39 STEPS, THE

(August 1935, U.S.)

Alfred Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS is one of those great classic films that falls under the public domain. There is, in my opinion, something very irresistible about these old movies, despite their rather grainy visual texture in an era where everything we watch today has been digitally remastered in high definition picture quality. Perhaps it's that nostalgic part of me that takes me back to my childhood when it was old movies like this that dominated late night television on the independent stations. They were horror films mostly, but every once in a while there would be Hitchcock's early British films, as well as Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rothbone in the starring role. In fact, an old friend of mine once told me he used to enjoy these old Sherlock Holmes films on TV late at night and even went so far as to brew a pot of tea in order to make himself feel a little more British while watching. Hey, whatever enhances and improves your moviegoing experience is just fine by me!

This film tells the story about an ordinary English civilian, Richard Hannay (played by Richard Donat), who while attending a demonstration of the powers of "Mr. Memory" at the London Music Hall Theatre, where gun shots are fired, gets caught up in preventing an unexplained organization of spies called the "39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. After being mistakenly accused of the fatal stabbing of a counter-espionage female agent, Annabella Smith (played by Lucie Mannheim), Richard goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive, blonde woman Pamela (played by Madeleine Carroll) in the hopes of stopping the spy ring and clearing his name.

While on the run in Scotland, there's the more-than-obvious sexual tensions that take place between Richard and the young, pretty wife of a poor farmer, but this is about as far as sex could possibly go back in those days of early cinema. In fact, Richard has gone so far as to trust the young wife by revealing his current predicament and even ask her for help. She helps him by giving Richard her husband's coat, which will cost her later when her husband beats her (off screen, of course). This coat will prove to be more of a help than one might think because it's the hymn book buried in the coat's pocket that stops a bullet from killing Richard later. Fleeing across the moors, Richard continues to elude the police in a manner that may even remind you of another Richard that would one day elude police for a murder he didn't commit (think Dr. Richard Kimble in THE FUGITIVE). When the police finally catch up, they attempt to handcuff Richard, but he escapes through an open window and tries to hide at a political meeting and is mistaken for the introductory speaker (remember Chevy Chase in FLETCH?). Surprisingly, and without knowing anything about the candidate, he gives a rousing impromptu speech about freedom and social justices. Joined by Pamela again, who's now caught up in the same mess as he is, the two of them must make their way across the English countryside in order to evade capture, all while getting on each other's nerves.

Pamela eventually leads them to the London Palladium, where "Mr. Memory" is featured again. Richard, while in the audience, recognizes his theme music, which is also a tune he's been whistling and unable to forget throughout the film. As it turns out, it's "Mr. Memory" himself that the spies are using in order to smuggle the Air Ministry secret.
As the police finally take Richard into custody, he shouts, "What are the 39 Steps?" "Mr. Memory" compulsively answers, giving full details of the organization of spies and the information they've collected on behalf of the Foreign Office, at which point he's shot by the enemy. "Mr. Memory dies, but not before expressing relief of finally being able to reveal all the secret information that's been stored in his brain for so long be declaring, "I'm glad it's off my mind." Talk about your unwanted stress relief!

THE 39 STEPS was a major British film of its time. In traditional "Hitchcockian" fashion, the film contains elements of the ordinary, everyday man who unwittingly gets caught up in situations he cannot understand, something that would be featured again in films like THE LADY VANISHES, SABOTEUR, THE WRONG MAN and NORTH BY NORTHWEST, as well as a signature cameo appearance by Hitchcock himself. International spy stories may not always be good stories, but Hitchcock manages to give them his own brand of shock, suspense, literary drama and wit. Like other stories of many heroes, Richard is often the victim of many lucky accidents, twists and turns, and it's Richard Donat's high-spirited acting that keeps the suspense moving at a good pace, even if it's not at the pace of the modern thriller of today.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Richard Hannay (to the milkman): "Are you married?"
Milkman: "Yes, but don't rub it in."

13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI

(January 2016, U.S.)

Off all the directors in Hollywood today, Michael Bay is the last one I'd ever have expected to surprise me with a film like 13 HOURS, based on Mitchell Zuckoff's book. I mean, this is a man whom I've personally accused of being nothing more than a demolition expert because of his tendency to offer not much more in his movies than constantly blowing shit up. Yet, here he is, offering us an American biographical war film which follows six members of the Annex Security Team who bravely fought to defend the American diplomat compound in Benghazi, Libya after several attacks by violent militants on September 11, 2012, eleven years after the tragedy of 9/11, in one of the best films of its kind, in my opinion, since Ridley Scott's 2001 film BLACK HAWK DOWN.

