Them! (1954) User Reviews (277)

The best giant bug movie ever

[freaky_dave · 8/10 · 7 March 2006]

Them was the best giant bug movie. It was about giant ants and started a horde of pathetic clones that followed it, but none have even come close to matching this movie's effectiveness.

Atomic testing in New Mexico that went on in 1945 creates a horde of giant ants. It is up to a group of scientists, a police officer, and the military to stop these creatures from spreading throughout the USA and killing off the human race.

This movie is not only a horror movie, but it also makes a point about the dangers of atomic testing. Much like Japan's Godzilla, Them finds nothing good in radiation testing or atomic bombs. There is even a monologue at the end of the movie which explains that things have changed now that we have entered the Atomic age.

James Whitmore, James Arness, Joan Weldon, and Edmund Gwenn give good performances as the heroes who are out to save mankind, along with the U.S. military police. The pacing was rather good as well, slowing down when things need to be explained, and then picking up when the giant ants are on screen.

Though the special effects seem cheesy by todays standards, I thought they were rather effective in this movie and memorable for 1954. This movie definitely looks best in black and white because it adds a haunting feeling to the desolation of the desert where the creatures are first found, and it also makes other scenes in the movie seem darker and sinister. Definitely a thumbs up in my opinion.

From The Sands Of New Mexico

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 1 January 2009]

One of the greatest of Fifties science fiction features came from the Warner Brothers Studio in 1954. Them! is one of the best examples of the paranoid Fifties and all the things that we were afraid of that could result from the new atomic age.

Ever since J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team exploded that first atomic bomb on the desert in White Sands, New Mexico radiation has spawned a new breed of giant ants nine to twelve feet in length. It's taken a decade for them to be discovered, the desert being a solitary place, but when these big guys come out of their holes, it's with a feeding frenzy vengeance.

First on the scene is deputy sheriff James Whitmore, who first brings in FBI man James Arness and then a father and daughter team of scientists, Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon. The trail eventually takes the four to Los Angeles where an escaped queen from New Mexico is building a nest in the sewer system of Los Angeles.

The tension and the action is brought to a fine pitch in Them! Though the human cast does give a good account of themselves, it's the special effects creating those giant ants that is the real star of the film. Other than a big of male chauvinism shown by James Arness towards Joan Weldon, the romance is non-existent. My guess is that those who survived the experience went on about the serious business of finding out what other kind of mutated creatures might be spawning as a result of atomic testing. Which was a very real fear in the Fifties.

Edmund Gwenn comes off the best as a most intelligent and civilized scientist who knows the dangers and explains the situation to the military and civilian authorities without any condescension.

Them! gave many nightmares to movie goers back in the day. The film is still capable of doing just that.

Often imitated, rarely bettered.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 23 April 2008]

Weird deaths are occurring in the New Mexico desert, it is revealed to be the work of giant mutated ants born out of the "A Bomb" tests that took place there. Trouble escalates to the big city of Los Angeles when one of the giant queen ants escapes to L.A. and starts laying eggs that could lead to the end of mankind as we know it.

This is a cautionary tale about scientific tampering fused with a Cold War theme of destroying a threat to the country. Boasting some wonderful scenes such as the first desert encounter (cloaked in a sandstorm) and the final underground battle, Them! is a truly enjoyable viewing experience. It oozes the right amount of paranoia that became ever more prominent as the nuclear age began grow. The puppetry and special effects on show is of a very high standard for the time (well done Academy Award Nominee Ralph Ayres), and the direction from Gordon Douglas is one of the better efforts in the genre.

The tight story vanquishes any gripes about the plausibility factor, while the acting is, perhaps given the type of genre piece it is, of a surprisingly good standard. With James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, and Joan Weldon giving it a bit of oopmh. It went on to become Warner Brothers highest grossing film in 1954, and it's really not hard to see why. Because this firmly stands up as one of the better films of what is sadly a much maligned genre. 8/10

Highly recommended 50's giant bug film

[StanleyStrangelove · 8 September 2005]

Them stars James Whitmore as New Mexico Police Sgt. Ben Peterson who discovers a little girl wandering in the desert. He finds her trailer ripped apart and her parents missing. Casts of the strange footprints found at the crime scene are sent to a lab where they catch the attention of father/daughter doctors Medford (Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon) who come to New Mexico along with FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) to investigate. Dr. Medford has a theory but won't tell Peterson or Graham until he has more proof.

