View allAll Photos Tagged Unkillable
Today in Sydney.
Wednesday, 3rd December, 2025.
My variegated Gerbera in the afternoon light of the garden here in the Hills District of Sydney.
This particular variegated Gerbera is the best Gerbera I have ever had. It is unkillable. It just keeps going year after year - like a Jean Genie, lol.
And here is 'Jean Genie' by David Bowie:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYg_Ra4cr8
My Canon EOS 5D Mk IV with the Canon EF 100mm f/4L IS II USM lens.
Processed in Adobe Lightroom.
Clivia flower taken at Toronga Zoo Sydney in 2020.
Clivias are wonderful, almost unkillable plants, which brighten the garden during late winter and early spring with clusters of vibrant yellow throated, orange or salmon trumpet flowers. The flowers are held on stalks above the clump of dark green strap-like leaves.
Native to Natal, South Africa
I have this persistent fantasy where a) I have my shit together and b) I get up early in the morning and c) I go out shooting, just to see what I can see.
Yesterday I almost made it happen.
The day dawned foggy and misty but warm... and I knew that, when the sun broke out, I'd have opportunities to shoot some moist dewy dropletty things in the woods. So I grabbed my camera (for the first time in ages) and leashed up Echo and headed out before Mike had even left for work.
The spiders were ready for us. Holy smokaroleys. There were whole trees hung with glistening webs... and bushes and grasses and even broom and gorse. Those enterprising spiders don't miss a trick. They'd webbed up pretty much everything they could. And every single web was glistening with drops. And I got there just in time.
See... until the sun busts out, the droplets look like nothing. And... not long after the sun busts out, the droplets evaporate... and are nothing. So yesterday I had the timing absolutely down. Too bad I had so much trouble with focus. It's hard to get close enough to shoot the individual drops without breathing on the webs, or touching something they're hooked onto, or otherwise getting them swinging. The slightest bit of breeze can fuck you up completely, as can the slightest shake of hands or move of head.
But hey. I was out there. I got off my ass and actually pointed and clicked.
I'd like to say I'm back but... I don't think so. It's gonna take more than a few dewy webs to restore my photomania.
How the fuck are we supposed to know
When I'm a monster, the way
You refuse to die?
How the fuck are we supposed to know
If we're in love or if in we're pain
I'm a tightrope walker
I can't find my circus
And I'm damaged beyond repair
You're just a coffin of a girl I knew
And I'm buried in you
You never said "I'll end up like this"
|||| The Event ||||
The Hallows || 2020 || maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dew%20Drop/189/180/1002
|||Featured Swag|||
::Static:: Prop Hunt H2020 - 13 Haunted Hill Mansion Sign
HILTED - Howler - Hale
HILTED - Howler - Apex
::Static:: Wendigaunt Avatar - 13 {Mesmer}
Special thanks to [Faust-Inferinum-Exports] for the Chainsaw blogger gift!
(Non-event note - All the blood soaked clothing came from Erratic!! Thanks for the gore!)
These plants have impressive flower spikes in summer however they are a pest plant that is almost unkillable. If you have one in the garden you will never get rid of it. The tiniest piece of plant will root and create a new plant.
Green, mindless, unkillable ghosts.
In Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house.
The glass is tinged with green, even so…
-- From the poem “Kudzu" by James Dickey
(Found near Helena, Arkansas, about 80 miles south of Memphis)
Told her that I have a black thumb, but she insisted this type is unkillable. emmm...
Fuji Instax Mini film, by Mint TL70.
These are today's haul. I'm looking forward to reading all of them, but I think I'll start with Grizzly Shark.
DEADPOOL (2015) # 9
DEADPOOL VS. SABRETOOTH, Parts II When two unkillable men go to war, there’s bound to be collateral damage. But this time, Deadpool is serious about it. I know, I know—how can Deadpool be serious?
