Tag: The Thing (1951)

Another Deranged Nooze Story

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

The Thing From Another World (1951 ...

(Here comes the Thing!)

We seem to be piling up bizarre and distressing nooze stories. Have people forgotten how to behave themselves?

This month in Danville, VA, a nut burst into a lawyer’s office and doused the occupant with five gallons of gasoline (https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/07/breaking-virginia-lawmaker-doused-gasoline-set-fire-his/). The victim managed to run outside, but the attacker caught him and set him on fire. By some miracle of Providence, the victim hasn’t died. Police have released very little in the way of information. Only that “the attack appears to be personal.”

So what’s going on? Is it just the social media jacking things up as they compete for views; or is our culture really melting down? You’ve got a problem with someone, so you kill him?

I just heard a website host ballyhoo his site for its “true crime” offerings, as if it were some form of entertainment. (“As if?” Hum baby!)

I think I’ll sit outside and try not to think about it.

[Why The Thing? Well, they set the Thing on fire, didn’t they? But that was before anybody realized you didn’t have to wait for a flying saucer to land before you torched somebody.]

Classic Science Fiction: ‘The Thing’

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The Thing From Another World - The American Society of ...

Shouldn’t’ve thawed it out, boys!

Given really bad weather yesterday, we stayed in and watched a movie: classic science fiction, The Thing, vintage 1951.

A flying saucer crashes near the North Pole, and a scientific team makes a lot of not-so-wise decisions that result in a Thing From Another World (James Arness, pre-Gunsmoke) getting loose and killing people. It’s a monster vegetable, just about impossible to kill. Like, what do you get if you cross the Frankenstein monster with a turnip?

Directed by Howard Hawks, and based on a 1938 story by science fiction great John W. Campbell, The Thing crackles with suspense; but to me it’s more a great big air raid siren blasting out a warning: “Do not make an idol of Science!”

Still true today. Maybe even more so. Damn the consequences, jump right in–head-first. What could possibly go wrong?

Sci-Fi Classic, ‘The Thing’ (1951)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

The Thing (1951) - Rotten Tomatoes

Welcome to Nooze-free Sunday! It’s also on the verge of being reader-free: where did everybody go?

So yesterday we watched The Thing (from Another World), the original film classic from 1951. The date’s important: by 1951, “flying saucers” could still be called “flying discs” and hadn’t yet morphed into a whole cultural industry. Astoundingly enough, this movie does a superb job of conveying the menace of the unknown. It has stood up very well indeed to the passage of 70 years, outlasting and outperforming scores of modern UFO-themed movies.

You do have to laugh off some evolutionary palaver, and accept the premise that intelligent vegetable life on a planet far, far away can produce a being that looks like James Arness.

But never mind all that! There are the guys standing around, trying to figure out how to get the flying saucer out of the ice at the North Pole, and skipping blithely ahead into horrible danger. This is suspenseful. I admit it creeped me out. Someone should’ve been there to cry, “Wait, wait, please wait! Are we sure this is a good idea?” Not that anyone would listen.

Well, it turns out not to be a good idea. Meanwhile, the general back in Anchorage keeps transmitting orders that are always two steps behind the ongoing disaster. Typical!

The Thing (not to be confused with Joe Biden’s description of the Declaration of Independence) is an unpretentious, solid, classic science fiction/horror movie–just the ticket for a dreary grey day in the middle of the winter.