Although the credits list him as Ken Erickson, and several characters actually refer to him as Ken during the film, at some point, Nichol's character was changed to McPherson. I know there was a Ken Erickson in screenwriter Charles Lederer's first draft of the script and another character named McAuliffe that was eventually dumped, so maybe this is just an amalgamation of characters.

Asking what brings him to the top of the world, Scotty replies that he’s looking for a story -- any story, but General Fogerty is "nursing his secrets like a June Bride." The conversation quickly leads to a discussion of a "picnic party" up north around the North Pole: A group of scientists, led by the famous Dr. Carrington, are up there doing whatever scientists do. Mac and Eddie imply that there is another, more feminine character among them and Hendry can fill in the details. They ride Hendry on this sore spot until he pulls rank and makes them change the subject.

Word comes over the intercom for Hendry to report to Fogerty's office. As he leaves, Scotty asks to be let in if it amounts to anything. Reporting as ordered, Hendry is briefed over a message from the research party -- and even Fogerty (David McMananon) manages to get in a barb in about this mystery women. Something big has crashed near the outpost, so they're requesting military assistance to investigate further. Fearing the Russians might be up to something, Fogerty intends to send Hendry and his crew and begrudgingly gives permission to bring Scotty along for the ride -- as long as Hendry promises to maroon the nosey reporter up there...

* * * *

Wohoo! My 50th review! 

Now, the selection for this particular honor was really quite simple. When people ask me what's the worst movie I've ever seen, I usually answer with something cryptic like: Define 'the worst?' But when people ask what's your favorite movie of all time, the answer is simple:

Back in 1987, I received the greatest Christmas present ever. Nope, not peace on Earth -- I got me a VHS VCR. After five frustrating years of putting up with a Betamax, I finally threw off the yoke of the non-wireless remote control and joined the modern age. Thank you, Santa! (The whole sad and sordid affair is gone into greater detail in my It Came From Hollywood review.) Being the B-Movie freak that I was -- and still am, I immediately headed to the local video store and dove into the treasure trove of VHS titles. My first buy: The Thing from Another World.

I've lost count of how many times I've actually watched the film since, and this is the first review I've ever written without having to take any notes. With the entire film committed to memory, I didn't need to. From Dimitri Tiomkin's creepy theramin score over the dissolving opening credits to Ned Scott's famous final warning, this film defies all genre boundaries and is pure cinema gold. Don't believe me? Read on...

On the flight to the compound, we’re introduced to the rest of Pat’s crew: Sgt. Bob and Cpl. Barnes (Dewey Martin and William Self). While trying to fill Scotty in on the more intimate details of Hendry’s disastrous encounter with the mystery girl, they're interrupted by a call from the outpost: It seems there’s some kind of magnetic disturbance that's making the compass very unreliable, so they have to home in on the outpost’s radio signal. When they arrive, we get the feeling that they've all been here before. All the scientist are friendly folks, and Scotty starts asking if anyone knows what really crashed into the ice. Hendry leaves to check in with Carrington, and Eddie and Mac try and go with him -- they want to give the mystery woman the what for over the way they treated their Captain. Promising to get even someday, Hendry heads on alone. Taking a detour from the lab, he heads to a small office and knocks on the door, and then we finally get to meet our Mystery Girl: Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan). Trading barbs over their first date, Hendry is a little foggy on all the details, but he knows he made a fool of himself, and asks if they can just start over. She’s says it will have to wait because Carrington needs to see him right away.

From what we can piece together, on the group's last trip to the outpost, Hendry talked Nikki into returning with them to Anchorage for a night on the town. Turns out Hendry can't handle his liquor, and Nikki wound up drinking him under the table, and then helped him back to the barracks, and out of his clothes, and into bed. Leaving a note on his chest complimenting him on his hairy legs, Nikki took the next cargo plane back to the outpost. Others saw the note before Hendry woke up and now the whole Air-Corps is laughing at him. Ain't that cute? On with the review!

Leading him to the lab, we meet Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornwaithe) and several other scientists (including Paul Frees -- the voice of Boris Badenov, and George Fennerman -- Groucho Marx’s straight man on What’s My Line.) The doctor tells Hendry that whatever crashed weighed around twenty-thousand tons. Hendry assumes it was just a meteor, but then they show him pictures where the "meteor" made a sharp left turn. So either it defied all the laws of physics, or it isn’t a meteor.