If you are a fan of sci-fi films, Them is one of the four essential sci-fi films of the 1950s along with The Thing, Day the Earth Stood Still, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It's part crime story, part sci-fi, part horror with crisp dialog and it moves along at a brisk pace. Veteran director Gordon Douglas put together a solid cast of actors and the characters are totally believable. The story is interesting and the sets are outstanding.

Them was a box office hit in 1954 and it still holds up today if you can forgive the special effects. Them is a movie where any remake would always pale with the original. Highly recommended.

Gordon Douglas' film was the epitome of the big-bug films

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 7/10 · 23 February 2009]

The marauding ants in "Naked Jungle," advancing across a desert, are matched by the monsters in "Them!" coming out through mists of the white sands of New Mexico after an atomic blast has increased them to giants…

Slowly people start to go missing and the news filters though to the nearest towns that the arid plateau can present a real threat as strange creepy whistles are coming out from that deep desert…

Rather than an atomic movie, the film is about the struggle between humans and species revolt which invade their cities and show their remarkable energy, tenacity and vulnerability…

Just as the Gill Man can only be driven back when he has isolated far from his natural element, the monster ants are all powerful in their own territory and none too easy to destroy outside it…

"Them!" is well acted, frightening, and engaging from start to finish… The cast is pretty damn good, especially James Whitmore as the pretty intelligent cop who found a five year old girl, aimlessly walking through the terrain of the desert— miles from her family's wrecked travel trailer—unresponsive by some catastrophe...

"Them!" is a well-made monster movie, an instant classic nominated for an Oscar for its effects

They don't get much better than this

[BrianG · 9/10 · 26 September 1999]

This is the granddaddy of 'em all, the film that pretty much started giant bug genre of sci-fi films and spawned countless imitators, none of which are remotely as good as this one. This movie has pretty much everything going for it: a literate, atmospheric, extremely well-written script for what is essentially a B picture (although Warner Brothers put a substantial amount of cash into it)l outstanding acting jobs by everyone from the leads on down to the extras; razor-sharp direction by an old pro, Gordon Douglas (by far his best film; nothing he did before or since was anywhere near as good); a combination of visual and sound effects guaranteed to creep you out (the scene where James Whitmore's partner goes outside the wrecked store to investigate the strange noises he hears is among the scariest things you'll ever see). Also, the characters are believable; they act like you know people would act in the same situation. Edmund Gwenn isn't the typical befuddled scientist you see in these films; he may be a tad distracted at times, but he gets down to business when the situation calls for it. Joan Weldon, his daughter, isn't just just a pretty face for the leads to fight over; she's every bit as much a scientist as her father, and she lets that fact be known right away. There's another level of this film that works well, too; comedy. Not the slapstick kind, or the stereotypical dumb cop or cook or crew member (usually from Brooklyn) that pops up in these films, but there are several lighter moments in the film that really work. Everyone remembers the wonderful Olin Howlin, the guy in the drunk tank who sings "Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze!", but there are several other segements that are equally as lighthearted; the great Dub Taylor playing a railroad detective suspected of stealing a load of sugar from a railroad car that the ants have actually done ("You think I stole that sugar? When was the last time you busted a ring of sugar thieves? You ever heard of a market for hot sugar?") and another scene in the drunk ward where a patient looks at the army major accompanying Arness and Whitmore and says, "I wanna get out of here, general, but I ain't gonna join the army to do it!" The special effects are first-rate but do not overwhelm the story, as is all too common in many of today's action films (that is, when there actually IS a story). There are some truly terrifying scenes (the one where the ants, who have hidden in the hold of a cargo ship at sea, attack and slaughter the crew), and I liked the fact that the ants aren't invulnerable--they CAN be killed (it just takes a lot more effort)--and also that they actually act like ants. All they're doing is just what real ants would actually do--which makes things even scarier, given that we know how single-minded and vicious real ants can actually be.

