Monday, October 16, 2023

Film Review: The Thing From Another World (RKO Pictures, 1951) by Devin J. Meaney

The Thing From Another World
Directed by Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks (uncredited)
Written by Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks (uncredited), Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Based on the story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell Jr.
With Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James Young, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Eduard Franz, Sally Creighton, James Arness
Produced by Howard Hawks, Edward Lasker (associate producer)
RKO Pictures, 1951
Looking for something to watch I made my way to Tubi in search of something cheesy. After a brief perusing I found “The Thing from Another World”—a 1951 B flick. I do enjoy a good black and white film—especially when it involves aliens or monsters or things of that nature. Here is the bio from Wikipedia:
“The film's storyline concerns a United States Air Force crew and scientists who find, frozen in the Arctic ice, a crashed Flying Saucer and a humanoid body nearby. Returning to their remote arctic research outpost with the body still in a block of ice, they are forced to defend themselves against the still alive and malevolent plant-based alien when it is accidentally thawed out.”
Honestly after watching the film I only have a few things to say. The vibe was great and overall this was a fun film but I can also state that the “creature” looked far too human to be visually appealing and the ending was “anti-climactic” to say the least. These are the only two negative things I have to say though as overall this was a decent piece of classic B- grade cinema and since I now have the bug for old films I hope to find more movies like it in the near future.
This was based on an even earlier writing—so to make a close I will say I would be interested in reading the original story. It made for a decent movie—but I daresay it would make for an even better piece of readable fiction! -Devin J. Meaney

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