WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Thing from Another World 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.200 This episode of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind Radio 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.039 Hour is brought to you by Thermite. If you need 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.520 a high temperature burst of heat, then this pyrotechnic composition 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:17.759 of metal powder and metal oxide is for you. Metal refining, fireworks, munitions, 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.320 burning through the ice to retrieve down spaceships and alien beings. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.280 Thermite does it all. Thermite asked for it by name. 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:35.600 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:46.080 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.880 Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's finally time 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.440 on the Weird House Cinema podcast to cover the Thing. No, 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.120 not that the Thing, not the one you're thinking of, 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:02.040 the horror classic, the other the Thing, the Thing from 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.280 another world. Yes, uh this Uh. This is a film 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.480 that I had never seen prior to this week, and 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.679 I think part of it was because John carpenter two film. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.720 The Thing is just this, this masterpiece of science fiction 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.040 and horror for so many of us. It's it's visceral 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.840 but intelligent. It's it's well acted, it's effectively scored, it 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:25.640 makes great use of sets and locations, and of course 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:31.800 just features a bounty of legendary and grotesque practical effects, totally, 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.720 without a doubt, an absolute masterpiece, one of the best 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.959 horror movies ever made. Can't say enough good stuff about 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.120 Carpenter's The Thing. Yeah, from from the effects to the 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:45.200 acting to the music, it's just it's pretty much pitch perfect. 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:47.960 But of course, one of the things we always have 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.080 to remind ourselves, especially perhaps if we're becoming getting a 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.280 little too judgmental about remakes and reboots and so forth, 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.560 is because I have to remind myself of this is 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.480 that John Carpenter's The Thing is also essentially a remake 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.520 or a reboot, if you will, based on the story 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.480 Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr. Um an 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.480 author from like the sci fi so called you know, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:16.000 Pulp Golden Age, and Carpenter's film is the second official 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.600 adaptation of this story, but the first is the film 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.720 we're talking about here today, n The Thing from Another World. 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.160 I had also never seen this movie in full before, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.520 though I had seen some scenes from it, and I 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.880 had seen it because it is briefly featured on a 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:37.360 television in John Carpenter's Halloween. Oh that's right, I forgot 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.639 about that. Yeah, one of the kids who's being babysat 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.480 is is watching it. I think he's I think maybe 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.800 he's not quite old enough for this movie. So this 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.200 is a film I've always known this was around. I 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.919 you know, at some point, after being exposed to Carpenter's 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.960 The Thing, I learned about this older version and maybe 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.480 I would even occasionally see it in the schedule or 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.200 catch part of it on like Turner Classic Movie vis 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.760 or something. But I never sat down and watched it. Uh. 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.200 And we'll get into some of the reasons why. But 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.280 basically they all rolled down to me thinking, oh, this this, 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.840 this film is a modern film. I don't want to 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:16.440 see this earlier like proto Thing vision. I'm gonna stick 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:21.000 with perfection. But then I was looking through Michael Weldon's 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.680 in the author of the Psychotronic Video and Film Guides. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:26.720 I was looking at his right up on first on 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.560 John Carpenter's The Thing, which was glowing and you know, 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.000 and says, oh, you know, this is this is a 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.320 wonderful grotesque monsters film. Not surprised that he would he 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.480 would love that one. But of course Weldon is also 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.760 a fan of older genre films as well, and I 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.720 was reading this really high praise for this nineteen fifty 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.240 one film, talking about it having intelligent dialogue and a 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:52.040 strong female lead, and so that that really got me thinking, well, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.560 maybe I should give this a look. You know, the 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.120 strong female lead being sort of doubly interesting because on 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.200 one hand, it's nineteen fifty one, You don't you know 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.360 that you don't necessarily think of this being the of 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.240 this being the era of strong female leads. And then 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.800 also you think about John Carpenter's adaptation, and there are 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.080 no women in it at all. It's an entirely male cast. Yeah, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.120 and Carpenter's version, the all male cast of characters somehow 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.599 fits the miserable bleakness of the Antarctic base in the movie. 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.440 But I would say that having watched it now, I 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.520 know what Michael Weldon is talking about, though um, I don't. 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.960 I think it might be slightly overselling Margaret Sheridan's role 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.360 in the movie, though she is fantastic and I really 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.520 like her character. She does a great job with it. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.159 But I was expecting her to be the main character 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.360 of the movie based on this, which she is not. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.440 But in her scenes she is great. Yeah, and we'll 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.680 we'll get into this a bit later. It basically comes 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.560 down to this idea of the Hawksian woman, and we'll 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.880 you'll find out what that means. But in terms of 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.320 differences between the Thing and the Thing from Another World, 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.599 I think we're sort of burying the lead because the 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.920 one major way in which the Thing from Another World 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:06.480 ninety one differs from Carpenter's movie is that the original 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.359 film does not involve impersonation. People who are familiar with 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.800 Carpenter's movie will remember the main thing about it is 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:18.360 that the alien can assume the forms of the humans 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.160 or the animals that it kills. So it is this uh, 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:26.040 this polymorphous being that can that can sort of uh 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.080 sample the tissue of an organism it comes into contact with, 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.560 and then make its own body into a copy of 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:37.000 that being, which is a wonderful plot device. The central 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.720 mechanic of of Carpenter's movie gives rise to the paranoia 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.960 that doesn't really exist in the original or maybe there 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.000 is a kind of sense of paranoia, but it's powered 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.200 by different factors that I want to discuss in more 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.360 detail as we go on. But in this movie, the 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.320 Thing is simply a big, hulking alien that thaws out 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.839 of a block of ice and then attacks the base 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.960 where where all the characters are stationed. It doesn't assume 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.680 the form of anyone if you're actually able to get 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:05.599 a good look at it, which you're not really in 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.520 the movie, And in fact, that's a really good thing 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.000 about the movie. The movie obscures the form of the 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.640 monster for for most of the runtime in a highly 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.760 effective way. But if you were able to get a 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.080 really good, well lit, uh gander at it, it just 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.120 looks kind of like James r. Ness in a big 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.359 creepy Frankenstein makeup and space suit. Yeah. And this was 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.640 a huge reason why I had never checked out the 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:32.599 film before, because I'd see that that famous publicity shot 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:37.200 of James Arnez in the Thing costume, and I would think, well, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.200 that that looks kind of lame. I don't really want 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.520 to see a movie about that, especially when John Carpenter's 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.240 version of it is this amorphous, ultimately formless thing that 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:51.839 takes on just a number of just grotesque and shifting forms. Yeah. 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:53.800 And in fact, I mean I've said this on the 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.919 show before. I think one big mistake a lot of 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.320 horror movies make is letting you get two of a 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.039 look at the monster. I mean, horror movies should be 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.200 sparing in in letting you see the monster. Is it's good, 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.480 it's good to heighten the tension and make it more 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.280 mysterious by usually keeping the monster off screen. I'd say 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.840 Carpenters the Thing is a movie that breaks that rule 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.880 to great effect. You get tons of great shots of 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.120 the monster and it looks fantastic. So you know, if 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.800 you're the kind of the thing about rules with artistic 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.120 media is is you have to obey the rule unless 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.960 it's just really good anyway. Um, but but yeah, I 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.520 know what you're talking about. With the way the monster 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:36.400 looks in this movie. This is a major thing I 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.960 wanted to talk about. I was shocked how scary the 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.040 creature was in this movie. H And I really mean that, 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:49.160 like movies of this era are I I really appreciate them, 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.840 but they're rarely viscerally disturbing on a visual level to 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.520 modern audiences. And that's not a knock on them. And 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.040 in fact, like at the time, they might have had 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.120 people fainting in the aisles, are falling out of their 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:05.080 cars that drive in, but makeup effects from before roughly 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.320 the I don't know. The seventies or so, I think 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.320 rarely pack a strong punch with audiences today, we've just 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.480 sort of standards have been updated, and so even if 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.920 the way Boris Karloff looked in his Frankenstein makeup was 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.200 was terrifying to people at the time, I think it 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.640 looks beautiful. I think it looks amazing. I love to 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.920 look at it, but I don't find it really really terrifying. 