All in all, this is a trailblazing film that attempts to work on several levels--as a sci-fi film, as a mystery, as an action film--and succeeds admirably in every one.

Mutant ants go on the attack.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 4 August 2000]

This movie builds your anxiety to a minor frenzy. I think the old black and white did not hinder this sci-fi drama that still holds up well today. The creepy sound of the desert wind really sets the mood. The other effects seemed pretty darn good to be in a mid 50s movie. Of course the giant mutant ants don't look as scary as they did when I was a kid; but they still provide something to cause a squirm or two.

Mutant ants crawl up from their burrows in the desert of New Mexico. Another product of nuclear testing. They are hungry and are attacking humans as they search out food. Sounds like a movie that would be full of stupid dialog and over acting. Guess again. Understandable, but predictable script with some decent acting. Great example of early sci-fi and can be enjoyed by young and old alike.

The cast includes James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, James Arness, Joan Weldon and a smaller part for Fess Parker.

One of the best of the 1950's science fiction golden age

[mbryanbook · 9/10 · 11 July 2005]

This is the kind of stuff I grew up on as a kid, watching science fiction and horror movies on TV which had been originally released in the 1940s and 50s. The 1950s was a golden age of science fiction movies, and THEM! was one of the very best. Good casting, dialog, and storyline, and commendable special effects for the time. Although the "atomic-radiation-causing-terrible-mutations" was a standard device in 50s sci fi (THE DEADLY MANTIS, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, and others), it was a workable one, and given that the ants were from the same area of desert where the first atomic blast occurred, it had just enough plausibility. I also like the little touches of humor and banter between characters. There was even a little bit of cheesecake when the young Dr. Medford (Joan Weldon) gets her skirt caught when descended from the plane, revealing a pair of shapely legs. This is one I keep going back to on rainy Saturday afternoons! A gem of its kind.

The atomic age left vampires and werewolves seeming not so scary

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 11 December 2010]

This film had a common theme for 50's sci-fi - that of man playing around with atomic power causing extreme adverse impacts on the global environment. Here James Arness plays an FBI agent and Edmund Gwenn is a Ph.D. from the Department of Agriculture, both of whom are sent out to help solve the cases of a group of small town New Mexico murders and disappearances that don't make sense to local law enforcement. This film is overtly judgmental of man's recklessness with nuclear technology and discusses the possibility that there is more to the after effect of the atomic testing that went on there in 1945 than just the immediate destruction of the blast. In this case, mutations in the form of giant ants are linked to those first atomic experiments.

Although the public probably wasn't afraid of actual giant insects in the 1950's, as a result of the cold war and nuclear technology, the atomic age certainly made the stars of past horror films - vampires and werewolves - look tame in comparison by opening up a whole new horizon of horrific possibilities. Highly recommended.

One of my all time favorite movies.

[thespacedude44 · 10/10 · 5 September 2005]

I was about 6 years old when i first saw this movie in 1962 or 63. My neighbor, Bill, and my brother watched it with me. I lived in Montrose MI at the time and when it was over my mother told us to go out and play. We resisted her and almost got in trouble for arguing but hey, how can you send three young boys out to face the world after they just watched how giant ants almost took it over? We were scared to death, and hid behind the trees and bushes just watching for them.

Where have I lived for most part since 1984? Good old Alamogordo NM, home of the giant ants! How destiny does intrude on life. I love the desert and mountains out here (retired from USAF in 1999) and I am very happy to say that there have been no reports of giant ants since I have been here. People always call this the home of Atomic bomb (though they are off by some distance)and I always look them straight in the face and say "What? You mean you never heard of our giant ant problem?"

Ants in Nuclear Plants

[Lejink · 7/10 · 13 May 2020]

Apparently this science fiction - horror movie was meant to be made both in colour and in 3-D and if these are clues that budgetary considerations came into play during the production, there are others besides. Obviously lacking an A-list cast, the bigger reveal is that you never see more than a few of the giant ants at one time in the flesh or more truly metal, so obviously man-made are they in appearance when we do get to see them.

