Friday, March 22, 2024

The Thing from Another World (1951)

The Thing from Another World (1951)

starring Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite
directed by Christian Nyby

87 minutes

Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) leads a team of soldiers near the North Pole who investigate the crash of what turns out to be a UFO. Trapped in the ice they find a humanoid shape. They bring the humanoid shape, trapped in a block of ice, back to the research station which reported the crash. 

The attempts to keep the block of ice frozen are undone when a soldier covers it with a blanket. A creature emerges from the block of ice. The soldiers and scientists at the frozen research station soon learn that the creature is more vegetable than animal and that it feeds on blood. 

Dr. Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite), the scientist in charge of the research station, is eager to study the creature. His attempts to do so put him in conflict with Captain Hendry. Dr. Carrington’s secret plans to continue his studies on the creature, even after it has proven to be dangerous, to the point of having killed two of the scientists who work for him, are revealed to Captain Hendry by Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan), Carrington’s secretary, who is in love with Captain Hendry.

Thoughts

There is some dispute as to who really directed this movie. It was the first movie that (director) Christian Nyby directed but (producer) Howard Hawks is thought by some to have heavy handedly guided the making of the movie. 

This movie is laughably bad in places but was still fun to watch. Robert Cornthwaite stole the show with every scene in which he demonstrated Dr. Carrington’s extreme dedication to his work. This is definitely not a must see but some people will probably enjoy it, possibly more than me. I have not seen the 1982 remake which John Carpenter directed.

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