Prior to watching this film, all I really understood about what occurred in Benghazi in 2012 was that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took much of the responsibility for denying the additional security that was needed at the American compound prior to the attacks. The film however, concentrates solely on the events that took place and the men who acted like brave American soldiers rather than attempt to make any political statement or accusation toward any high-ranking White House official. Rest assured, however, Michael Bay still knows how to blow shit up very well in this one.

The film opens by making it very clear that Benghazi, Libya is one of the most dangerous places in the world, causing other countries to pull their diplomatic offices out of the country in fear of being attacked by militants. However, the U.S. still maintains a diplomatic compound in the city. Less than a mile away is the CIA outpost called "The Annex", which is protected by a team of private American military contractors. These soldiers are exactly what you'd expect to find in a modern-day war film; tough, arrogant, cocky and constantly joking around with each other using high degrees of profanity (but then, that's probably just the way we want it!). The CIA Chief on hand is exactly the type of bureaucratic, pain-in-the-ass you'd expect to be giving the team strict reminders on how to do their job and which rules they're forbidden to break, including never to engage the citizens.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens (played by Matt Letscher) arrives in Benghazi to maintain diplomatic connections and relations amidst the social and political chaos taking place. Ultimately, Stevens becomes the target of attack by failing to remain with limited armed protection. Before we can even begin to appreciate any signs of peace and luxury the soldiers get to enjoy during their stay in a foreign country, the assaults have begun when attackers gain easy access to the Special Mission compound. Like any traditional combat film, bullets fly and bombs explode. Ambassador Stevens is inevitably killed when his building is set ablaze by attackers who fail to gain access to his safe room. Knowing that more attacks are imminent, the Annex's CIA staff begin making desperate calls for help, and all they can get is assistance from a Tripoli officer, who forms a team of Delta operators to fly to Benghazi to mount a rescue. As the Annex is breached, the soldiers continue to fend off the militants during their largest attack wave. Blood is shed, lives on both sides are lost, but in the end, America triumphs in that the innocent escape the violence of the land and are rescued to live another day.

13 HOURS, if nothing else, is a sure sign of maturity by Michael Bay who's not looking to make a film which caters to sci-fi-loving teenage boys, much in the way that Steven Spielberg finally matured with THE COLOR PURPLE in the 80s (but with a lot less violence and blood). The impact that a fact-based story as this delivers is very strong. The characters, while not distinctively strong, are plausible and respected because we're forced to understand and appreciate that these are American men with love in their hearts and families back home, who must wage a war in a country they have no business being in in the first place (much like Vietnam). As an action thriller, the battle sequences that focus on real-life attacks are well-choreographed, and shit gets blown up when it has to. War, like in many modern films before it, is gritty and without Hollywood glamour. Libya, of course, delivered much controversy upon the film's release, believing it ignored the contributions of the local people who tried to help. We may empathize with such an accusation, if we wish, or we can permit 13 HOURS to focus our attention on American heroes who do what's right, and the sacrifices they make on a daily basis, both on their own soil and overseas where they are ultimately treated like strangers in a strange land.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Jack Silva (to the Benghazi CIA Chief-of-Station): "You're not giving orders! You're in my world now!"

THIRTEEN DAYS

(December 2000, U.S.)

Kevin Costner and JFK; by this time the two names are practically synonymous with each other. One might almost be surprised that Costner was even cast in THIRTEEN DAYS, a historical political thriller based on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when he was already so well linked with the legendary United States president from Oliver Stones landmark 1991 film. Yet the viewer is practically required to put aside any relations of the past and give Costner the chance to break out and further express his talents and convictions against another infamous part of our history in the 1960s.

Many of my readers were likely only small children or not even born yet when in October of 1962, the photos of a U-2 aerial surveillance revealed that the Soviet Union wass in the process of secretly placing intermediate-range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear weapons in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy (played by Bruce Greenwood) and his advisers, including his own brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (played by Steven Culp) were faced with the immediate task of coming up with a plan of action to prevent their activation. Kennedy was determined to show that the U.S. would not allow a missile threat against our country. He was reluctant to attack and invade Cuba because it would likely cause the Soviets to invade Berlin, which in turn, could easily lead to inevitable war. Kennedy's administration tried to find a solution that would remove the missiles and avoid war. Instead, U.S. naval forces stopped all ships entering Cuban waters with a blockade and inspected them to verify there were no destined for Cuba.