Credit the director then for making a virtue out of a necessity and still managing to craft a tense and exciting feature, which really only falters with the necessary physical confrontations with the "monstrous" insects. The key then is in the power of suggestion as the ants are kept out of sight for the first half-hour with the first set of deaths at their, ahem, legs rather than hands, occurring off-camera.

The underlying and very obvious message underlying the narrative, surprisingly for a film made so early in the 50's, is the threat to mankind of nuclear power as the creatures' origin is wholly attributed to A-bomb testing years before causing the lowly ant to mutate. There's also a passing reference to the Cold War itself by one of the characters.

The cast play their parts absolutely straight which certainly helps deflect from the less-than-threatening appearances of this unstoppable threat to the whole of humanity. Nice to see Edmund Gwenn still working, well into the 50's as the venerable insect expert, necessary I'd imagine to explain the science to the audience as much as for any other reason while James Arness as an FBI agent shows the sort of upstanding-citizen persona which would later lead to him playing the lead part of Marshall Matt Dillon in the long-running TV Western series "Gunsmoke". I also liked James Whitmore as the rugged police officer determined to stay on the case and Joan Weldon as Gwenn's daughter, surprisingly not on board as a pretty damsel-in-distress fit for rescue but actually with almost as much knowledge on the species as her dad and who also isn't afraid to join the boys on the front-line.

With better special effects perhaps the film could have really come off but I prefer to see it as a minor triumph with what was achieved and of course it's right-on ecological message is still relevant today.

We haven't seen the last of them.

[lastliberal · 8/10 · 3 February 2008]

Boy, if this doesn't creep you out, then you just don't live in the South or Southwest, where you are constantly battling the monsters in this film.

The special effects were superb considering the limitations in 1954.

James Whitmore (Oscar nominations for Give 'em Hell, Harry! and Battleground) and James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon in over 600 episodes of "Gunsmoke" in my formative years, were compelling as they chased the monsters.

They were ably assisted by Edmund Gwenn, who won ans Oscar for playing Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, and has a nomination for Mister 880. He won Golden Globes for both roles. He really was great here as "The Professor." Great Southwest locations and chilling excitement for a Sci Fi classic.

Classic 1950s Science Fiction about colossal mutant ants with effective special effects

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 20 May 2022]

This is a classy fun flick concerning a group of mutated giant ants wreak havoc on a South-western location . The huge ants at large in a a New Mexico desert and after that, in Los Angeles , threatening to take over the world . Along the way, a heroically tough policeman (James Withmore) , a FBI agent (James Arness) discover a terrified little girl , while a prestigious scientific (Edmund Gwen) and his daughter (Joan Weldon) foretell a dangerous disaster . The Amazing New Warner Bros. Sensation! Fantastic monsters attack the Earth ! You've never seen the like of THEM! A horror horde of crawl-and-crush giants clawing out of the earth from mile-deep catacombs! Kill one and two take its place! This city is under martial law until we annihilate THEM! An Endless Terror! A Nameless Horror! The Sci-Fi Classic of the Atomic Age. Kill one- and two take its place !The horror-horde of crawl-and-crush giants you've been hearing about on TV and radio!

Decent terror movie with magnificent trick photography and ingenious but traditional FX add to the entertainment and excitement enough, which have you on the edge of you seat . Frightening , horrifying special effects and lightning pace make this a supercharged amusement that will appeal to Sci-Fi lovers . The tableau of the gigantic monsters in their collective lair at the final is really thrilling , unforgettable and and unpleasant . Main cast delivering standout performances , such as : James Arness , Edmund Gwenn , James Withmore and Joan Weldon . See how many names you can spot among the supporting cast , such as : Fess Parker , Dub Taylor, William Schallert , Sean McClory , Onslow Stevens, Leonard Nimoy in a very minor character , among others . This popular fantasy/thriller was so good and famous that it began a whole new syndrome of giant-animal terror films . Being the first of the big-bug movies and far surpassing the rest , following a series of flicks about enormous bugs as ants or spiders , such as : ¨Tarantula (1955)¨ by Jack Arnold with John Agar ; ¨Tarantula: the deadly cargo (1977)¨ with Claude Akins ; ¨Kingdom of spiders (77)¨ by John Budd Cardos with William Shatner , ¨Arachnophobia (1990)¨ by Frank Marshall with John Goodman , Jeff Daniels , Harley Jane Kozak and many others .

