Them! is a 1954 black and white science fiction film about man's encounter with a nest of radiation-giganticized ants. It is based on an original story treatment by George Worthing Yates, was developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman and Russell Hughes for Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., which was produced by David Weisbart and directed by Gordon Douglas for the company. It starred James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon and James Arness.
One of the first of the "nuclear monster" movies, and the first "big bug" film, Them! was the biggest moneymaker for Warner's in the year of its release.[citation needed] It was nominated for an Oscar for Special Effects and won a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing.
Plot
The film begins with New Mexico State Police Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore investigating the disappearance of a vacationing FBI agent and his wife, the Ellinsons, after the discovery of their little girl wandering the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico, mute and in a state of shock. After more mysterious deaths and disappearances occur in the area (including that of Peterson's patrol partner, Ed Blackburn, played by Chris Drake), the FBI sends in Ellinson's fellow agent Robert Graham (James Arness) to assist. The Ellinson trailer is found pulled asunder by some great force, with a single strange track near the wreckage. When the FBI is unable to identify the track, they attract the attention of Doctors Harold (Edmund Gwenn) and Pat Medford (Joan Weldon), a father/daughter team of entomologists from the Department of Agriculture.
The elder Doctor Medford arrives on the scene with a theory, but will not disclose it until he tries an experiment on the Ellinson girl, having her smell the contents of a vial of formic acid, which frees her from her state of near-catatonic withdrawal, screaming "Them! Them!" Returning to the destroyed trailer with Peterson, Graham, and his daughter, Medford has his theory dramatically given its final proof when the group encounters a patrol of foraging ants, mutated by atomic radiation to the size of automobiles. The lawmen kill one of the ants with a Thompson submachine gun after finding that their revolvers have little effect. They aimed for the antennae on Medford's advice that they were helpless without them.
A company of the US Air Force is brought in, led by General O'Brien (Stevens), which locates the ants' nest and exterminates the inhabitants with poison gas. The younger Dr. Medford, who accompanied the army into the nest, finds evidence that two young queens have hatched and flown away to establish new colonies. Trying to avoid a general panic, the government covertly monitors and investigates any reports of unusual activities as sightings of "flying saucers". One of the queens ends up in the hold of an ocean-going freighter loaded with sugar, which is then overrun by the ants and subsequently sunk by a US Navy cruiser. From the rantings of an alcoholic, and an investigation into the death of a father protecting his two young, now missing, sons from an apparent ant attack, the other queen is finally tracked to the Los Angeles storm sewer system, forcing the Army to openly declare martial law and launch a major assault. During the assault, Peterson finds the two missing boys alive, trapped by the ants in a sewer tunnel. Peterson heroically rescues the two boys, but fails to escape with them in time, and an ant grabs him in its mandibles and crushes him at the waist. Graham arrives to the scene quickly with reinforcments, and kills the ant attacking Peterson, but Peterson quickly succumbs to his injuries and dies in Graham's arms after confirming that the boys made it to safety. The nest's queen and egg chamber are destroyed with flamethrowers after a short but fierce battle, but the senior Dr. Medford issues a grim warning that the atomic genie has been let out of the bottle, and further horrors may await mankind.
Cast
Other actors who appear in small parts include John Beradino, Willis Bouchey, Booth Colman, Richard Deacon, Lawrence Dobkin, Ann Doran, Leonard Nimoy, Douglas Spencer, Dub Taylor, and Harry Wilson.
When casting his planned Davy Crockett episode of the Disneyland television show, Walt Disney viewed the film to see James Arness who had been recommended for the role. However, Disney was impressed by a brief scene of Fess Parker, detained in a mental institution and insisting that giant flying ants had caused him to crash his plane. Disney realized he had found his Crockett.[1] Arness, however, did well for himself. John Wayne had seen this movie and, impressed with his performance, recommended Arness for the role of Marshall Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, a role which lasted from 1955 to 1975. Wayne himself had turned down the part, but did appear in the pilot episode to introduce Arness.
Production
Opening color title from
Them!, with the background in black and white and the title in color.
When Them! began production in the fall of 1953, it was originally conceived to be in 3-D and WarnerColor. During pre-production, tests were to be shot in color and 3-D. A few color tests were shot of the large-scale ant models, but when it was time to shoot the 3-D test, WB's "All Media" 3-D camera rig malfunctioned and no footage could be filmed. The next day, a memo was sent out that the color and 3-D aspects of the film were to be scrapped, and that black and white and wide-screen would be the preferred format, trying to emulate the "effective shock treatment" of Warners' The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Because of the preparation of certain shots, however, many of the camera set-ups for 3-D still remain, such as the opening titles and flame-throwers that are shot at the camera.[2]
Although WB was dissatisfied with the color results, the opening titles were printed in color against a black and white background to give the opening of the film a "punch". This effect was achieved by an Eastman Color section spliced into each print.[citation needed] The VHS release in 1985, the subsequent laserdisc, and the current DVD release have restored this effect.
The entrance to the ants' final nest was along the concrete spillways of the Los Angeles River between the First and Seventh Street Bridges, east of downtown.
References
- ^ "Uncle John's 4-ply Bathroom Reader." New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.
- ^ Warner Bros. Inter-office memo from Steve Trilling, dated September 24, 1953.
External links
