Depending which theory you go with, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951) was either Howard Hawks’ only SF film or directed by a protege, Christian Nyby, who gets official credit. After rewatching, I’m favoring Hawks directing — it feels like his work — and letting his buddy have the credit.
It’s an excellent and entertaining film: an alien invasion movie, a horror film, a story of tough guys cut off from the world, fighting to survive and under pressure — because if they fall, so falls the world.
There’s constant banter and crackling dialog (I disagree with Nevala-Lee that the film is mostly “a series of images“), and a woman, Nicky (Margaret Sheridan) who can hold her own with the men. She isn’t the screamer of the poster though she doesn’t get much to do in the struggle. However she’s right there on the front lines, rather than being put away somewhere safe.
USAF Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and his crew fly up from Anchorage to help out Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) whose science team have discovered a flying saucer that recently crashed in the Arctic ice. Attempting to remove the ship from the ice, they destroy it. Then they discover the pilot, trapped in ice, take him to Carrington’s lab … and the ice melts. The Thing (James Arness) is apparently here to colonize Earth and sees the humans as obstacles; he’s as ruthless with us as we might be confronted by intelligent, hostile cabbages.
Hawks said in a later interview that he liked his professional men to be professionals. Here, it’s Hendry, Nicky and Hendry’s team who see the threat clearly and work to deal with it. Carrington, the genius visionary, naively assumes the Thing’s advanced technology mean it’s wiser, nobler, a potential friend; the military high command likewise wants the Thing unharmed. It’s the guys on the front line who recognize that it has to be destroyed (a common question in 1950s film is whether you trust the generals or the GIs). In any case it’s an excellent film. “Intelligence in plants is an old story, Mr. Scott — older than the animal arrogance that precludes thinking about it.”
NUTS (1987) stars Barbra Streisand as Claudia a high-priced call girl (“$400 gets you laid, a hand job costs $300, a blow job is $500, wearing my panties is another $100.”) who recently slashed client Lesley Nielsen’s throat when he decided he wanted more for the money. Her mom and stepdad (Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden) want the judge (James Whitmore) to commit her — no chance of jail time — and psychiatrist Eli Wallach recommends it. Claudia, however, would sooner risk prison than be treated as a madwoman; while her attorney (Richard Dreyfuss) finds her frustrating as hell to deal with, he reluctantly followers her requested course of action.
This is very good, with a spectacular performance by Streisand, excellent direction by Martin Ritt and solid performances all the way around. Like Red Kimona, I was inspired to catch this by the book Marked Women. “Sometimes people love you so much, love is like a goddamn gun they fire right into your head.”
Returning to Howard Hawks, THE BIG SKY (1952), as critic Donald C. Willis says, plays like it was assembled from leftovers from Red River. For surrogate father and son John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, we have frontiersman Kirk Douglas and young, reckless Dewey Martin; Instead of old coot Walter Brennan we have Arthur Honeycutt; for the cattle drive we have a trading trip up the Missouri to Blackfoot territory; instead of settler Joanne Dru we have Native American princess Elizabeth Threatt. The result is perfectly watchable but completely unremarkable. “She figures you’re even — you saved her life and she hasn’t killed you yet.”
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