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.800 And I would say that the baseline monster in this 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.360 movie is no exception to that rule that if you 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.600 just look at the makeup effects of the time, they're 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.400 usually not going to pack a very strong punch. If 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.920 you look at well lit still photographs of of James Arness, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.000 the the actor who plays the monster in the Thing, 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.920 in his alien makeup and costume for the movie, I 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.320 think he looks goobery. He just looks kind of like 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.880 a like an EGA guy. He looks like Frankenstein, sort 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:55.960 of in a in a in a space, in a jumpsuit, 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.560 and yet somehow on the screen, within the narrative, he 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.160 is so much more than that. This is a movie 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:08.040 monster that benefits immensely from really strong staging, lighting and 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.360 camera work. More so than makeup effects. So most of 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.000 the time you see the monster in the movie, his 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:18.600 appearances sudden or brief or obscured in some way. So 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.440 maybe the characters are looking out at him through frosted 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.080 glass on a snow field, or he or somebody opens 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.640 a door and he suddenly reaches out through it as 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.120 they try to slam it shut, or he's just a 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.200 menacing silhouette at the end of the corridor, you know, 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.800 and his features are covered in shadow. So really hats 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.360 off to the team that came up with the staging 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.360 for all these scenes and the lighting and the framing 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.079 and all that, because even though the makeup effects kind 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.040 of fall short, the monster on screen within the narrative 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:51.160 looks wonderful. He's really frightening. Absolutely, Like, for instance, in 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.560 the movie, you never get a sense that this character 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.880 is wearing partially ragged space pajamas, but if you look 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.760 at the still, you're like, those are space pajamas, clearly. Yeah. Yeah, 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.720 So they took a kind of goober Frankenstein and turned 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:10.280 him into this truly menacing being really excellent excellent filmmaking technique. Well, 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.960 I'd like to get into this more. Let's go ahead 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.200 and just give give the basic elevator pitch of the plot, 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:18.800 especially for people who you know, did they just know 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.160 the Carpenter version. They maybe don't know how much in 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.080 common this one has with that film, aside from the 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.520 details of the monster. Okay, well, maybe I'll do the 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.920 straight elevator pitch first, and then we'll see if we 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.440 have any variations on it. The straight plot description, I 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.560 would say is a mysterious object from space crashes near 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.679 a remote Arctic research base. When a team of scientists 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.880 and military men go to investigate, they find a humanoid 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.440 body frozen in the ice, and they have to bring 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.160 it back to the base with them, And I guess 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:55.079 you just better hope it doesn't throw out. I like that. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.200 Let's let's go ahead and listen to a little bit 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:06.800 of that trailer audio. M the thing from another world. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.200 This is the spot where it was first seen. And 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.720 these are the first people who saw the thing. How 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.800 did it get here? Where did it come from? What 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.880 is it that people that I saw it? I shot 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.160 it and and I hit it. I know it. Nothing happened 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.080 to a clear, immediate noise like I can't hear. Captain. 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.400 It was awful. You could see those hands and those eyes, 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:31.760 and you've got it to tell me about it? You can't. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:39.319 Is it human or inhuman? Earthly or unearthly? Baffling questions, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:44.120 astounding questions that not even the world's greatest scientific minds 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.679 can answer. Gentlemen, do you realize what we've found being 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.760 from another world is different from us, is one pole 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.280 from the other if we can only communicate with it? 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.120 All right? So I want to come back to something 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.400 you were just talking about, and that was the idea 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.920 of doors opening. So yes, the the research base in 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:06.840 this movie feels it's more or less in keeping with 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.840 the spirit that Carpenter had in his version of the film. 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.640 You know, there are these a lot of these long corridors, 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:18.319 their doorways, separating different sections of it. Everything feel it 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.800 doesn't feel supermodern. It feels very very rough in places. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.080 There's this idea that outside of this compound there's just 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:30.680 frozen death awaiting any creature, and it's inside that we 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:35.839 have this slim, artificial version of of life, sustaining temperatures. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.960 And that makes actually for a killer twist later in 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.839 the movie where you haven't even really been thinking about 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.200 this while they're coming up all these different ways of 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.720 battling the thing. The thing is sort of laying siege 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.120 to the humans in the base, and then at a 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.319 certain point they're like, oh no, somebody turned off the heaters. Yeah. 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.120 So it's a wonderful set piece in which to engage 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.600 with this monster. But one of the things that it's 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.720 I was really taken by watching it it's just how 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.439 scary all the doors are. There's a lot of characters 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.720 going in and out of doors in this film, often 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.240 very quickly, and even before a monster the monster jumped 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.360 out from behind a door, I was feeling anxious whenever 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.439 a door would open like it was it was really effective. Uh. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.880 And then eventually a monster is coming out from behind 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.559 the door, and there's worry about things jumping out from 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.640 behind doors. I don't think doors have ever been quite 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.560 this scary. Percent agree, Yeah, this movie does something really 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:37.680 special with like portals, openings, doors, windows. It's it's really good. Also, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:39.720 lots of scenes where like the door to the outside 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.280 has been opened, and you know there's a sense of 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.480 all that that crushing cold coming in. So it works 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.839 on several levels. I think since we're not going to 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:48.800 do a scene by scene breakdown, on this one, I 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.080 guess to make more sense for people who haven't seen 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.439 especially either movie, it it might make sense to do 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.640 a quick, fuller rundown on the plot. So the basic 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.840 cast of characters is that you have a journalist and 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:05.000 then a group of of military commanders who fly by 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.280 plane up to a remote Arctic research base where there 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.240 is some scientific research going on. And then, like I 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.320 said in the elevator pitch earlier, there is a crash 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.120 of some kind of object near the base, and the 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.320 scientists and the soldiers go out to investigate it and 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.000 it looks like what they have encountered as a crashed 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.760 flying saucery crash daily and spacecraft, and then they're frozen 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.960 in the ice on the ice field is a humanoid figure. 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.160 So they chip that they dig that out of the 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:36.240 ice with with ice axes and with thermite. This movie 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.640 as a big fan of thermite, of course, and the 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.600 the thermite thing kind of goes wrong. I think they 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.000 end up sort of melting the ship by accident while 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:45.520 they're trying to get it up out of the ice. 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.120 But they do get this body out of the ice 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:49.760 and they bring it back to the base and then 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.720 through a series of mishaps, this body and a chunk 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.520 of ice is accidentally thought out, and what they come 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.200 to discover is that this is a being from another 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.600 planet that is not an animal, but is in fact 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:06.480 an animated vegetable. They they sort of explore the alternative 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.920 evolutionary history of this creature and say, what if plant 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.720 life on Earth had evolved the ability to move quickly 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.640 and have intelligence and and uh and and have a 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.080 have a mobile body instead of animal life and and 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.600 so uh and so that's sort of what we're dealing with. 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.800 And there's a lot of discussion about the creatures mindset 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.880 toward humans. It apparently needs to consume us, it wants 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.440 to drink our blood, but it doesn't have any uh, 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.880 it doesn't really have any remorse for us or understanding 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.600 of us as fellow creatures. Instead, as as one character 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.880 so eloquently puts it, he regards us the same way 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.480 we would regard a field of cabbages. Yeah. Yeah, this 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.160 idea that the dog is just like the short, furry 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.600 blood container, and then the humans are just the larger, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:59.080 hairless blood containers and it just needs the blood. It's 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.320 just calories. Yeah. Yeah. But so within this plot, a 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.360 number of interesting themes emerge, and and maybe we can 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:16.000 talk more about those as we go on. But I 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.640 guess here's where we typically get into some of the 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.600 people involved in this and talk about some connections. Now, Rob, 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.520 you might have read more about the production of this 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.520 film than I did. I'm to understand. I think there's 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:33.000 some uh disagreement or confusion about what the level of control, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.720 like who who basically was in charge of making this movie? 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.520 Who was the director, and what was their relative level 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.600 of control. Yeah, there's there's there's kind of it's kind 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.960 of an open question or in a matter of debate 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.800 that will probably never be fully settled, especially since I 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.400 think everybody involved with this film or most of them 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:55.040 have have passed on um. But the basic situation, I'm 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.000 going to talk about who is the credited director first? 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:03.080 So the credited director on this is Christian Nibe, who 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:08.199 lived nineteen thirteen through nineteen He is a TV and 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.640 film director who served as editor on such films as 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.240 Howard Hawks nineteen forty six adaptation of The Big Sleep. Uh. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.920 This had Humphrey Bogart in it, and William Faulkner actually 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:25.760 co scripted this adaptation of the Raymond Chandler Philip Marlow novel, 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.280 which is a really good novel by the way. Interesting 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.960 I've actually never read it. However, this film, The Thing 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:36.520 from Another World is nibies. It was his first directorial credit. 