It displays a thrilling musical score with strange and weird sounds by Bronislau Kaper . As well as atmospheric cinematography in black and white by cameraman Sidney Hickox , shot on location in Los Angeles River Basin , Railroad Yard, Union Station, Blaney Ranch , Palmdale, California , Tunnel beneath the 6th Street Viaduct, Downtown, Los Angeles . The motion picture was profesionally directed by Gordon Douglas . This Hollywood filmmaker was a prolific artisan whose career spans over forty years . And directing all kinds of genres : Western, Drama, WWII, Action , Comedy, SciFi , Thriller, Adventures with sucessses enough , such as : Fortunes of Captain Blood , Up Periscope , Them , The Great Missouri Raid , The Doolins of Oklahoma , Sylvia, Río Conchos , Stagecoach , Robin and the 7 Hoods , Massacre , The Detective , among others. Rating 7/10. Notable Sci-fi thriller movie . Better than average. The pic will appeal to Science-Fiction fans .

Saucery? Antastic!

[eyesour · 5/10 · 10 April 2012]

How is one going to find something sensible to say about something like this, despite its reputed Oscar-nomination? There's little point in recounting the story, or, as it's sometimes called, the plot. In fact I never understand why anyone spells out the plot, if someone else has already done so. Surely once is enough? So what can one say ? James Whitmore really was an unusually competent actor. Edmund Gwenn, though not a name I'm otherwise overly familiar with, eventually seems much better than he first looks as though he's going to be. Joan Weldon is dressed in the height of 1954 fashion, and trips elegantly and delicately around the desert, avoiding the tumbleweeds, but to no visibly constructive purpose. The simple truth is that very many films shot in the 1950s were quite abysmal; I wonder if this decade was when film production peaked, worldwide, and quantity exceeded quality in every direction? The "stars", as opposed to actors, were Leonard Nimoy and Fess Parker, although their stardom lay many years ahead of them. If I hadn't been told I wouldn't have recognized Leonard, but Fess was his obvious self. Here he acts the part of a nutcase, afflicted by sanity, in spite of describing a bunch of giant flying ants as "saucers". Huh? Hadn't the term UFO been invented in 1954? Difficult to imagine an object less resembling a saucer than a flying ant, of any size. Never mind. Another reviewer tells me that the male lead became famous as Marshal Matt Dillon, but I regret I've never seen any of his TV episodes.

The opening, with a little actress called Sandy Descher (I learn), was rather intriguing, but it promised more than it came to deliver. One thing I didn't understand was why the mutAnts blasted their holes in trailers and stores from the inside (!?!). How did they get in, to start with? Or did they pop up from underground, entering by bursting through the floors? Another reviewer points out the singularity of the Friday-like footprint. Well, I think the thing to do with this sort of product is give up any hope of consistency, and simply revel in the dialogue and the one-liners. See the discussion forum. A very generous 5 stars.

The Best.

[chris_gaskin123 · 30 January 2002]

Them! is the best giant bug movie of the 1950's and one of the best, if not the best monster movie of the decade.

The acting is excellent with good performances from James Whitmore (The Relic) and James Arness (The Thing From Another World). The movie includes haunting desert settings and the giant ants look great. The sounds they make makes the movie even more eerie.

This is 50's monster movie action at its very best.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5.

Surprisingly good actors in B-movie

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 22 November 2014]

Police Sgt. Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) finds a shocked little girl wandering in the New Mexico desert. She escaped from giant ants that attacked her family trailer but is now catatonic. Soon the ants are attacking the locals. FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) arrives to investigate. Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and his daughter Dr. Pat Medford (Joan Weldon) from Department of Agriculture arrives later to explain that the atomic testing in 1945 had mutated giant ants. Harold Medford shocks the little girl and she screams "Them!" The group is able to kill one of the ants. Then they discover the entrance to the colony. After destroying the nest, they find two queen ants had already hatched and escaped. The action continues to move until it reaches Los Angeles.

