Them!
THEM! (PG)
D: Gordon Douglas
Warner Bros. (David Weisbart)
US 1954
94 mins
Science Fiction/Horror
W: Ted Sherdeman [story by George Worthing
Yates]
DP: Sid Hickox
Ed: Thomas Reilly
Mus: Bronislau Kaper
Edmund Gwenn (Dr. Harold Medford), James Whitmore
(Sgt. Ben Peterson), Joan Weldon (Dr. Pat Medford), James Arness (Agent Robert Graham), Onslow Stevens (Gen. O'Brien)
Amongst the truly great B-movies of the 1950's and
possibly the last of its kind before the genre got flooded with the weird and ridiculous in the 1960's.
The plot here borders on the ridiculous, but there's
enough science behind it to suspend disbelief, using atomic radiation as the explanation behind an army of giant ants attacking a small New Mexico town. It may be old hat by modern
standards, but for 1954 this was a groundbreaking concept. The visual effects are also a factor that hasn't dated particularly well, but once again, for the mid-1950's, they're very well
executed.
6/10
