The Thing from Another World
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The Thing from Another World
Image of 1951 theatrical poster
1951 theatrical poster
Directed by Christian Nyby
Produced by Edward Lasker
Screenplay by Charles Lederer
Howard Hawks
(uncredited)
Ben Hecht
(uncredited)
Based on Who Goes There? (1938)
by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Starring Margaret Sheridan
Kenneth Tobey
Douglas Spencer
Robert O. Cornthwaite
James Arness
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography Russell Harlan, ASC
Editing by Roland Gross
Studio Winchester Pictures Corporation
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release dates
April 29, 1951
Running time 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1,950,000 (US rentals)[1]
The Thing from Another World (often referred to as The Thing before its 1982 remake), is a 1951 RKO Pictures black-and-white science fiction film based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell (writing under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart). The story concerns an Air Force crew and scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost forced to defend themselves against a malevolent, plant-based humanoid alien.[2]
The film stars Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer. James Arness played The Thing, but he is difficult to recognize in costume and makeup, due to both low lighting and other effects used to obscure his features.[2]
No actors are named during the film's dramatic "slow burning letters through background" opening title sequence; the cast credits appear at the end of the film. The film was partly shot in Glacier National Park and interior sets built at a Los Angeles ice storage plant.[2]
The Thing from Another World is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s.[3] In 2001 the film was deemed to be a "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant motion picture by the United States Library of Congress and was...