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS # 2
Scorpina goes for Tommy where it hurts the most. Rita won't give up on her Green Ranger that easily. With Tommy’s life hanging in the balance, the Rangers must get together to save their friend, or risk losing him forever.
GRIZZLYSHARK # 1
The sold out, cult hit blackand- white issue is back, now in full color! Followed by all-new issues that continue the bloody adventures of the world’s most feared animal, the Grizzly Shark!
THINK TANK CREATIVE DESTRUCTION # 1
An unknown enemy destroys the technological infrastructure of the United States. Panic and conspiracy theories spread as David Loren and his misfit science team continue work on the TALOS project, trying to make “Iron Man” suits a reality in California.
THE HOUSE OF MONTRESOR # 3
Edana Fortunato is the sole surviving heir of two great families: clan Fortunato and the House of Montresor. Inheriting the money depends on Edana proving she is of sound mind, but even she doubts her sanity as the very walls of the house seem to be closing in. When Ingrid goes missing, Count Montresor reveals more sordid family secrets. Edana is about to learn there is more to fear than she ever dreamed.
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD # 19
The Suicide Squad’s freedom proves to be short-lived when their liberators are revealed to be none other than the Fist of Cain, the insane, ultra-violent death cult for whom murdering famous super-villains would be a thrilling path to glory. Harley Quinn and Deadshot fight for their lives while Amanda Waller and Captain Boomerang decide whether they even want to save these most bitter rivals!
Wild sage is such a fascinating plant, with its "Towers of Hanoi" appearance, ridiculously delicious scent, and it is largely unkillable nature (trust me, I've been growing one for years, it somehow survives my neglect).
Well they're native to California and flowering right now.
And my advice? Go see one now!
Durge was a fearsome male Gen'Dai bounty hunter who was active during the Clone Wars and Imperial Era. Durge was involved in the Clone Wars by working for the Separatist against the Galactic Republic. He got the title of being unkillable after battling many Jedi and clone troopers. He was a feared legend that even the pirate Hondo Ohnaka did not want any part of after hearing stories of the Gen'Dai bounty hunter, fearing his own safety.
Arguably one of the hardest characters to build correctly, doing this on a limited timeframe proved especially difficult. Noticeable elements that were challenging included the curves and angles that make up his armour and stature, as well as sprinkling in the color that can be seen. To do the red markings on the shoulder plates, small pieces of flex tube were cut to include those components. I think my favourite aspect is the use of the cut curved slopes for the neck area, something taken right from his build in the show.
Thank you goes to my friends Dominic & Emil for helping assemble the bounty hunter and his speeder in time to be shown at BrickFair Virginia. Proved the challenge at 2AM, but we emerged victorious. Let me know what you think of the final design. Maybe I’ll even release instructions…
Follow my plastic adventures here or on these platforms.
*Drury is packing a suitcase. He is stopped by a sudden noise*
Drury- Who’s there?
Blaze- Oh. Just the ghosts of sins past
Drury- Blaze? ….Am I hallucinating?
Blaze- Seems possible. Or maybe I’m just unkillable
Drury- No, no. You fell to your death. Guts everywhere. Maybe… I was drugged a few months ago after all. At Simon’s funeral
Blaze- Ah Simon. Your eldest. He gets to come back and he was splattered all over the funeral home. From what I know I haven’t even been scraped off the pavement!
Drury- How long does Crane’s toxin last anyway?
Blaze- Fuck man, don’t ask me that. I’m just… you know what? Just consider me a little angel on your shoulder.
Drury- Or a devil.
Blaze- Heh. So that’s a really nice picture. Is that you as Batman?
Drury- …it was cosplay karaoke…
Blaze- Eh?
Drury- Cosplay Karaoke
Blaze- That is unreal. Unreal. And I’m saying that as the hallucination of the friend you killed.