The other scientists try to explain how they computated the precise point of impact, but Hendry is quickly lost in the techno-babble. One jump cut later, we’re back in the plane as they fly over to the crash site. As they get closer, the faulty compass gets even faultier and the Geiger Counter starts flashing and pinging. They land the plane and make their way toward the source of the radiation, and whatever it was, it came in at an angle, skidded along the icy surface generating enough heat to melt through the icecap and then promptly sank. As it cooled, the ice refroze, and what appears to be an air-foil, jutting out of the ice, is the only thing visible. Everyone is getting the sense that whatever is buried under the ice isn't local, and this is confirmed when they slowly spread out and determine the craft's circular shape.

After a brief, yet tantalizing pause, the company realizes they've found an intact flying saucer. Wanting to report the discovery of the century, Scotty wants to radio in, but until he gets clearance from a higher authority, Hendry won't let him, which pisses Scotty off to no end. Hendry and his men pack thermite charges all over the ice. In theory, the compound will melt the ice in about 30-seconds. They ignite the explosives but something goes wrong: The craft starts burning under the ice, and then it explodes. When the smoke clears there is no trace of the radiation or the ship, just a smoldering hole in the ice. (They blew it up real good.)

While Scotty scolds them for turning the greatest discovery "into a 4^th of July piece," Bob’s Geiger-Counter starts ticking again. Following the readings, he leads them to something else buried in the ice -- and it looks like a man. After the thermite disaster, they use picks and axes to chop the "pilot" out of the ice. And they have to hurry because a nasty storm is on its way. (He said ominously.) Winding up with a giant ice-cube with the alien still frozen inside, they quickly load him up and fly the whole thing back to camp.

All they can do now is sit tight and wait, and Hendry and Nikki take the opportunity to start over, resulting in a truly funny scene where he allows her to tie his hands together just in case he loses control like he did on the first date. As their romance heats up, Barnes takes over guard duty. Keeping the room frigid to maintain the ice, Barnes bundles up and accidentally places and electric blanket over the ice-block so he doesn’t have to look at the ugly critter inside. Amazingly, it melts the ice without either shorting out or Barnes noticing. (He is wearing thick ear muffs, and he is reading with his back to the ice block, so I guess this is plausible.)

Completely defrosted, the Thing (James Arness -- yep, Marshall Dillon is in two of my favorite films. This and THEM!) wakes up, and wakes up cranky. Barnes finally hears him, and is so frightened, he fires his gun at the monster, emptying the whole clip, but it has no effect -- so he runs away as fast as his legs will carry him. Finding the others in the cafeteria, Barnes warns them the Thing is alive and on the loose. Arming themselves, the air-men return to the storeroom -- but find it empty. Outside, they hear the sled-dogs barking up a storm. Through the broken window they watch as several dogs maul and savage the alien. Fighting back, the creature kills several animals and then disappears into the blowing and blinding snow. Donning their thermal gear, the air-men head out, and among the dead dogs, they find the Thing's severed arm.

They bring the arm inside, and after the scientists run several tests on it, determine that the creature is more vegetable than animal. With no veins or muscle structure, they also discover what appear to be seed pods imbedded under its claws. Carrington loves the idea: A vegetable would have no emotions to cloud its judgment, making it "our superior -- our superior in everyway." 

You have to ask: Are we supposed to think Carrington is some kind of Commie? I don’t think so. Honest. He’s so involved with improving mankind’s knowledge quotient that he has no time for politics. Back to the review, comrades!

Scotty can’t quite believe his spiel, but promises his readers will when he’s done with the story: "A killer carrot from space? The mind boggles."

Time passes and the storm worsens. A search party returns, but the only thing they managed to do was flush out a polar bear. While they warm up in the cafeteria, a severally injured Dr. Stern stumbles in and collapses. After some applied smelling salts, Stern (Eduard France) tells them he was in the greenhouse with two others, when the Thing broke in and attacked them. Stern stumbled out of the way, fell, and hit his head, and when he came to, he saw the others hanging upside down from the ceiling with their throats cut. He then managed to sneak out without the Thing seeing him.

