ablaze with a flare gun, forcing it to jump through a closed window into the Arctic storm. Nicholson notices that the temperature inside the station is falling; a heating fuel line has been sabotaged by the alien. The cold forces everyone to make a final stand near the generator room. They rig an electrical "fly trap", hoping to electrocute their visitor. As the Thing advances, Carrington shuts off the power and tries to reason with it, but is knocked aside. On Hendry's direct order that nothing of the Thing remain, it is reduced by arcs of electricity to a smoldering pile of ash; Dr. Carrington's growing seed pods and the Thing's severed arm are destroyed as well. When the weather clears, Scotty files his "story of a lifetime" by radio to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage. Scotty begins his broadcast with a warning: "Tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are. Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies". The last line is now synonymous with alien-themed sci-fi but very few people know its origins. It is an amazing horror considering the villain is large vegetable, indeed, James Arness complained that his "Thing" costume made him look like a giant carrot. The beginning of the film is eerily basic and unlike any other sci-fi/horror of the time. No actors are named during the film's dramatic "slow burning letters through background" opening title sequence and the plot elements were kept a secret before the film was released in cinemas. The film took full advantage of the national feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. The film reflected a post-Hiroshima skepticism about science and negative views of scientists who meddle with things better left alone. In the end it is American servicemen and several sensible scientists who win the day over the alien invader. This is about good science rather than bad science. The film was loosely adapted by Charles Lederer, with uncredited rewrites from Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht from the story by John W. Campbell, Jr (who went by the pseudonym Don A. Stuart) that was first published in Astounding Science Fiction. The film's screenplay changes the fundamental nature of the alien as presented in Campbell's original: Lederer's "Thing" is a humanoid life form whose cellular structure is closer to vegetation, although it must feed on blood to survive; reporter Scott even refers to it in the film as a "super carrot." The internal, plant-like structure of the creature makes it impervious to bullets (but not to other destructive forces). Campbell's "Thing" is a life form capable of assuming the physical and mental characteristics of any living thing it encounters; this characteristic was later realized in John Carpenter's 1982 adaptation. Carpenter, along with many other successful directors, sites the film as being hugely influential on his own work and with the advantage of better cameras and special effects, he made a fitting tribute and one of the greatest horror films of all time. The big controversy surround the film though is over who actually directed it. There is debate as to whether the film was directed by Hawks with Christian Nyby receiving the credit so that Nyby could obtain his Director's Guild membership, or whether Nyby directed it with considerable input in both screenplay and advice in directing from producer Hawks for Hawks' Winchester Pictures, which released it through RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Hawks gave Nyby only $5,460 of the $50,000 director's fee that RKO paid and kept the rest, but Hawks denied that he directed the film. Cast members disagree on Hawks' and Nyby's contributions. Tobey said that "Hawks directed it, all except one scene" while, on the other hand, Fenneman said that "Hawks would once in a while direct, if he had an idea, but it was Chris' show." Cornthwaite said that "Chris always deferred to Hawks, ... Maybe because he did defer to him, people misinterpreted it." Although Self has said that "Hawks was directing the picture from the sidelines", he also has said that "Chris would stage each scene, how to play it. But then he would go over to Howard and ask him for advice, which the actors did not hear ... Even though I was there every day, I don't think any of us can answer the question. Only Chris and Howard can answer the question.” William Self, who later became President of 20th Century Fox Television, said, "Chris was the director in our eyes, but Howard was the boss." At a reunion of The Thing cast and crew members in 1982, Nyby said “Did Hawks direct it? That's one of the most inane and ridiculous questions I've ever heard, and people keep asking. That it was Hawks' style. Of course it was. This is a man I studied and wanted to be like. You would certainly emulate and copy the master you're sitting under, which I did. Anyway, if you're taking painting lessons from Rembrandt, you don't take the brush out of the master's hands.” Perfectly put in my opinion but either way, it’s an outstanding film that crosses several genres that was only surpassed in 1982.