| 2nd | Top Warner Bros. films |
| 2nd | Top films set in Los Angeles |
| 66th | Top disaster films |
| Them! | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Gordon Douglas |
| Produced by | David Weisbart |
| Written by | Ted Sherdeman Russell Hughes George Worthing Yates (story) |
| Starring | James Whitmore Edmund Gwenn Joan Weldon James Arness Onslow Stevens Sean McClory Chris Drake |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
| Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
| Editing by | Thomas Reilly |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 19, 1954 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Them! is a 1954 American 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 nominated for an Oscar for Special Effects and won a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing. It is significant that the film starts off as a simple suspense story and works quite well in this regard, with police investigating mysterious disappearances and deaths, all from no explainable cause. The giant ants are not even seen until almost the halfway point in the film.
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The film begins with New Mexico State Police Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) discovers a little girl wandering the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico, mute and in a state of shock. More mysterious deaths and disappearances occur in the area. When a store owner named Gramps Johnson is found dead, his store literally torn apart, his empty rifle bent and twisted beside the body, the cops theorize that there is a maniac killer on the loose. But, as Peterson's boss points out (after Peterson's patrol partner Ed Blackburn, played by Chris Drake, disappears without a trace), Gramps' 30-30 was emptied and "Ed Blackburn was a crack shot. He could hit anything he could see. So unless your killer is armored like a battleship, there's no maniac in this case." It's up to the coroner to deliver the verdict that "Gramps Johnson could have died in any one of five ways: his neck and back were broken, his skull was fractured, his chest was crushed, and here's one for Sherlock Holmes. There was enough formic acid in his body to kill twenty men."
The FBI sends in Ellinson's fellow agent Robert Graham (James Arness) to assist. A single strange track is found in the desert. 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 accompanies Peterson and Graham 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, named Mike and Jerry, alive, trapped by the ants in a sewer tunnel, which is also the entrance to the nest. Peterson calls in for backup, but instead of waiting for it, he bravely goes in alone, heroically rescuing the two boys and killing numerous ants with his flamethrower. Peterson leads the two boys back to the pipe through which he came, intending for he and they to crawl back through it to safety. After hoisting up the first boy, Jerry, however, another ant appears from behind, and thinking quickly and selflessly, Peterson saves the second boy, Mike, but after lifting the boy into the pipe, Peterson is left without time to save himself. As he tries to climb up into the pipe at the last minute, the ant grabs Peterson in its mandibles and crushes him at the waist, the man crying out in agony all the while.
Graham arrives to the scene quickly with the reinforcments, and kills the ant attacking Peterson, but rushes over to Peterson's side with only enough time to hear Peterson's last words confirming that the boys made it to safety, before Peterson dies in his arms. Graham respectfully orders Peterson's body to remain undisturbed, and then returns to the battle, nearly getting killed himself when a cave-in temporarily seals him off from the rest of the men as they march towards the egg chamber; several ants charge him, but Graham is able to hold them off long enough for the other troops to tunnel through the debris and come to his rescue. The nest's queen and egg chamber are then 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.
Other actors who appear in small parts include John Beradino, Willis Bouchey, Booth Colman, Richard Deacon, Lawrence Dobkin, Ann Doran, Leonard Nimoy, William Schallert, 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, coupled with his familiarity with Arness as part of his Batjac Productions company of players, 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.
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.
Them! was released in June 1954[3] and by the end of that year had accrued US$ 2,000,000 in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's 51st biggest earner.[4]
The New York Times review noted “…from the moment James Whitmore, playing a New Mexico State trooper, discovers a six-year old moppet wandering around the desert in a state of shock, to the time when the cause of that mental trauma is traced and destroyed, Them! is taut science-fiction."[5] "Brog" in Variety opined it was a "top-notch science fiction shocker. It has a well-plotted story, expertly directed and acted in a matter-of-fact style to rate a chiller payoff and thoroughly satisfy the fans of hackle-raising melodrama."[6]
Since its original release, Them! has become generally regarded as one of the very best science fiction films of the 1950’s. Bill Warren described the film as “… tight, fast-paced and credible…[T]he picture is suspenseful.”[3] Phil Hardy’s The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction noted, “Directed by Douglas in semi-documentary fashion, Them! is one of the best American science fiction films of the fifties.”[7] Danny Peary believed the film “Ranks with The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the best of the countless fifties science fiction films.”[8] Of the 24 reviewers included in a Rotten Tomatoes survey of critics regarding the title, 100% reflect a positive reaction.[9]
   | How To Steal A Scene, by James Whitmore - The Thunder Child: How To Steal A Scene, by James Whitmore as demonstrated in Them! |
| | The Thunder Child Them! Sourcebook - The Thunder Child: Them! Movie Sourcebook Index |
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