Continuing to order spy plane photos, Kennedy's top adviser Kenny O'Donnel (played by Costner) secretly alerts the pilots to have them ensure our government that they have not been fired upon by the enemy, for if they do, the country would be forced to retaliate its own rules of engagement. There are several frightening glitches during this ongoing crisis; the defense readiness level of our Strategic Air Command (SAC) is raised to DEFCON 2 (this is just one step shy of maximum readiness of war), without informing Kennedy. Nuclear weapon tests are also carried out without the President's knowledge. After much deliberation with the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, Kennedy makes a final attempt to avoid war by sending RFK to meet with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. Bobby demands that the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba, and in return promises not to invade or assist in the invasion of Cuba. From the other end, the U.S. must remove all its missiles from Turkey, on the border of the Soviet Union. A quid pro quo is not possible, but in exchange for Premier Khrushchev removing all the missiles from Cuba, there will be a secret understanding that the U.S. will remove all of its "obsolete" missiles from Turkey within six months as part of a pre-scheduled plan. The Soviets announce that they will remove their missiles from Cuba, averting a war that could have escalated to the use of nuclear weapons and World War II. As the film ends, we're reminded of Kennedy's famous audio commencement speech, "A Strategy for Peace", at the American University in 1963.

History, at its best, it truly compelling. The Cuban Missile Crisis reminds us of just how close we really came to a horrible destiny. Roger Donaldson's film concentrates hard on the drama of facts and speculation, while not concerning itself too much with action. We witness on screen portraits of real life people who were involved in the crisis, as well a first-hand study of specific items like high-altitude photographs and intelligent reports, all the while wondering ourselves if the Soviets could be trusted at a time when the Cold War was at its worst. The decisions of men in power are tense and truly terrifying even in the face of trying to remain rational in a time of great fear. Perhaps the film can even remind us that no matter how bad things seem right now under a "man" like Donald Trump, it may be a far less terrifying situation than a world that was once on the brink of war for thirteen days in October.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Kenny O'Donnell: "If the sun comes up tomorrow, it is only because of men of good will. That is all there is between us and the devil."

THIRD MAN, THE

(February 1950, U.S.)

The first thing you have to ask yourself when watching Carol Reed's THE THIRD MAN is, are we truly and honestly watching the work of Carol Reed or did Orson Welles himself step in as director of this British film noir? This was the speculation, and perhaps even misconception, over the years following the film's release. Too much of the film's style, editing, themes and overlapping dialogue seem to echo Welles's previous work. True or not, these sort of myths die hard. Does THE THIRD MAN remind you more of CITIZEN KANE or Reed's own NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH? Judge for yourself just how far Welles's influence went.

The film is set in post-World War II Vienna, Austria. Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotten) is an American author of pulp-westerns who's just arrived in the city of ruins, having been offered a job by his friend Harry Lime (played by Orson Welles), only to discover upon his arrival that Harry is dead, a suspected victim of murder. Holly proceeds to meet with the people in Harry's life, including the British Army police inspectors, to investigate the suspicions surrounding his death. The impoverished, post-war city itself is a thriving environment of opportunistic racketeering divided into the American, British, French and Soviet sectors, as Holly soon discovers during his investigations. He eventually learns that his beloved friend Harry was, in fact, a criminal, and is pressured by the police to leave the city rather than take his inquiries any further. Refusing to leave town, Holly also befriends Harry's girlfriend Anna Schmidt (played by Alida Vallie), who's also an actress. Anna is the first one to suggest that Harry's death was not accidental. It seems that as soon as Harry was killed by a car, he was immediately carried off the street by someone else in addition to the two friends who were reportedly - a third man. For a time, Holly himself is suspected by the townspeople as being that third man.

