From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 24 16:19:36 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Them! (1954) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 21 Aug 1999 16:37:50 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 108 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7pmkku$uu2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 935253470 31682 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #20120 Keywords: author=schwartz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:19322 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2433 THEM! (director: Gordon M. Douglas; screenwriters: story by George Worthing Yates, Russell S. Hughes/Ted Sherdeman; cinematographer: Sidney Hickox; cast: James Whitmore (Sgt. Ben Peterson), Edmund Gwenn (Dr. Harold Medford), Joan Weldon (Dr. Patricia Medford), James Arness (Robert Graham), Onslow Stevens (Brig. Gen. O'Brien), Chris Drake (Officer Ed Blackburn), Fess Parker (Crotty), Sandy Descher (The Ellison Girl), Olin Howland (Jensen), 1954) Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz One of the better sci-fi'ers to emerge from the 1950s. This one was has ants that have become mutants because of the radiation from atomic bomb tests in 1945, White Sands, New Mexico. They have reached giant proportions between 8-to-20-feet, and are attacking people at night, during the day the bright light and intense heat bothers them, so they remain in their nest. The only part of the film that is in color, is the red letters of the title. The action starts off in melodramatic form, as a traumatized five year old girl (Sandy Descher) is picked up by Sergeant Ben Peterson (Whitmore) and Officer Ed Blackburn (Drake), as she is walking in the desert. Soon they discover a trailer with the girl's dead parents, and unusual footprints that no one can determine what it is and the trailer smashed by a terrible force. No money is taken, only sugar. Go figure its ants that did this! So you can't blame Sgt. Peterson for leaving his state highway partner Blackburn to watch the general store that was destroyed, with Gramp's murdered body, as he goes back to interview the girl who is too petrified to speak, hoping to get her to tell him what happened. The ants do their thing with the officer, as soon as Peterson leaves him. This lays a guilt trip on the sergeant, even though his precinct captain tells him he followed procedures and did the right thing. Since the girl's father was a F.B.I. agent on vacation, this makes it a federal crime and the F.B.I. is called in to investigate, in the person of, Bob Graham (James Arness). When Graham sends the footprint to the F.B.I. lab, they send them father-and-daughter entomologists Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and Dr. Patricia Medford (Joan Weldon). She departs from the plane showing us her pretty calves, as she comes down the ladder, this is enough for her to get agent Graham's attention for the remainder of the film. Now Dr. Medford is a real ornery character, in a rush to get started in investigating his theory to the cause of the deaths. But first they revive the comatose girl with a concoction of folic acid, as she awakens startled and frightened out of her wits yelling, "It's THEM." Back to the desert and a sand storm at night for the cops and scientists, as Pat is attacked by one of the giant ants and we hear the frightening cricketlike sounds they make, which is the language they use to communicate with each other. Dr. Medford directs the cops to kill the ant by destroying its antenna, thereby it can't see and loses control. He also tells them we got a national crises on our hands, as air force intelligence General O'Brien (Onslow) enter the crime scene, with Dr. Medford telling him that this has to be kept top secret or else there will be a panic in the country. What ensues is a story relating both to a biblical prophesy (the world will be destroyed) and to a science gone amok (radiation will destroy the world). Under Dr. Medford's direction the ant's nest is spotted and bombed with cyanide and sprayed with flame throwers, but two queen ants escape and fly off undetected, as Dr. Medford explains that this could be the end of mankind if these ants are not destroyed immediately. They could give birth to thousands of ants and their strength is 20 times their weight, which means they could lift a ton; also, they are very dangerous because they are the only animals other than man who are capable of making war. One queen ant is spotted by a pilot (Fess Parker) in Texas, who thinks he saw a UFO in the form of a giant ant flying, but is locked up in a mental ward so the secret could be kept from the public. Soon one of the queen ants attacks a naval ship and is destroyed, which leaves one remaining. A patient (Olin Howland) in an asylum, sees them entering the sewer system in Los Angeles, as he comically keeps telling the military people questioning him about what he sees, as he keeps saying the following refrain: "make me a sergeant and give me the booze!" It is these constant little touches throughout the film, more so than the special effects, that make this film come to life. The film ends in fast-paced action after hitting a long stretch of tedium, as the public is finally alerted to the dangers and the army goes into the Los Angeles sewers to get the queen ant. By now 2 months has elapsed since the first ants were spotted and there are scores of other ants in the sewers. The only catch to the army attacking them, is that two little boys are in there and it becomes a moral dilemma whether they should lose their lives for the greater concern of the masses or should someone try to rescue them, risking the chance that some ants might escape. It is decided that Sergeant Peterson should go in first and try to rescue the children, which he does heroically, giving up his life to get the kids to safety, as an ant crushes him. This film was intelligently presented, the special effects were effective enough, and the cast, especially Edmund Gwenn, all provided fine performances, all this adding up to a really decent and subtle film. REVIEWED ON 8/17/99 GRADE: B Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" http://www.sover.net/~ozus ozus@sover.net © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