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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThem! (1954)
I was in grade school when this movie played in my hometown movie theater on the Saturday before Christmas. It scared the bejeebies out of me. I remember sitting by my bedroom window for most of the night on Christmas Eve, peering up at the sky. I didnt believe in Santa, or in baby Jesus either, so I wasnt on the lookout for reindeer or the Christmas star. I was watching for giant flying ants.
James Arness is in the movie. This was before he started dying his blond hair brown for Gunsmoke. Fess Parker is too, and so is Leonard Nimoy (uncredited).
Wiki:
Since its original release, Them! has become generally regarded as one of the very best science-fiction films of the 1950s. Bill Warren described the film as tight, fast-paced and credible (T)he picture is suspenseful."[4] Phil Hardys The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction noted, "Directed by [Gordon] Douglas in semi-documentary fashion, Them! is one of the best American science-fiction films of the fifties."[8] 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."[9] Of the 24 reviewers included in a Rotten Tomatoes survey of critics regarding the title, 100% reflect a positive reaction.[10]
You can watch Them! for free here:
http://archive.org/details/PhantasmagoriaTheater-Them1954176
Graybeard
(6,996 posts)It's so well done it's one of those films that I will stop and watch again if I come across it on the Tee Vee machine. And I agree that it ranks along with the originals of The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the best of the Sci-Fi genre.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)so-called sci fi movies from the 50s were silly, even by 50s standards. I watched some of them yesterday on You Tube for laughs.
I've never forgotten Them!, even though until today I hadn't seen it for about 60 years.