Drury- Uh huh
Blaze- Did you ever have a ghost Carson? After you killed him the first time, that is
Drury- No. I don’t think he stays dead long enough to become a ghost
Blaze- Ah, this is fun. Who says Scarecrow Toxins can’t be fun?
- - - - - - - - - -
Len- We’re closed moron. Private event
Spook- Listen Len, please. That’s Andrea Beaumont. Andrea Beaumont. Dooooo you knooooow hooooow much pestering I had tooooo dooooo tooo get her toooo agree toooooo this?
Len- Fine, just quit it with the spooky shit. Give me a moment. RIGGER! Tell your DnD club its time they left
Rigger- But-
Len- Butts are for anal you plum. Shift it
Rigger- Aw right. Sorry guys, we’ll reconvene tomorrow
* A collection of Pyro-Themed-Felons exit the bar*
Phantasm- Well Val?
Spook- Andrea, ever since I met you I have always loved you. Now that Bruce Wayne’s off your list of partners… it’s just-
Gar- Oh good Len’s is still open
*Gar, Chancer, and Abner burst through the front door*
Len- Like fucking Times Square here.
Gar- Hey Len, we’ve just been to Hell. Thirsty business
Chancer- I’m Chancer by the way. You might remember me.
Len- Oh I remember....
Gar- Len, be cool.
Irving- I'm back too!
Gar- Yeah, not for lack of trying, stand over there will you?
*Norbert sulks away in a huff and goes to the phone*
Phantasm- I’m sorry Mel, I don’t see you in that way
Spook- But, we’re both ghost themed *sob* Ghost themed! This is all your fault! You’ll regret crossing The Spooooooooooook!
Rigger- Gar? Is that you?
Len- Jesus, I thought you left.
Rigger- I’m stuck to the seat. But Gar, didn’t you hear? Drury killed Blaze. The president himself is flying in to meet with him. And the Pyro Guild Association aren’t happy. You know that, by the degree of The Arsonist Agreement, *you* took responsibility for The Misfit’s actions, should any of us ever kill a pyro
Gar- To be fair, I was really drunk when I signed that
Rigger- We all signed it. Mick took responsibility for the Rogues, Skull-The Superman Revenge Squad Meltdown-The Manhattan Men and the Human Flame took responsibility for his split personality Terry.
Chancer- Well, you’re all screwed. The Pyro Pals don’t take kindly to the deaths of one of their own... Specially not Snowflame.
Rigger- That's what I'm saying!
Irving- And I'm saying, get against the wall.
*Planet Master throws Chancer against the wall*
Gar- Hang on, Norbert, wait a minute-
Irving- Sorry Gar. Now, join your friends over there.
Rigger- I’m still stuck.
Irving- Fine, everyone stand beside Rigger...
Gar- Why?
Irving- I don't have a lot of friends Gar, you know this. But I do have Zodiac. And as much as he treats me like crap, he's always there for me. You on the other hand, literally left me in Arkham this now. So I'm urging you, up against the fucking wall. And I'll make it quick. Drop your flamethrower.
*Gar complies, sliding it over. Planet Master grabs it, and smiles*
Irving- Not so mean without this, are you.
Gar- Norbert... I have nothing else to say except EAT RIGGER
*Gar and Chancer pick up Rigger and throw him at Norbert, who, in a panic activates the flamethrower*
Len- MY BAR! MY BAR! You fuckin' maniac!
Gar- Len, forget it! We’ve got to find Drury!
- - - - - - - - - - -
*Norbert emerges from the rubble The ZoDevoe Master appears in a burst of light*
Zodiac- You donkey cock. All I asked you to do was kill some C-Listers
Irving- I'm sorry, I just need another chance! I mean, Chancer is inherently lucky. How am I supposed to beat that?
Zodiac- You can’t, I can… by becoming him…
Irving- Eh?
Zodiac- I mean… never mind. You could never understand
Irving- What’re you-? Zodiac!