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.560 It's easily the biggest film, or at least biggest you know, 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.480 the most well remembered film, uh, that he did, although 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.680 he worked an entire career afterwards as a TV director 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.119 up until the mid nineteen seventies. Okay, so Nibe is 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.520 credited as the director of the film, but for some reason, 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.639 I've always heard this described as having been directed by 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.439 Howard Hawks, who, of course is an acclaimed filmmaker of 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.240 the time. So what's the with that? Okay, So Howard Hawks, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.320 who we just alluded to, had had worked with Nibe 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.640 ninety was his his editor. Um So, Hawks was also 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.679 known as the Silver Fox, and if you look at 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.000 pictures of you can see why, you know, dashing sort 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.840 of silver looking here, I guess, directs like somebody who 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:20.480 would be in like a whiskey Scotch commercial on TV 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.080 in the fifties or something. Absolutely and the dashing character 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:30.119 and director of such films as Red River, Rio Bravo two, Scarface, 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.920 El Dorado, and Hatari, as well as the aforementioned The 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.240 Big Sleep. He was nominated for an Academy Award for 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.440 nineteen forty two Sergeant York, and he receives an Honorary 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.359 Academy Award in nineteen seventy four. He's considered a legend 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.640 of the classic Hollywood era. And while he was not 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.199 the credited director or the credited co writer on The 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.200 Thing from Another World, UM, you'll often see look like, 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.280 for instance, you'll see him listed on IMDb is uncredited director, 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:05.240 uncredited writer. Um. Basically, various accounts indicate that he was 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.760 the director, and he, for some reason or another, let 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.399 Christian Nibe take the directing credit, which again would be 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.720 his first. John Carpenter, among others, have echoed this view. However, 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.600 various other folks, including some people involved with the actual 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.200 production of the film, have said otherwise. And they say, no, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.880 Nibe was the director. So ultimately, you know, how can 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.040 you say one way or the other. It does seem 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:34.600 like Hawks greatly valued Nibe, and and it said that 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.720 Nibe was an instrumental editor in many of his films. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.040 So it's been argued that perhaps Hawks thought that sci 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.080 fi was beneath him and didn't want his name on it, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.960 and or he gave the credit to Nive so that 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.600 he could get into the director's guild, you know, like like, 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:51.280 let's you go ahead and put your name on this 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.920 film and this will help your career. Um, It's it's 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:57.919 hard to say what exactly was going on here, but 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.760 I doubt we're going to get a a a definite 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.200 answer on it ever. But it does not say, I 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.040 want to stress though, I've seen no accounts that indicate 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.800 that this was some sort of this was a situation 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.240 of animosity or like one director being replaced. We often 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.600 see that in this in production stories where this guy, 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.040 this guy's on the outs bringing this guy no. It 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.560 seems like something else was going on here. Um, and uh, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.760 you know, if anything, it was probably Hawks helping out Nybe. 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.480 Or it's just been a situation where Hawks was involved 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.520 in the production and Nybee was still the director, and 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.120 maybe people were were more inclined to give Hawks more 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.440 credit than than he perhaps deserved for it. I mean, 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.040 I don't know, I don't know what the answer is here. Sure, 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.520 I guess we'll have to leave that one sort of unanswered. 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.359 That being said, folks that are familiar with Hawks, they 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.960 do point to various things about this film that have 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.879 his fingerprints on it. So and you you can of 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:57.399 course explain that, explain. You can explain that away a 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.600 bit by saying, well, Hawks and Ibi worked together so much. 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:03.399 You know, they had similar interests, they worked together to 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.280 make these previous films. So who knows. We're not going 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.000 to reach an answer today. Well, I will emphasize yet 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.000 again that I think, pretty much across the board in 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:16.359 terms of technical filmmaking, this is an excellently made movie, 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.960 especially for science fiction films at the time. I mean, 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.760 they're there are definitely things that you can criticize about it, 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:24.919 and we will as kind of kind of like quaint 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:26.880 or products of their era, But a lot of that's 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.679 in the actual sort of story content. In terms of 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.800 a technical exercise and filmmaking, I think the Thing from 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:37.680 Another World just is awesome for nineteen fifty one. Absolutely. Yeah. 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.960 If you're hesitant to watch this just because it is 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.879 an early nineteen fifties film, um, just know that it 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.719 is in many ways ahead of its time. Alright, So 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:49.640 we mentioned already that this was based on a short 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.840 story based on a short story by John W. Campbell Jr. 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.840 Who lived nineteen nineteen through nineteen seventy one. Pulp era 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.080 sci fi writer and editor of Astounding Science Fiction, and 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.880 he wrote numerous short stories and several novels, though Who 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.200 Goes There? The story that this is based on is 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.320 perhaps his best remembered, and I believe it was recently 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:11.840 re released in an expanded form, like they went back 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.679 to an old manuscript, and there's there's stuff in that 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.720 original manuscript that in some cases is actually president in 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.240 the film version, but not in the original story, if 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.199 if I'm correct on that. Now, having read only a 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.520 little bit about Campbell, it seems to me that his 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:28.760