Still refusing to leave Vienna, Holly finally learns from the police that Harry had been stealing large quantities of penicillin from military hospitals, diluting it, and then selling in on the black market for a high profit. As a result of the dilution, many patients died and many children were left brain damaged for life. The mounting and undeniable evidence finally convinces Holly of just who Harry really was, and finally agrees to leave town, disillusioned. Now drawn to Anna himself, Holly prepares to say goodbye, but is delayed when he thinks he notices someone strange and suspicious standing in a dark doorway. Through the camera's use of light and darkness, a resident's lit window briefly reveals the person to be Harry Lime himself. This is a rather important visual moment in the film, because it not only reveals the truth, but it also reveals the visual charm and wit that can only be evident in the smile of Orson Welles himself. That moment is only very brief before Harry is off and running into the city sewers. The British police immediately exhume Harry's buried coffin to discover that the body is that of an orderly who stole penicillin for Harry and was reported missing after turning informant.

The two old friend eventually meet in secret as they the Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna's Ferris wheel. Harry proceeds into a lengthy monologue (told with that irresistible Orson Welles charm) on the insignificance of his penicillin victims, revealing the full extent of criminal activity and his lack of morality. Realizing he can't convince Holly to see his side of things, Harry takes off again, and is soon beneath the bowels of the underground sewer system. Trying to escape the police who are hot on his trail, he's eventually shot and killed. The final resolution of the film is left with a sense of ambiguity, as Holly attempts to speak to a twice-heartbroken Anna at the cemetery, but is only left with her walking past him and fading into the unknown distance.

Cinematographer Robert Krasker's use of harsh lighting, as well as a distorted "Dutch angle" camera lens technique gives this classic black and white film an enriched, atmospheric form of expressionism. Its post-war seedy locations, iconic theme music on the zither by Viennese composer Anton Karas and solid performances by its players, give THE THIRD MAN the effective atmosphere of a city that's not only exhausted by war, but also insecure, cynical, and even criminal in the way it conducts its every day life and routines just at the time the Cold War is beginning. Indeed, the city of Vienna may be seen as a tragedy that must confront its troubled existence. It's look, its subtle physical details, and its plot twists and turns may be easily compared to some of Alfred Hitchcock's earlier works of the '40s. Whether we can ultimately credit Carol Reed or Orson Welles with the film's success, it's clear that THE THIRD MAN reveals itself as an intriguing cinematic package of story and camera tricks whose result may be on the cusp of pure genius. As noir, there's also that touch of mischievous and devilish humor told with darkness and depression that made the American style of filmmaking in the 1940s and 1950s so legendary...only this time, it's done by the British and a man like Orson Welles whose smile and charm may have been just one of the most villainous things we've ever seen in film...

Favorite line or dialogue:

Harry Lime: "Like the fella says, in Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

THIN RED LINE, THE (1998)

(December 1998, U.S.)

At the start of writing this blog, I'm just learning that Terrence Malick's (BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN) epic war film THE THIN RED LINE is, in fact, a remake of a previous 1964 adaptation of James Jones's original novel. In a way, that's disappointing, but it doesn't deter for a moment what a spectacular war film this under Malick's direction, released just in the wake of Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN the previous summer.

One of the most distinguishable things about war films is that the action and drama of combat almost never changes. It's blood, guts and glory all the way, particularly when the story is centered during World War II and our brave fighting men in the Pacific. Although it may be hard to grasp the details of this film while you're watching it, the mission is a, more or less, straightforward arrival and departure of American soldiers of an island in the South Pacific with the sole objective of securing a field being held off by the Japanese. The process of achieving their objective is a slow and tedious one, with many human casualties along the way.

What we have to remember here is that while this is essentially a combat film, we're also watching a Terrence Malick drama in which human thoughts and emotions are narrated and felt in conjunction with the horror of war and the salvation of finding peace. When the film opens, life is calm and peaceful for a U.S. Army Private who's gone AWOL from his unit and is living among the carefree Melanesian natives. We hear his thoughts and feel his feelings of joy and contentment, but this last only until he's inevitably found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by his superior sergeant and eventually thrown back into the mix of his unit. The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field and seize the island from the Japanese. Throughout out their ordeal and their fears, the men contemplate the invasion and the meaning of their lives.

Malick's film settings may be considered a virtual "Eden" or a "Paradise Lost", raped and pillaged by the poisons of war. Combat is bloody, to be sure, but very often their are shots in the film that avoid too much gore and perhaps focus more on the explosion of a tree, the shredding of vegetation or perhaps even the close-up of an exotic bird or alligator. The director's unconventional filming styles and techniques include the beauty of a bright, sunny morning within the majestic glory of high trees, or just the simplicity of a tree branch or a parrot.