Barricading both doors shut, the Thing is trapped for now. Hendry then confronts Carrington about what he allowed to happen, and then confines him to his quarters until the crisis is resolved. Gathering some of his colleagues into his private lab -- including Nikki, his personal secretary -- Carrington has something he wants to show them: Taking the seeds from the severed hand, he planted them in some dirt, then saturated it with blood raided from the infirmary, and now the seed-pods have finally sprouted. He lets the others listen to the pulsing plant bulbs with a stethoscope, and it sounds like a mewling newborn -- that's hungry. Obviously, Carrington has started to come off his spool a little. Hoping he has enough blood to finish the job, the other scientists begin to question his motives. The Thing is obviously doing the same thing in the greenhouse, and what if it came to Earth not to visit, but to conquer? Was it sent here to grow an army? (So was it our good fortune that he crashed in the arctic?) Carrington doesn’t buy it: In science, there is only phenomenon to study. And this phenomenon must be seen through to the end. 

Sickened by the display, Nikki asks to leave. Carrington tells her to transcribe his notes, and to let no one see them. As she types them up, Hendry stops by for a visit. Confused that the injured Dr. Stern was given a blood transfusion, Hendry knows he delivered 35-units of plasma the last time he flew supplies in and wants to know what’s become of it. Telling him to take a swing at her chin to mask her betrayal, she shows him Carrington’s private notes. When he's finished reading, he thanks her for not stopping him. Nikki asks him to go easy on Carrington because he hasn’t slept since they found the Thing, and he isn’t thinking right -- acting like a kid with a new toy. As he leaves, Hendry warns that this toy is liable to bite him.

After raiding Carrington’s nursery, Hendry chastises him for his foolish actions as do most of the other scientists who are no longer on Carrington's side. Dr. Chapman (John Dierkes) reads him the riot act, saying the Thing is obviously multiplying itself in a similar fashion in the greenhouse, so for their safety, and for the safety of the world, the Thing must be destroyed. A message from Fogerty finally gets through, saying to take whatever action is necessary to protect themselves but to take no action to harm the alien. Vindicated, Carrington gloats that Hendry can't disobey a direct order, but Hendry tells him he can testify to that fact at his court-martial. But all he can really do is try to get Fogerty to change his mind.

More time passes, and as the weather worsens, they have to drop the guard on the outside door of the greenhouse. Hendry and his men congregate in their barracks. Nikki brings in some coffee, and they discuss what they can do to fight the Thing since a gun has no effect. Scotty asks the 64-dollar question: "What do you do with a vegetable?" Nikki’s answers are simple: "Boil it? Stew it? Bake it? Fry it?" (Genius.) Bob hits upon the idea to douse it with kerosene and then set it on fire. It’s the only idea they have, so they start to gather buckets just as the Geiger Counter starts to tick and flicker, which can only mean the Thing is on the move. While Nikki reads the rising radiation levels, the others scramble to set up an ambush. When the detector pegs out, the monster breaks in. After Barnes and Eddie douse it, Mac fires a flare gun and the Thing goes up in flames. Dousing it again, the monster goes berserk and soon the whole room is a raging inferno. Fighting it off, the Thing jumps out of a window and disappears into the snow.

Their barracks destroyed, the combatants limp into the cafeteria. Gathering up more kerosene and some fire extinguishers, and not wanting the burn the whole complex down, they plan to go after it -- hopefully outside. Dr. Redding (Fennerman) suggests that instead of kerosene, they use electricity. Bob loves the idea: If they can rig an electric flytrap and lure him into it, they can flash-fry the Thing to a crisp. Again, the hopeless Hendry is quickly lost by the technical aspects of the plan, so he wisely just gets out of the way. Work commences, but they begin to notice a notable drop in the temperature. A quick check of all the heaters finds they're not getting any oil. Knowing the Thing is behind the sabotaging, they'll have to hurry before it freezes them out. Nikki is the one who realizes that it will probably go after the electricity next, so they all hole up in the generator room. 