The first half is quite compelling. The ants aren't shown. It is simply the eerie squeaking ants sound amongst the wind. The investigation is interesting. The acting is quite good consider its B-movie size. Both James Whitmore and Edmund Gwenn are Oscar caliber actors. The escape to LA is problematic. It would have been better to have the cops battle the ants out in the desert. The action is ant-tastic but it can get a little repetitive. Nevertheless this is one of the better creature features from the era. Also one can also play a game of spot the Leonard Nimoy in one of his early minor acting role.

Sci-fi Classic

[AwesomeWolf · 9/10 · 17 January 2005]

If I were to write a review something along the lines of: "Them! is awesome because it depicts giant irradiated ants, and giant irradiated ants are cool", I'd probably be shot. Either way, 'Them!' is a great movie.

'Them!, to my knowledge, would be one of the earliest sci-fi movies to look at the consequences of nuclear technology. 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' was released a year earlier in 1953, and 'Gojira' was released months after 'Them!', and arguably became the most successful of the three, but don't discount the impact 'Them!' had.

The film opens in New Mexico. Several people seem to bitten the desert dust when some police officers find the prototype for Newt from 'Aliens'. After an investigation, a nest of giant ants is discovered. The ants were mutated by atomic testing, and are responsible for the local deaths.

Like the 'Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' and 'Gojira', 'Them!' played on Cold War fears of the consequences of using nuclear weapons. The story may not be as relevant today as it was during the 50s, but as a student of history I find it rather interesting. And as a fan of action and sci-fi, 'Them!' has obviously had influences on 'Aliens', 'Starship Troopers', 'Terminator 2', and other movies.

'Them!' is a great sci-fi movie. It is a shame that many people my age would avoid it due to its age, it being in black and white, and not having special-effects on the level of the 'Matrix' - 9/10

Them! (1954)

[jazza923 · 7/10 · 18 March 2010]

78/100. I love these old 1950's sci-fi giant insect movies! This one is certainly among the best. It is tense, exciting and well produced. Edmund Gwenn is excellent, he adds validity to the film. The rest of the cast is very good. The fact it has a cast of some reasonably well know actors is a big plus. The special effects are quite impressive, even by todays standards, and especially for 1954. Director Gordon Douglas does a fine job keeping the film from going over the top and making it convincing with an interesting plot, rather than making it just a movie for the 1950's drive-in teenage crowd. Good cinematography and it moves at a great clip.

A first-rate nifty 50's creature feature classic

[Woodyanders · 10/10 · 27 August 2006]

Atomic bomb testing in the New Mexico desert creates a lethal giant mutant strain of ants which naturally pose a grave threat to mankind's status as the dominant species on the planet. It's up to stalwart police sergeant James Whitmore, no-nonsense FBI agent James Arness, sweet, cranky, dynamic old entomologist Edmund Gwenn, and Gwenn's equally feisty daughter Joan Weldon to stop the deadly gigantic insects before it's too late.

Director Gordon Douglas, working from a smart, witty and literate script by Ted Sherdeman, expertly crafts one of the best, most creepy and effective of the many over-sized killer monster movies that were made in the 50's, starting things out on an arrestingly spooky and mysterious note with the marvelously atmospheric and enigmatic opening third before progressing with a fine bunch of potent set pieces (the exploration of a corpse-littered underground ant colony is memorably eerie) and culminating with a tense and thrilling climactic confrontation between the army and the ants in the Los Angeles sewer drains. Sid Hickox's exquisitely crisp black and white photography, Bronislau Kaper's perfectly ominous, brooding score, the excellent special effects, the grimly serious tone, the tightly streamlined narrative and the nicely low-key, naturalistic acting from a uniformly sound cast (Gwenn especially is a rip-snorting delight) further add to the picture's sterling quality. Popping up in cool small parts are Fess Barker as a twitchy airplane pilot, William Schallert as an ambulance attendant, Sandy Descher (one of the titular kids in Jack Arnold's "The Space Children") as a frightened little mute girl, Leonard Nimoy as an Air Force sergeant, Dub Taylor as a peppery railroad night watchman, and Olin Howlin (the first victim of the original "The Blob") as a funny boisterous drunk ("Make me a sergeant! Give me the booze!"). A simply terrific gem that's wholly worthy of its classic status.