As a World War II film, THE THIN RED LINE is daring, if not philosophical in its approach to what makes the American soldier tick in a time crisis and uncertainty. It's often confusing, even while it fascinates. The battle scenes are masterful in their own right, though it may evoke similar comparisons to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, as well as Oliver Stone's 1986 Best Picture Oscar winner, PLATOON. Truth, or whatever we wish to consider to be truth, is hardly based on the facts of war, but rather the emotions expressed by the human heart and the mind's wisdom. Out of death and destruction, we're meant to believe and understand that love, life and creation can ultimately grow.

Like THE LONGEST DAY (still my favorite war film, by the way) the players are extensive, while avoiding too much attention to making any particular actor a star of the film. In a cast that includes great actors like Sean Pean, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Ben Chaplin, Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, John Travolta and George Clooney, we may easily take notice of principal players like Penn, Caviezel, Chaplin and Nolte who manage to maintain the perfect tone and rhythm for scenes that may not last more than a minute or two. They're all big stars in our minds, but on the screen and in the jungles, these bright stars may also be interpreted as fallen angels...who just happen to be men who are big stars. It's elements like this that made THE THIN RED LINE (and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) two of the best war films of the 1990s. I didn't truly get sucked into a well-crafted war film like that again until Christopher Nolan's DUNKIRK (2017).

Favorite line or dialogue:

First Sergeant Edward Welsh: "Property! The whole fucking thing's about property!"

THING, THE (1982)

(June 1982, U.S.)

I've said this before, and it looks like I'm about to say it again...as a general rule, I don't care too much for remakes. But I'll also say again that even the strictest of general rules have their exceptions, and every once in a while, a remake comes along that's not only worthy of its original version, but also outsoars it. For my tastes, it seems that many of these exceptions have been in the form of horror that have included titles like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978), DRACULA (1979), THE FLY (1986) and absolutely, positively John Carpenter's THE THING. For all of its popularity and positive feedback today, the film did little to gain attention at the box office with audiences and critics, and that may have had much to do with a squashy, little optimistic alien visitor who just wanted to "phone home". For myself, I didn't see THE THING during the summer of '82, and that was my own fault, because I chose to see the Disney computer film TRON instead with some camp friends one night at a quad movie theater that also offered THE THING.

Set in the present day of 1982, a group of American researchers based in Antarctica, led by R.J. MacReady (played by Kurt Russell) encounter the alien invader who was discovered buried in the ice. Unlike the original film, however, their ill-fated experiences come to them almost by accident. Beginning with a Norwegian helicopter pursuit of a sled dog to their research station, the American witness a Norwegian helicopter passenger gone mad with a rifle, hell-bent on killing the dog. Because of the foreign language, the Americans can never know why the dog is such a threat. The Norwegian is killed, leaving open the great mystery of what took place at the foreign base without investigation. Among the charred ruin and frozen corpses that MacReady and a member of his team discover, they also find the remains of a malformed humanoid which they decide to bring back with them. It's not long before our mysterious sled dog reveals itself to be a victim of alien metamorphoses. This is not only the point where the team discovers just what they're up against, but also where the movie's audiences discovers just how sick and gross THE THING really is. In fact, even to this day, I still watch the film with an unnerving sense of dread in knowing that the alien creature effects continue to be some of the grossest things I've ever seen on film (we can thank effects men Rob Bottin and Stan Winston for that!). In fact, that scene with the defibrillator and arm chomping still makes me cringe...

Amidst the chaos of alien attacks and defense in the form of bullets and flamethrowers, the entire American team is slowly picked off, or shall we say "alienated", drawing parallels from the process of elimination in Ridley Scott's ALIEN or even Agatha Christie's classic tale of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. But even more than the physical attacks and action of THE THING is the psychological paranoia that exists among the men and the horrible reality of not knowing who is, indeed, human and who can be trusted in the midst of the 1980's Cold War era, proving the classic cliché that man is very often his worst enemy. Even when the alien, which we can always physically see, but are never entirely sure of its true identity, is predictably destroyed in the end by a massive explosion that will inevitably lead those left of the team to freeze to death, we still can't be completely sure of whether or not the monster is truly dead yet, especially since it has returned with a vengeance multiple times throughout the film. In the end, it's really just the pleasure of watching Kurt Russell's "I don't give a fuck" attitude as he sits in the snow with a bottle of J&B scotch, watches the camp burn and waits to die. This ending is considered ambiguous and may have even left things open for a sequel at the time (thank goodness, it never happened).