*An arm emerges from Zodiac’s chair and latches itself on Hangman’s head, beginning the body transference*
Irving- Wait! I'll be good! I'll be-
Zodiac- Problem solving
Last fall we dug up this bed due to rampant, and apparently unkillable, weeds. Yet, this little lovely escaped the slaughter.
"...agh...gaaggh...this--this fucking thing...argh...aaarrggh!...GGRRAAGGH--"
*SSHHRRRCCKKTT*
"AAAGGHH!!! AAaaghh!!...it...it shouldn't hurt!...aaghh....haahh..."
...he just ripped that blade out of him. That giant-ass blade was all the way through his goddamn torso. The cure is in his system and he still just ripped that blade out of him like nothing....did the cure not work? Is Calley unkillable? Christ, how am I gonna win this?...
K: "Really? You have this filth at your complete mercy and you STILL fear him? You make it hard to respect you, J."
"You stay the fuck outta this!!"
K: "I was going to, but by the looks of it, I can't. So here's what must happen, J. If you can't face one monster...."
"What the fuck?....."
K: "...then face another!"
The zombie apocalypse was contained... but in a secret lab somewhere shadowy secret powers tried experimented on captured zombies and humans, who wouldn't be missed, to create an unkillable super-soldier... foul, inhumane and unspeakable research which took a special kind of scientist to oversee.
But the experiments achieved nothing usable or even remotely controllable, and dozens of staff died... all apart from the lead scientist... already a twisted and cruel individual these experiements took him over the edge... and beyond... exposure to zombie tissue and juices (whether accidental or not) began to turn him... it... into something else.
Too late the nameless authorities tried to close the project down. Official papers call the operation a success...
... but it's whispered the scientist escaped... and somewhere the abominable experiments continue...
(more cheerful Halloween stuff with return tomorrow!)
Made in 2022, Adrian Carton De Wiart was a British-Belgian soldier who fought in wars across the world from 1901 to 1945, including both World Wars. He had survived hundreds of near fatal injuries, including being shot in the eye, losing his arm, and still is quoted saying about WW1: "Frankly, I enjoyed the War."
Read more about his history here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Carton_de_Wiart
His head is a painted J Jonah Jameson head.
Okay, I was a little too impatient.
Left-Right: Cyclops, Forge, Moonstone (Karla Sofen), Nana, Peter Parker, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, Chewie, and Blade
The sentinel build was so bad... I rebuilt it with my very few purple pieces. I also could not find a suitable orange cat for Chewie, so I just put a grey one there.
The actual plot is meh, it could be better. Honestly I like DCeased way better, and I can't wait for someone to make a figbarf on it.
Hey dude, there is a zombie apocalypse goin’ on, stop eating donuts!
West Coast Avengers coming out soon! I might do DCeased. I kinda want to be the first one. Doing the Unkillables Spin-off, I like it way better.
The villainous Dr Arkwright has been killed numerous times in the past; or so people presumed. He always manages to pop up again. All be it with increasingly less of his anatomy. Now just a brain and a heart it doesn't seem like he could survive another defeat. However, the new juggernaut of a body he's currently using has proven quite resilient to harm. So, the doctor will likely be around for while yet.
Athena Voltaire # 1
Kicking off the ongoing adventures of comics’ favorite pulp heroine! Athena races against the Nazis to find an artifact once possessed by Pope Sylvester II, but the allies helping her have their own agendas. Loyalties will be tested. With absolute power up for grabs, who can you trust?
Jenny Finn # 4 (Of 4)
Jenny has been captured and the terrible plague is coming to an end, but when Joe has the chance to escape London, a ghost from his past forces him to stay and finish what he started.
Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini # 3
The fabulous, rabbit-loving Minky Woodcock straps on her gumshoes in order to uncover a magical mystery involving the world-famous escape artist, Harry Houdini.nCreated by acclaimed artist, author, director, and playwright Cynthia Von Buhler (Speakeasy Dollhouse, Evelyn Evelyn, An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer).
Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt (2018-) # 1
The Dark Knights ride through the farthest reaches of the Multiverse to track down the unlikeliest of teams: The Flash, Cyborg, Raven and Detective Chimp. The mission: keep these heroes from completing their desperate quest to save all of existence! Plus, Challengers’ Mountain crackles with dark energy that will release an army of the world’s worst nightmares into the streets of Gotham City!
This one-shot also answers the question: Where are the Metal Men? And who is the latest addition to the team?
Black Betty # 1
Meet the newest member of Zombie Tramp universe!nBlack Betty has made a living killing the unkillable. She has taken down monsters of every shape and size with a style all her own. But when a man’s daughter is kidnapped by a local legend, Betty steps in to save her… for a price!nIf you need it dead (and you’ve got the cash!), Betty’s your girl!
Hack/Slash vs. Vampirella # 5 (of 5)
The final hand is dealt as Cassie, Vlad, and Vampirella try to stop the Blood Queen from getting the final heart she needs to summon the Mad God Chaos…and before one of them falls. Listen, someone is falling in this issue!
Number 40 for 100 Flowers
The ideal member of this family for those folk who aren't that good at gardening.
Unkillable in a well drained trough.
It is also called the 'Lifelong Saxifrage'
Here you can see better the noose that came with the DC Direct Alex Ross Scarecrow figure; I figured it'd add to the Ranger's undead/unkillable mystique.
Cyrus Gold was born some time around the early 19th century. In the year 1895, he had carried on an affair with a local prostitute from Gotham City named Rachel Rykel. According to Rykel, she was pregnant with Gold's child, and sought to extort money from him for her silence. Cyrus met with her for a secret negotiation at Slaughter Swamp, several miles outside of Gotham. When Gold refused to yield to blackmail, Rachel's pimp, Jem, dashed Cyrus across the back of the head with a shovel. They buried Gold in the swamp, content that no one would ever come looking for him. Over the span of fifty years, Gold’s body interacted with the detritus and sour vegetation of the swamp. Through an as of yet unknown process, Cyrus Gold's corpse transformed into a rotting, vegetative undead monstrosity that the world would soon come to know as Solomon Grundy. Note: In Pre-Crisis Earth-Two continuity, Cyrus Gold was murdered in the year 1894. In Post-Crisis continuity, his death took place in 1895.
Earth-Two Version's History EditIn 1944, Cyrus Gold's corpse was reanimated as a huge shambling figure with almost no memory of its past life. Gold murdered two escaped criminals who were hiding out in the marsh and stole their clothes. He showed up in a hobo camp and, when asked about his name, one of the few things he could recall was that he was "born on a Monday". One of the men at the camp mentioned the nursery rhyme character Solomon Grundy, and Gold adopted the moniker.
Strong, vicious, and nearly mindless, Solomon Grundy fell into a life of crime — or, perhaps returned to one according to his scattered residual memories — attracting the attention of the Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Grundy proved to be a difficult opponent, unkillable (since he was already dead) and with an inherent resistance to Scott's powers (which could not affect wood, a substance of which Grundy's reassembled body was now largely composed). Their first fight ended when Grundy was hurled under a train. The second battle with Grundy involved Green Lantern and his fellow members of the Justice Society of America tracking him across the country, depositing Grundy on the moon once he was defeated. A subsequent battle between the two ended up with Lantern burying Grundy in 1947.
At this point, he was pulled back to 1941 by the time-travelling criminal Per Degaton, who had enlisted the aid of several super-villains to capture the Justice Society of America on December 7, 1941 (the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor). The All-Star Squadron came to their rescue, and Grundy was then thrust back to the moon where he remained for over two decades.
