The Things
Over at The House Next Door, John Lingan offers some thoughts on both the 1951 and 1982 films of The Thing , films well worth viewing and an essay well worth reading. The 1951 version is credited as directed by Christian Nyby , but most evidence points to Howard Hawks , who is credited as producer, having done most of the work we'd generally associate with a director. (For the whole story of this, see Todd McCarthy's wonderful Hawks biography .) John Carpenter , who directed the 1982 version, is a devout Hawks fan, but interestingly, The Thing is a much less Hawksian movie than some of his others. I like both versions very much, though Hawks's seems to me relatively minor in comparison to masterpieces like Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not , and Rio Bravo , each of them among the greatest films to come out of Hollywood. The Thing is wonderful on a variety of levels (though perhaps least on ...