Comments on: Them! (1954)

By: Dan Stalcup

Dan Stalcup — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 17:21:15 +0000

Oh man for some reason I thought Sputnik was 1952. Not sure how I got that far off. I should’ve paid closer attention to “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” I guess. I’ve slightly rewritten that section.

Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast was in 1938 so I guess paranoia of alien monsters from the sky has been a latent part of our culture for a long time.

By: Hunter Allen

Hunter Allen — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 03:41:45 +0000

That’s a good point about the flying ants that didn’t occur to me. (I, er, stopped at “well, ants do fly, though truck-sized ones could not.”) UFO sightings were certainly already in swing (the Invasion of Washington occurred in 1952), and that’s got to be Cold War related in some way, though Sputnik didn’t happen on the back of an R-7 missile till 1957. And this along with some early “nuclear apocalypse” movies it’s gotten me curious as to the timeline of the Cold War in regards to at what point Americans got it into their heads that nuclear war could kill us all–because I feel like it might be well in advance of the fact, as the USSR had no means of full-scale nuclear strikes on the continental United States (except maybe suicide bombing missions) until about 1960. “Duck and Cover” was produced in 1952! I guess it was “as soon as the Soviets had significant numbers and types of nuclear weapons at all” and I suppose that makes sense, given that appreciation of Soviet capabilities naturally tilted towards worst-case-scenario thinking.

Anyway, this is a really good movie but that reset just to do the first half over again in a different setting puts some hard limits on how good it can be.

By: Dan Stalcup

Dan Stalcup — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 15:47:00 +0000

In reply to ED. An ED comment is always welcome, never taken for granted! It is pretty odd to see Davey Crockett in a supporting role, isn't it? And this is the year before that movie was made.

By: ED

ED — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 15:28:20 +0000

Just wanted to pop in and apologise for not having posted in a while - I’m always reluctant to read reviews for films I have not seen, the better to form my own opinions and avoid spoilers - but can only call the mental image of Disney’s “King of the Wild Frontier” (Mr Fess Parker) being confronted by GIANT ANTS a most rewarding return for mere politeness.