Grundy eventually mastered the use of stored up emerald energy he had absorbed over the years from his several battles with his arch-foe, and returned to Earth to battle Lantern, Hourman and Doctor Fate. At this point, he had temporary mastery over all wooden objects, however he subsequently lost this power over time. [2]
He was briefly a member of the Injustice Society of the World. In the interim, he had battled the combined might of both the Justice Society, and later their counterparts the Justice League, nearly to a standstill, when he developed an affection for a lost alien child. Soon after, Grundy crossed over from his Slaughter Swamp prison on Earth-Two to Earth-One where he encountered that Earth's Superman (see more details below).
Grundy went on to afflict Green Lantern and his teammates, including the Huntress who was the first female for whom he developed an affection. After Solomon Grundy was rescued from a glacier by Alan Scott's daughter, Jade, Grundy became loyal to her and, for a while, was an ally of Infinity, Inc. Eventually, this affectionate relationship turned to tragedy as the villainous Marcie Cooper a.k.a. Harlequin of the Dummy's Injustice Unlimited, used her illusion powers to disguise herself as Jade. Harlequin manipulated Grundy to attack the members of Infinity Inc., one by one. She convinced him to press the unconscious Mister Bones's bare hand against Skyman; since Bones's skin constantly exudes a cyanide-based compound, this quickly led to Skyman's death. This was the beginning of the end for Infinity Inc., and for Grundy's quasi-heroic career.
Earth-One Version's History EditThe Earth-One Grundy arose when the Parasite used an enhanced crystal to metabolically hasten the growth of residual cells left over in the sewers from when the original version had crossed over from Earth-2, which became a new, much more bestial version. During a clash with Superman, it was determined his might was too much a match for the Man of Steel, so Superman flew the monster to an alien world inhospitable to all save the hardiest life forms. There, under the planet's reduced gravity, the Earth-One Grundy was appeased when Superman gave him a cape to wear as the zombie propelled himself through the air mimicking his one-time adversary.
This version repeatedly plagued Superman for years until, during an encounter wherein multiple Grundys were spawned, Superman and the Swamp Thing both encountered the clones. Soon, Superman obtained a compound from S.T.A.R. Labs which caused the Grundys to become inert, in effect killing the seemingly unkillable man-thing. Swamp Thing attempted to cry out for Superman to stop, as he believed Grundy to meet the definition of life, but Swamp Thing was unable to express this, due to a lack of vocal cords. [3] Meanwhile, the original and second templates existed. This version of Grundy was retroactively erased from history after the revamping of Superman in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Combined Earth's Continued History EditGreen Lantern and Solomon Grundy would clash many times over the years, though he would also square off against other DC heroes, including Batman. One storyline ("The Long Halloween", #12) involved Grundy and a newly-disfigured Harvey Dent striking up an odd friendship after Dent escaped to the sewers to plot his revenge on Sal Maroni, the man who pitched the acid into his face.
Grundy's next major appearance was in Starman, lurking in Opal City's sewers. Jack Knight befriended Grundy, who had taken on an innocent, child-like aspect. Grundy also became friends with previous Starman Mikaal Tomas, sacrificing himself to save Mikaal from being crushed by a collapsing building. When Grundy appeared again, he had returned to his malicious persona; the joint efforts of Jack Knight, Batman, Alan Scott and Floro were needed to stop him.
The origins of Grundy's resurrection come from the fact that the Parliament of Trees, a high council of Plant Elementals, tried to turn him into the newest Plant Elemental. However, the process was missing one vital piece: fire, as a Plant Elemental cannot be fully created unless it died in flames. Since Grundy's death did not involve fire at all, the process was not complete, and he became a sort of half-functional Plant Elemental. Grundy has been seemingly destroyed on several occasions, only to rise from the swamp again in a new incarnation. Each version of Grundy has been somewhat different from the last, depending on the medium used to dispatch him (and the drawing style of the current artist. The original Grundy, for example, had prominent front teeth). Some have been truly evil; some much less so. Some versions are more mindless than others; some are actually moderately intelligent, recalling the literate, well-spoken Frankenstein monster of Mary Shelley's novel.
Anti-Matter Earth Post Crisis Version Solomon Grundy had a counterpart in the Anti-Matter Universe's Earth called Sir Solomon Grundy and was a member of Cluemaster's Justice Underground. Sir Solomon Grundy is a distinguished, poised mountain of a man. During an aerial bombardment of Dover, he was blasted to life out of the white rock. Sir Grundy appears to be identical in physical appearance to our own Solomon Grundy with the exception of a trimmed mustache and a small goatee. In keeping with his educated personality, Sir Grundy dresses himself as a 19th century Englishman would, and speaks accordingly. His super strength and invulnerability made him a formidable hero, until Ultraman rendered him inert on a Saturday.
Recent history EditPrior to Infinite Crisis, he was mind controlled by Gorilla Grodd into attacking Batman and Superman by President Luthor for the bounty of 1 billion dollars in Superman/Batman. Batman was able to stop Grundy. While no specifics were given, Solomon Grundy was also coerced into joining the Secret Society of Super Villains. He participated in the final strike against the Secret Six. Ragdoll II encountered Grundy in a doorway. However, Ragdoll II asked Grundy to see his real face. Ragdoll's scarred face related to Grundy, and Grundy went on to turn against the Secret Society. The aftermath of that battle was inconclusive, but Grundy evidently survived, as he was last seen in a murky swamp in JSA Classified. In it, he was convinced by Icicle to help Wizard, who was in trouble.
After helping Icicle free Johnny Sorrow from Prometheus's cosmic key, Grundy stayed with the newly formed Injustice Society. What their new motives are and what role Grundy will play are unclear.
It is known that Grundy hid out for a time in the Arrowcave, the long abandoned former headquarters of the Emerald Archer, Green Arrow. While searching for artifacts of his former life, Oliver and his former ward, Roy "Arsenal" Harper, stumble onto Grundy's new hideout. The story, "Grundy No Like Arrows in the Face!", is found in Green Arrow (vol. 3) #18. Ollie notes that this version seems much more violent, and manages to kill him by choking him with the string to his broken bow. In Green Arrow (vol. 3) #53, "Solomon's Revenge", Ollie helps Dr. Chrissie Cavendish, a S.T.A.R. Labs employee, who claims she is the great, great grand-daughter of the man the monster spawned from, to find and cure him. Her cure, however, warps her into a monster much worse than Grundy. Ollie subdues the new monster, and leaves Grundy to be. It is not known if Grundy is still using this building.
In Infinite Crisis #7, Solomon Grundy was seen fighting against the Blood Pack in the Battle of Metropolis, until he was vaporized by Superboy-Prime's heat vision, which apparently killed the Blood Pack and destroyed Grundy's current incarnation.
Solomon Grundy returned in the Justice League of America series. He is depicted as intelligent and sophisticated seemingly serving as the brains behind a complex operation to willingly transfer Professor Ivo's immortality to Grundy. The story is on-going.
Seven Soldiers and the GrundymenEdit
In Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers series, the Witch-People of Limbo Town (who are descended from the immortal Melmoth) bury their dead, and later dig them up, at which point they become animate and are used as slave labour. These zombies are called "Grundies" or "Grundymen", and resemble Solomon Grundy. It has also been established that the Spawn of Frankenstein is partly animated by the immortal blood of Melmoth, making him a Grundyman.
Since Melmoth gained his immortality from the Cauldron of Rebirth, which he found in Slaughter Swamp, it is likely that this is also the explanation for the reanimation of Solomon Grundy.
Gallery EditThe Grundy of Earth-2 was not as imposing as the hulking beheamoth we know today.
Actuall story to this picture,
One night,in the old Gotham Graveyards,He has waken!Up from his grave,Grundy arose and said; "BORN ON A MONDAY!"and he shuffled a bit,"CHRISTENED ON A TUESDAY!"ran to a gravestone and knocked it right off."Batman,Im coming for you..."