Boy, What a Big BUG!

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 26 April 2008]

One of the earliest and one of the best "big bug" movies to appear in the 1950s. There are these giant ants -- and I mean BIG ones -- that were caused by the first atomic bomb explosion in New Mexico. "Where was the first bomb exploded?", asks Edmund Gwen, the requisite scientist. "Near here, in the White Sands area," replies James Arness as the FBI agent, indicating on a map of New Mexico an area that is on the opposite side of the state. Not that the subtext is really concerned with the first atomic bomb. These monster films, with the creatures often generated by an atomic explosion, only began to appear after the USSR and the Chinese had exploded their own nuclear devices. That's the period in which Hollywood first became aware of the danger of these artifacts.

The film is continuously engaging, with hardly a dull moment, and follows the trajectory familiar to fans of the genre. A mysterious and lethal event occurs in a remote area. The local police are dismissive or baffled. But another minor catastrophe takes place and the scientific experts are called in to explain the goings-on. (One of them should be a beautiful young apprentice scientist.) The scientists and the agents of social control follow the cause of the disturbances to an urban area where the threat really turns serious. The military finally rides to the rescue.

This is a pretty good story, nicely thought out, and good use is made of location shooting in the Mojave desert and in the cement bed of the LA River and the tunnels surrounding it. The acting, too, lifts this above the norm. The principals are all reliable. Whitmore is Everyman. Arness is so big and so polite that he beguiles. And Edmund Gwen has his comic moments, especially when he is in an airplane, wrestling with proper radio procedure. Joan Weldon, as the foxy young scientist, isn't much of an actress.(She was a singer.) But she brings her high zygomatics and a certain elegance to a part that, in all honesty, doesn't call for much more than that.

The scientific element of the plot requires a suspension of disbelief that is only rarely achieved outside of frankly paranoid states. No animal the size of ants could survive by breathing through book lungs, for instance, and other problems are curtly dismissed by the experts. No pupae? It's an effect of the atomic radiation. "Yes, that would explain it," agrees Edmund Gwen with no further attempt at explanation. But none of this is in any way irritating because the movie is so good natured, so generous, and so genuinely eager to wrap the viewer in its spell.

It bears repeated viewings well. Instead of stop-motion, the creatures are life-sized (or miniature) mechanical models. And if they're not especially believable, well, this was 1954, before the age of computer-generated images. I don't believe the film is as good as a few others, such as "The Thing From Another World," but it's far from pedestrian and is much better than much of the stuff that was to follow.

All around, a nice job.

Classic 1950s paranoia

[opsbooks · 10/10 · 8 March 2003]

Scared the life out of me at an early age - my Dad could do a great impersonation of the noise those ants made :) Since then the movie, for me anyway, has come to represent 1950s paranoia over the effects of atomic radiation. Fast-moving story with thankfully next to nothing love interest, a good cast, wonderful soundtrack and photography. A movie which I never tire of watching. Interesting to compare the shots in the LA drainage canals with those in 'Grease'. Same locations but the steam locos have long gone. I await a DVD with extras with great interest ...

much better than it has any right to be - all hail the WILHELM scream!

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 2 August 2015]

It starts out with a murder mystery: what happened in this room where everything looks completely messed up? What about the sugar cubes? And the little girl who is in shock and will one day probably serve as inspiration for when Newt is discovered in Aliens? Who could've done this to this home? As it turns out, there is something very fishy going on... whoops, sorry, wrong animal classification. There are giant ants, as it turns out (and the filmmakers cleverly wait until 28 minutes in to the movie), and of course once you see just once ant there's a whole colony of them with a Queen. And not just one colony, if there are more than one queen - this information provided, of course, by the very helpful Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwenn) who seems to know all there is to know about ants and, thus, knows everything about these giant, atomic-age ants.

How can this be? Who cares? This is the kind of movie where you almost need the information given to you because, hey, it's THAT kind of 50's sci-fi B-movie hallmark. We even get, in a scene where it's meant for some key people in Washington but it's mostly for those yokels in the audience who know next to nothing about the little critters, a step-by-step illustration of what they can do on film: lifting objects much greater than their own size, finding ways to dig around objects much bigger than themselves, and how their antennae and hearing is so intense that their lack of good eyesight doesn't matter much.

THEM! is kind of lacking in really engaging character development but, again, who cares right? The good part about Them is that it is always moving forward with purpose: what to do next about the ants? How did they get on to a ship? Could they be in Los Angeles?! There are also a lot of little details that help to give some characterizations along the way, or just in side people who we only see briefly. When the little girl finally gets her smelling salts and delivers the classic, campy "THEM!" line over and over, it's hard not to smile and laugh a little.

When the doctor is on the helicopter having to communicate with his daughter (a very good Joan Weldon) on another copter, he just can't seem to get the concept of saying "Over" after every sentence he gives, and it's a clever little bit of comedy amid the tension of this scene (the characters even point out it's just one of those things movie characters have to do, without saying it explicitly). And when the cops have to question some drunks and speeder who may have been in the area in LA where ants were, the speeder turns out to be a woman who was going so fast early in the morning after, well, being married and out all night with "someone else". Oops.

And the ants themselves - lumbering, big-headed things that were meant in part for 3D (a couple of shots show that for sure in close-ups), and while they are ludicrous monstrosities, they're kind of adorable things just in the wake of today's glut of CGI pictures. One can't imagine, of course, one of these ants in the Marvel Ant-Man movie, but then in this time and place we'd practically *want* to see something like this. It's real, it's in their faces, and when one of them picks someone up it's not fake... OK, it is a fake ant, but you know what I mean.

THEM! crams in its parable about the dangers of the atomic age - hey, this was just ONE of the effects of the A-bomb, what about the others that went off (they don't say it but, eh, Japan, right) - but it's also a skillful thriller, and it takes its actors and situations seriously enough with decent dialog and performances. What it may lack in making these fully fleshed out characters it makes up for with a rigorously told story and multiple Wilhelm screams.

Classic science fiction movie.

[dencon · 10/10 · 13 August 2000]

This 1954 film is a classic: first-rate cast, intelligent screenplay, and exceptional special effects. It is as enjoyable to watch in 2000 as it was in 1954. While cold-war "jitters" about lingering A-bomb radiation gave rise to the film, it stands on its own as a great adventure film, and the quaint clothes, hair styles and automobiles are an added source of entertainment!

The Door for a New World

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 12 May 2012]

In the New Mexico desert, the Police Sgt. Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and his partner find a child wandering in the desert and sooner they discover that giant ants are attacking the locals. The FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) teams up with Ben and with the support of Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and his daughter Dr. Patricia 'Pat' Medford (Joan Weldon), they destroy the colony of ants in the middle of the desert.

Dr. Harold Medford explains that the atomic testing in 1945 developed the dangerous mutant ants. But they also discover that two queen ants have flown away to Los Angeles and they are starting a huge colony in the underground of the city. When a mother reports that her two children are missing, the team and the army have a lead to follow. Will they arrive in time to save the children and destroy the colony?

"Them!" is a classic sci-fi and an early film about giant mutants that threaten the human race. This film was made in the beginning of the Cold War and gives a message in the end against the use of nuclear weapons when Dr. Harold Medford say that we have opened the door for a new world. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mundo em Perigo" {"The World in Danger")

*.5,1.5 out of 5 stars,a truly overrated ant b-film

[PJS-5 · 3/10 · 29 April 1999]

Before there was "ANTZ" before "A bug's Life" there was this overrated Ant monster film (now before you think of me as a nasty critic,I'm actually 1 one of those who commonly takes it easy on plenty of movies & T.V shows). The movie has a bunch of gigantic ants, a traumatized overacting li'l girl who only shouts "Them!","Them!",& a plotline which is something from a horrid B-movie,I find it truly amazing on how this film got to become such a hit,okay so Edmund Gween's(origianl Miracle on 34th st.) performance was actually rather good & at least the ants didn't look as lame as other B-movie monsters(perhaps that's 1 of the main reasons why this film got so liked),although everybody else's acting was incredibly hokey & the traumitazed li'l girl's line PLEASE!,I know she's traumatized but give her a better line to say!,even though there's some likeabilites (actually only 2),the film looked like another 50's B-Movie.