While rigging up the trap in the hallway leading to the generator, Carrington tries to plead with them one more time to not kill the alien, but they stopped listening to him a long time ago. The trap completed all they can do is wait, and they don't have to wait for very long. The Thing crashes into the hallway and stalks toward them, when suddenly, the lights conk out. Nikki warns that Carrington managed to get hold of a gun and shut off the generator. Sending Eddie and Mac to hold the monster off, Hendry leads the others back to try and get the power back on. Luckily, Carrington is quickly overpowered, and as the generator slowly cranks back up, he breaks away and runs to the alien, imploring to its higher intelligence to recognize him as a man of science who only wants to tap into his vast intellect. But the Thing is sick of his spiel, too, and violently knocks him to the side. Before it can do anymore damage, Hendry and his men lure the creature away from him and closer to their trap. Finally working the Thing into place Hendry throws the switch, and the creature is caught in the electrical arc that slowly burns it down to a crispy cinder.

The character of Dr. Carrington alludes to this change, saying their creature is as different from us as one pole to the other. And from the plot description The Thing From Another World sounds like a typical cheesy 1950s sci-fi clunker, but what sets it apart is its well-defined characters, eerie atmosphere, incredible dialogue, and intriguing -- and often hilarious subplots. And remember, if it sounds familiar, realize this one came first. Every character in the film, no matter how small, has his or her own little endearing eccentricities or quirks. Watch as Hendry, the stalwart leader, is reduced to babbling idiot whenever he’s around Nikki. And how the always helpful Bob won’t allow Hendry to ever have the last word. And then there's the great camaraderie among Hendry’s crew, who constantly crack wise and make fun of each other (mostly Hendry.) Scotty is definitely quirky duck, too. He has a snide remark for everything, but is always there to help pitch in. (Spenser takes this role and runs with it brilliantly.) But there is no odder duck in this film than Dr. Carrington, who is so obsessed with the discovery that he doesn’t realize the inherent danger of his actions. (The original "I’m not evil just misguided" scientist.)

In fact, there really isn't a whole lot of difference between Hendry and Carrington when you think about. Both are capable men in their fields, yet they both defer to others if it isn't their particular field of expertise. They only differ where Carrington will pursue knowledge no matter what the consequence, while Hendry realizes some knowledge must be sacrificed for security. In this film, Hendry is right and Carrington's wrong. Here the military is in the right and science is in wrong, something that would change drastically as the genre progressed into the late 1960's and beyond.

We all know there's been a heated argument over the years as to who really directed the film. Was it Hawks, or his long time film-editor Christian Nyby. Put me in the camp that believes Hawks directed it and gave the credit to Nyby so he could get his union credentials. Tobey, Arness and other cast members have stated that Nyby might have been director, but Hawks was the one really in charge. For a modern equivalent, think of Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper in Poltergeist.

It really smells like a Hawk’s film: A group of professionals must band together in an isolated area to fight off some threat; strong female characters with definite masculine qualities (notice her name is Nikki, a derivative of her last name Nicholson. We never find out what her first name is); and overlapping, rapid-fire dialogue that will take several viewings to fully absorb. Now are we talking about Rio Bravo, or The Thing?

Even today, new rumors are circulating that Orson Wells was involved in the film to add punch to the dialogue. Whoever it was, they did a masterful job. (If you listen closely, there are some real gems.) It isn’t completely spelled out for you, but you can basically piece together what happened on Hendry and Nikki’s first disastrous date, and I love the way his men deride him constantly over this.

Now, can someone please explain to me why this film is not out on DVD yet and out of print? You can’t find it to buy anywhere, and if you do, you have to be careful because there are two different versions circulating around. Turner’s "40th Anniversary" edition is only 81 minutes long and is missing almost 6 minutes of the movie. (Whenever it's on TNT or TBS it is also butchered beyond recognition and in computerized color. Yuck.) This may not seem like much, but the missing scenes are usually the romantic interludes which help elevate this film far above it’s B-movie brethren. 

2001 is the 50^th Anniversary of The Thing from Another World, so could someone, anyone, please get the full-length film out on DVD. PLEASE! My old VidAmerica copy is all but worn out, and then I'm totally screwed.

My wish was finally granted as of September '03! Wohoo!

The Thing from Another World is perfect. It has a perfect cast; it has a perfect score; it’s wonderfully paced and nothing is wasted; it’s funny, witty, scary, action-packed, gruesome (mostly implied), and by god, it’s even romantic. And that's what strikes me most about this film -- how funny it is. Not campy, but genuinely funny. Seek this movie. Find this movie. Watch this movie. And you will love this movie, too. Trust me.

Keep watching the skies. Everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!

Posted: 02/22/01. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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