The Thing from Another World (1951) Sci-Fi Horror Noir

"Snowbound & Claustrophobic" (Noirsville)

Directed by Christian Nyby and an uncredited Howard Hawks (Scarface, Ball of Fire, Scarface, The Big Sleep, Red River).

Written by Charles Lederer along with an uncredited Howard Hawks, and based on the story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell Jr. 

The Cinematography was by Russell Harlan (Guilty Bystander, Southside 1-1000, Ruby Gentry) and Ominous Music by Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon, D.O.A.) coupled with the sound design is effective.

The film stars Margaret Sheridan as Nikki Nicholson (I, The Jury), Kenneth Tobey (He Walked By Night, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Angel Face, Down Three Dark Streets, Cry Terror!, Stark Fear, Marlowe) as Captain Patrick Hendry, Robert Cornthwaite as Dr. Arthur Carrington, Douglas Spencer as Ned "Scotty" Scott, James Young as Lieutenant Eddie Dykes, Dewey Martin as Bob, The Crew Chief, Robert Nichols as Lieutenant Ken "Mac" MacPherson, William Self as Corporal Barnes, Eduard Franz as Dr. Stern, Sally Creighton as Mrs. Chapman, James Arness as The Thing, and Paul Frees as Dr. Voorhees.

James Young as Lieutenant Eddie Dykes, Kenneth Tobey as Captain Hendry, Douglas Spencer as Ned "Scotty" Scott, and Robert Nichols as Lieutenant Ken "Mac" MacPherson

Kenneth Tobey and Margaret Sheridan as Nikki Nicholson

Robert Cornthwaite as Dr. Arthur Carrington

The Story

Outside. Night. Howling Wind. Snow. Juxtaposed with the Officers Club. Anchorage. USAF Alaskan Air Command. 

Inside an Oasis. Soft music. A reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott. Looking for a Story. He sits in on a poker game with Captain Patrick Hendry, Lieutenant Eddie Dykes and Crew Chief Bob, pumping them for some crumbs. Anything he string into copy.

They bullshit around the game. Dykes tells Scotty to pump a general about his radar air defense command "he likes to talk." Dykes suggests that Scotty have the general fly him to Seattle. Dykes remarks that they have women there that at least don't wear fur pants.

One interesting morsel is talk about a research facility 2,000 miles away, above the Arctic Circle. They have "botanists, physicists, electrical engineers," and Dykes adds a "pinup girl."  He's alluding to Nikki Nicholson a gal pal of Hendry's. The head is Dr. Arthur Carrington a scientist notoriously connected with the nuke testing Operation Crossroads on Bikini Atoll.  

At around 8PM soldier comes in for Hendry the general wants to see him. It's about a radio call from Carrington about a possible aircraft crash near the facility.  

The next day, Brig. Gen. Fogarty sends Hendry with his DC47 and crew with a rescue squad aka "Polar Expedition 6," including a dog team to the site.  

DC47 the military version of a DC3

When they arrive Hendry is anxious about confronting Nikki over a little lovers spat they had in Seattle. They playfully spar and make up with sexual innuendos thrown about. 

That taken care of, the narrative changes to the unusual discoveries about the object. One, it flew rather than fell uncontrollably. Two, it was giving off radioactivity. and Three, it is causing a magnetic deviation off of true north. 20,000 tons worth of deviation. 

So off they fly to the impact point. From the air it's shaped like a long neck chianti bottle. The object skimmed it's way down, melted the ice as it traveled, and then melted a pool where it finally rested. 

All is refrozen. The Polar Expedition 6 lands on a nearby flat ice field hitch up the sled dogs, and treks to the site. 

They find a some sort of stabilizer or tail fin sticking out of the clear pool. The men fan out to match the contour of the embedded "ship." It's round. It's saucer shaped. "We finally found one" exclaims Scotty.

Hendry decides to melt the ice around the saucer with thermite bombs. 

IT'S The big SNAFU. 

It goes Noirsville when the thermite destroys everything. The only silver lining is that the alien appears to have escaped the momentarily un-frozen craft only to be quick frozen again a moment later in the sub zero temperatures. This time Hendry orders his men to cube out the spaceman and the load the block of ice into the DC47 and head back to the ranch just before a major arctic storm hits.

He's down here!

At the research facility they store the block of ice in the storehouse under a one man guard. Hendry assumes command and awaits orders from General Fogarty. When airman Barnes takes over the watch from McPherson, he is disturbed enough by the alien's appearance to throw a blanket over the block of ice not realizing that it is an electric blanket. 

first look at alien

Blanketing the block of ice

The block slowly thaws the un-jolly green giant. He pops up and Barnes takes a shot with his .45 but the alien un fazed escapes out into the storm, blundering into the pack of sled dogs. 

William Self as Corporal Barnes

The dogs reacting in fear attack the alien. The airmen recover two dead sled dogs drained of blood and a green arm with a green hand attached. At the end of the green fingers are what look like rose thorns. 

Its a plant!

A plant that builds spaceships is obviously more advanced than humans. Dr. Carrington wants to communicate with it. The airman search the facility and in the greenhouse discover the body of a third dead sled dog but no alien. The next day the greenhouse is breached a botanist named Stern is badly wounded as he escaped the lab, and the other two of the botanists Auerbach and Olson are found hanging from the rafters drained of blood. 

Meanwhile Dr. Carrington has collected seed pods from the detached arm and the ones he's planted have sprouted and are growing very quickly. Carrington discovers that the ones receiving a "watering" of plasma are out growing the others. Ah Ha! 

But, the missing plasma needed to treat Stern leads Hendry to Carrington.

Now the men know the Alien is out to drain them of their precious bodily fluids and even though they have orders from Fogarty to capture it alive its comes down to basically it or us. 

Noirsville

This is a good entertaining early Sci-Fi Noir. Its bleak artic expanses will remind younger Aficio-Noir-dos and Noir-istas of the Northern Great Plains snowscapes of Fargo and older ones of Classic Snow Noirs Storm Fear, and the last halves of  Nightfall and On Dangerous Ground. The bright white desolation is juxtaposed with the ever increasingly claustrophobic interior of the research facility as the Alien increasingly cuts off the team from their shelter and heat source. 

The film moves right along hitting on all cylinders. The entire cast are believable in their roles with Nikki Nicholson and Kenneth Tobey achieving a bit of sexual chemistry to the mix. Look for James Arness' as The Thing. 8/10.