Page 44 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 141
P. 44

44                 Issue 141 October 2024                                                         www.sportsenergynews.com


                      In Reel Time






                      Watch The Skies





                                            along journalist Ned Scott (Douglas
       By Nikolai Adams
                                            Spencer),  are  ordered  to  fly  to  a
           efore there was John Carpenter’s   scientific outpost located at the North
      BThe  Thing (1982), there  was        Pole.
      The Thing  from  Another World          Struggling to reach the location
      (1951). If you know John Carpenter,   due  to horrible  interference,  radio
      it  is not  overly  surprising that  he   operator  Tex Richards  (Nicholas
      would  remake  this  film,  for  when   Byron) is able to guide them to their
      I interviewed  him back in 2017,      location.  The reason they’re  there
      he could not stop speaking of his     –  an  unusual  crash  site  that  is  so
      love for film maker Howard Hawks      unorthodox that it could not be the
      (citing  him  as  a  major  influence   Soviets, and might just be something
      on his career, he was enamoured       from another planet.
      with  his  genre  jumping  films  –  be
                                              Under  the  persnickety  scientific
      it western, drama or horror). . . and
      Hawks’ fingerprints are all over the   eye of Dr. Arthur Carrington (Robert
                                            Cornthwaite),  who is waited  on by
      1951 version. It is also worth noting
      that Carpenter, just five years before   personal secretary Nikki Nicholson
      making  The  Thing,  had  Hawks’      (Margaret  Sheridan),  the  team  has                                                          Photo Submitted
      original make a screen appearance in   discovered  that  it  is some sort of  how cold this film feels. The ice is  fears of science and whether it
      his legendary Halloween.              round disc. . . and though they  real, the snow is real, and the wind is  could be pushed too far after the
                                            accidentally destroy the evidence of  real. It is a nice touch when so many  bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
        Still debated as to whether it was
                                            the ship, they are able to extricate a  movies would have been exclusively  six years earlier.  The skies never
      Hawks who directed the film or the
                                            massive  ice  block  containing  some  shot  on  a  boiling  Hollywood  set  at  before seemed so ominous, hence
      co-credited Christian Nyby, not even
                                            sort of giant, man-like creature that  the time. On the opposite            why the SAGE, or Semi-Automatic
      the cast has been able to agree. Some   is unlike anything that has ever been                                     Ground Environment  was put  into
      called Nyby the director but Hawks    seen on planet Earth.                   front, there is a scene where the   operation later that very decade. . .
      the boss,  while other recollections                                        alien is set alight by kerosene. . .   a way to surveil the skies (including
      remembered  Hawks  doing  most  of      Leading to a very divided argument  one of the first full body fire stunts   the Arctic) from possible oncoming
      the work. Without ever having a true   amongst  the  military  and  scientific  ever  to  be  put  on  film  –  a  perfect   attacks.
      answer, it seems most likely that     minds, the former group wish to keep  juxtaposition.
      Nyby directed  under  the  tutelage   the being on ice, while the latter are   But,  in the  end,  The  Thing  from   A film that oozes authenticity, The
                                            eagerly looking to study it. In the end,
      of Hawks, with the elder statesman                                          Another  World  is all  about  its    Thing from  Another  World is also
      taking charge from time to time       idiocy releases the beast, allowing the   1950s topical themes. The last line   about  making  everything  feel  real.
                                            monstrous human-like  alien  to run
      (hence  why  the  film  has  such  a                                        of dialogue, “Keep watching the       From the base  and  those bickering
      feeling  of  the  veteran  film  maker’s   rampant through their isolated base.   skies”, is emblematic  of this. Not   within it, to the frigid temperatures
      work). There  is no denying that  he   Impressively, Captain Hendry is able   only does it echo the newfound      and even colder attitude  of the
                                            to rekindle his romance with Nikki –
      co-wrote and co-produced the film.                                          flurry  of  extraterrestrial  excitement   mysterious being, this sets the tone
                                            a rather forward and risque storyline                                       for a different type horror movie. . .
        Following a military  group in      for the time, despite everyone being   and apprehension after Roswell in    which in turn proved inspiration for
      Arctic Alaska during the early days   on high alert.                        1947, it also speaks to the unnerving   a new crop of film makers including
      of the Cold War, Captain Pat Hendry                                         fears  of  McCarthyism  as  well  as  a   Carpenter, Ridley  Scott,  Tobe
      (Kenneth Tobey) and his men, some       Both shot on a set (built in an  Soviet Cold  War attack.  . . which      Hooper,  and  John  Frankenheimer.
      of which include co-pilot Lieutenant   ice  storage  plant  in Los  Angeles)  also goes hand in hand with a most   So, take  some carotene  and keep
      Eddie  Dykes (James  Young), and      and  at Glacier  National  Park in  modern  threat  –  the  nuclear  bomb.   your eyes on this classic horror film,
      flight  navigator  Ken  MacPherson    northwestern Montana, the first thing  This perspective was not overly      it’s a monstrous good time.
      (Robert Nichols), as well as tag      that you can truly appreciate is just  surprising, as there were very real
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