The film never explains or gives much of a motive for its actions, but rather ruthlessly pursues its goal in the name of pure survival, and that also speaks true for the alien creature itself, which attacks, consumes and absorbs as a result of its own fears and paranoia of being a "stranger in a strange land". The men, however, are still considered free-thinking individuals of free will, though that will is easily stripped away when "the thing" enters their lives and quite literally, enters their bodies. Perhaps one of the more optimistic moments of the film amidst the chaos of uncertainty is when MacReady declares to the rest of the men, "I know I'm human!", thus declaring to all of us that we must hold onto whatever optimism of human reason and compassion may remain within these frightened individuals, and remember that it's always better to be human than it is to be an alien imitation. Even the blood test scene of THE THING may invoke the unpleasant memories of the AIDS crisis in the early '80s in determining who was healthy and who was not, thus also determining who would be treated like human beings by those who allowed their fear, paranoia and mistrust to get the better of them.

Favorite line or dialogue:

R.J. MacReady (just before destroying the alien): "Yeah, fuck you, too!"

THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THE

(April 1951, U.S.)

In the catalogs of cinema history, the Cold War of the 1950s ushered in a wave of science fiction films that preyed upon the fears and paranoia of American citizens at the time. Suddenly, the threat of any sort of foreign invasion was on everyone's minds, and on screen, it often came in the form of aliens from other worlds. From THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL to WAR OF THE WORLDS, we were forced to recognize even the remote possibilities that we were not only alone in this universe, but were also subject to potential harm, as well. This was almost perfect for low budget material, or 'B' movies, as they were often called, such as THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD.

This black and white classic tells the story of a United States Air Force crew, scientists and a newspaper reporter stationed in Anchorage, Alaska who discover a crashed flying saucer and humanoid body frozen nearby in the Arctic ice. After inadvertently exploding the spaceship buried in the ice, they unearth the body and return it in a block of ice to their remote research outpost, where they are forced to defend themselves against this mysterious alien when it is accidentally revived from its sleep after an electric blanket is carelessly placed upon the block of ice. Two dogs are killed first, but not before one of them tears the creature's arm off. Upon examining the arm, the head scientist Dr. Carrington (played by Robert Cornthwaite) concludes that the alien is some sort advanced form of plant life with a far superior intelligence to man's, and is determined to communicate with it, even if it means the lives of everyone there.

As members of the crew repeatedly fight off the alien, or "the thing", we're taught what is supposed to educational information regarding plant life and their ability to think. This is sometimes a bit hard to digest, considering the alien looks very much like the form of a man (played by James Arness, who would later star in TV's GUNSMOKE). Taking continuous hits from the crew, including burning from torched kerosene, the creature survives their attacks and retreats before returning to attack again. Mind you, this is the 1950s, so these attacks are no more visually threatening that the creatures appearing at the door, or at worst, a violent swipe with his powerful arm. Regrouping for its final showdown, the crew organizes a plan to sabotage the creature with a rigged "fly trap" of electricity. At the alien's final attack, Dr. Carrington is wounded when he (rather stupidly) attempts to talk to the creature. The thing's demise is a shocking one (no pun intended) as it's reduced to mere ashes in what was surely considered an effective visual climax of electrical destruction...

...and while the alien's invasion can hardly be compared to any sort of global apocalyptic event, we're stilled warned at the end to "keep watching the skies".

By today's standard (and a very superior 1982 remake by John Carpenter), THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD is hardly a scary piece of sci-fi. However, one must consider that back in the 1950s, parents may have had to think twice before allowing their children to see this movie if their emotional fears weren't properly conditioned. Not to suggest that the movie isn't filled with plenty of old fashioned monster fun. Still, even as compared to KING KONG (1933) or the many Universal Pictures monster stories that preceded it, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD may be just another Saturday matinee flying saucer-monster movie. But even if that's all it's limited to, that may not be so bad, just so long as you don't mind watching actor Kenneth Tobey constantly smile at everyone no matter how threatening or perilous thing get. I mean, geez, what the hell is that man always so damn happy about??

Favorite line or dialogue:

Ned Scott: "And now, before giving you the details of the battle, I bring you a warning. Every one of you listening to my voice, tell the world...tell this to everybody, wherever they are...watch the skies...everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies."