Des monstres attaquent la ville

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.

No science-fiction library is complete without this 1954 classic, probably the best of the mutant creature craze. Sure, the special effects have long been eclipsed by digital, but the suspense holds up as LA mobilizes to defeat the giant killer ants in a battle of the sewers. The opening scenes are among the best of any era. I don't know how director Douglas got little Sandy Descher to emulate wide-eyed speechless shock, but from that moment on the tension rarely lets up. Then too, her single word eruption in the van may be the single scariest moment and a genuine inspiration on somebody's part. I guess it takes a big man to defeat big ants and thank goodness James Arness has switched to our side since menacing the North Pole in The Thing (1951). He, Whitmore, and Gwenn prove to be great pest exterminators though their methods are a little unorthodox, while poor pretty Joan Weldon sort of tags along after the guys in typical 50's style. Note the many nice touches from both the producer and director-- the well-stocked press conference, the army units deploying in the background, the humorous aside from the ugly guy in the hospital. These are the kind of additions that turn a good movie into a memorable one. It's certainly one I've remembered fondly since its enthusiastic 1954 reception, and so will you if you haven't seen it.

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.

"Them" is simply one of the most influential films of all time. This was the first film to deal with our fears of the atomic age and the what if scenario of what our continued testing and use of nuclear arms and how they would affect mother nature. Within the next few years we were bombarded with giant locusts, lizards and mutated humans of all sorts. In fact, this film was the inspiration for "Godzlla" (or "Gojira" as he is known in Japan). In fact, the giant insects in "Rodan" were a directly inspired by "Them". This film also works as a murder mystery as well. In the first half hour, the viewer thinks that he is looking at a whodunnit until the appearance of the giant ants. This film works on so many different levels that it still holds up well nearly fifty years after it was first released.

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