Robert Graham: And I thought today was the end of them.
Dr. Harold Medford: No. We haven't seen the end of them. We've only had a close view of the beginning of what may be the end of us.
Them!
Looking out at the arid landscape, it takes me a minute to realize why it feels unexpectedly familiar: it's the same desert backdrop featured in the classic 1954 science fiction film Them! The movie is set near Almogordo, New Mexico, site of the first atomic bomb test in 1945, but was actually shot near Palmdale, about 120 miles from where we are.
Them! isn't the first atomic radiation monster movie - the preceding year's Monster from 20000 Fathoms takes first place - but it's certainly the first to introduce the possibility of giant radioactive mutant insects. Released in the same year that Japanese movie makers first unleashed Godzilla on the world, Them!, like Godzilla, is a cautionary tale about the dangers released from the new Pandora's Box of atomic energy, and sets the standard for these films, in which science is both the villain and the hero.
Considering its subject matter, Them! is oddly plausible in its slow build from two police officers finding a traumatized little girl wandering alone in the New Mexico desert, through to the final battle with a nest of giant ants in the storm drains beneath Los Angeles. The movie creates an air of suspenseful menace by delaying the reveal of the giant ants themselves, relying instead on the shrill keening noise made by the gigantic insects to suggest their presence.
The giant ants themselves are a bit of a weak point, at least by modern special effects standards - I can only guess how the original audience reacted to the giant ant models. The practical effects look somewhat clumsy and obvious now, but the scene where we first see the giant head and mandibles of an enormous ant appearing out of a sandstorm behind an unsuspecting victim is still an effective piece of filmmaking. Later there's an equally effective moment where the scientists, having found the ants' nest, see one of the giant creatures carelessly tossing away a human ribcage.
The cast features a grim James Whitmore as police sergeant Ben Peterson, and James Arness as the FBI agent assigned to the mystery, with Edmund Gwenn as Formicidae expert Dr. Harold Medford and Joan Weldon as his daughter, Dr. Patricia Medford, originating in this movie the part of the female scientist who also occupies the role of chief screamer when necessary.*
The movie also showcases Fess Parker as a bewildered small plane pilot who thinks that he has seen UFOs shaped like huge flying insects**, and a startlingly young Leonard Nimoy makes an uncredited appearance as an air force sergeant.
One of the great strengths of this movie is the absolute seriousness with which the premise is handled, with the exception of a few quips in the dialogue that actually feel a bit misplaced due to the earnest nature of the rest of the script. Them! is actually plotted more as a mystery than a horror movie, with the first half aimed at solving the enigma of missing and murdered people and stolen sugar, and the second half dedicated to discovering the whereabouts of two queen ants who have left the original nest before it was destroyed.
In spite of the numerous films dealing with the horrifying possibilities of the atomic bomb, none of these monstrous nightmares appeared in the real world over the succeeding 74 years. In some ways, it's a shame - the appearance of a few giant insects or a giant lizard breathing radioactive fire might have had a salutary effect on early arms limitation treaties.
- Sid
* Monsters Versus Aliens does an excellent little sendup of this particular trope.
** It says a great deal about the mindset of 1950s America that he doesn't think he's seen huge flying insects, but rather UFOs that look like insects.
** It says a great deal about the mindset of 1950s America that he doesn't think he's seen huge flying insects, but rather UFOs that look like insects.
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