Michael Gambon 1940-2023

 

Them 1954

 

Those nasty big old giant ants are on the move in this low budget Sci-Fi movie from 1954. I first saw it as a 7 year old at my neighborhood RKO theatre and it scared me big time, especially the opening scene of the little girl roaming the desert alone, lost and about to be found by two New Mexico state troopers one played by the well known supporting actor James Whitmore.

One of the first sci fi horror movies to put the blame on the horror and destruction of our planet on the Atomic Bomb and the nuclear fallout that followed which caused insects to grow huge or humans to shrink to almost nothing, you can say that this Them then set the gold standard for this sort of nightmare stocking stuffer..

Whitmore and his partner played by Chris Drake come across the remains of the little girls family vacation trailer which is really messed up with nothing missing except sugar, hint hint and the family. There are also weird sounds filling the desert landscape so off they go looking for more clues after putting the kid played by the child star of the 50's Sandy Descher in the hospital where she sits in a comatose state.

Whitmore and Drake then move on to Gramps Johnson's general store where they find his dead body and a lot more destruction including more sugar gone missing hint hint. Finally after another death, the FBI is called and in walks hunk James Arness fresh from playing the thing in “The Thing”and a few years away from fame for playing Marshall Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke on t.v. Also called in are two myrmecolgists otherwise known as ant experts.They are a father and daughter team played by Edmund “Santa Claus” Gwenn and Joan Weldon who deals with the usual misogynistic remarks from Arness who doubts that she can figure this strangeness out. She of course does, and also manages some good old 50's flirting with him.

The giant ants. In 1954 these giant creatures scared me, in 2023 they made me smile and giggle. They have a hand made look, sort of making them look like giant pinatas, hit them and things will fall out of them, probably lots of little ants. And until these lumbering puppets make their awkward appearance on the desert landscape the suspense and unknown horror was palpable. But that didn't stop the Oscars from nominating it for special effects, losing out to the color and much more elaborate effects in Disney's “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.”


The cast is full of character actors some known to me only by appearance and some that I knew by name, like Richard Deacon, Lawrence Dobkin, Ann Doran and Dub Taylor. There is also Fess Parker in a small but stand out role as a pilot who comes across the giant queen ants flying by his plane and is promptly committed to a psycho ward and was a year or two from fame for playing Davy Crockett on t.v .and look for an uncredited young Leonard Nemoy in a brief walk on as an army sergeant and Dick York as a teenager,which he was at the time.

It all comes to an end when its discovered that those two giant queen ants that Parker saw flying by his plane are on their way to Los Angles to start a colony in the underground flood control tunnels there and are holding two young boys who have been reported missing by their distraught mom. Being motherly themselves, the queens seem to spare the children, maybe not enough meat on them bones while devouring the adults. Competently directed by Gordon Douglas, a jack of all genres and photographed by Sid Hickox who began his career in 1916 and knew his way around black and white cinematography filming among many others, To Have And Have Not, The Big Sleep, White Heat and Dark Passage at Warner Bros.

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