NOTE:I got the info from Wiki and this particular Grundy is based off of The Batman Grundy.I made the little story up myself.
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
So this guy's not as dumb as he looks. I was expecting him to charge me with that sword of his which is easily the worst weapon to use on me assuming it isn't laser-sharpened. Instead he flicks this marble thing at my face. It explodes in a bright flash and disorients me. I take a couple steps back to try and get some distance. I hit a railing and I feel him dive kick me in the chest. The railing behind me gives and I fall. My vision comes back to me on the ground. I look ahead just in time to see the asshole dropping down to face me We fight for a bit there, his sword not doing shit to me. Still, he had moves. This guy is trained pretty well. Still, wish he knew when to shut the fuck up.
"I've studied you and I have to say I'm impressed. I can see why they say you're unkillable! Why scores of criminals cower at the thought of you! Your strength and brutality unmatched by any other in--"
"Oh yeah!! That's right! Work the shaft! Tell me I'm such a naughty boy!"
"...what?"
"Sorry about that, I just like to talk dirty when someone's busy sucking my dick like you just were."
"....not acknowledging that. What i was going to say is, despite your reputation, you're nothing to me! This is the day you fall! You and the woman once I find her!"
"....121."
"What?"
"Nothing. Just keep feeding your ego there, little slugger."
"You underestimate me!"
"If you really believe that, then you haven't studied me anywhere near as much as you should've....and 76...."
"Seriously, what does that mean?!"
'It means shut that oversized anus below your nose there and fight me, dickwaffle."
Daedra: You have finally arrived, little Dremora. Did you enjoy killing the unkillable?
Beth: Who are you? What was the point of attacking me with ghosts?
Daedra: I am Vaermina. the dreamweaver. You have slaughtered brother Molag Bal and sister Namira, but you cannot hope to defeat us all.. unequipped.
Beth: Are you saying I need these things.. what did you call them?
Vaermina: Sunder and Wraithguard. You saw how the instruments dispatched immortal spirits. Wake now, and seek them out.
Nine mortal men, doomed the moment they took possession of their rings. They exist as wraiths now, unkillable shadows from the nethweworld.
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
These toads are slowly destroying the country ... What was once a nuisance has now become a major problem, they are highly toxic, their poison even kills animal life that would feed on frogs ... and they are almost unkillable... Although this one is .... My mother in law forked him up real good like .
Ultron - A creation of Count Von Doom’s. Ultron was his attempt at creating life, but he made something much deadlier-an unkillable soldier. Ultron now leads Count Von Doom’s robotic soldiers in his conquests.
The sing-song snickers grew louder once a loud snap echoed from my partner’s open mouth, originating from their throat. Any struggle from my partner stilled instantly, every guttural noise they made similarly silenced as their head, forced to face the sky, was forcibly thrust upwards.
The buckle that followed might have come from tension on the neck, but most of the buck seemed to come from the hardened muck that had collected in a thick mass from their waistline upwards. The thick, syrupy expulsion seemed to becontinually pulled by gravity, but the weight of the viscous liquid reminded me of the gentle magma plumes I had been lucky enough to shoot. This thick compilation of carnage seemed to allow the creature to better stretch the drooling opening so it could free itself.
Another bone chilling crack and what was once their mouth began to stretch open. Further and further until the upper and lower jaw aligned in a perfect circle. I thought it my imagination, but the end result made it clear that the teeth and jaw line must have grown in both size and circumference. What I had assumed were only the pained twitches and spasms of my associate turned writing piece along with the pulsating of rapidly infected dentures must have hidden the slow and steady growth.
The creature pushed, kneaded, and clawed at this opening until that haunting laughter was loud enough it made my ears pop. My legs had finally found itself as I began to run. Not without seeing the pitch coated skeleton that comprised of its upper half and that horrible head force itself from what had once been a friend. Now it was beginning to look more and more like a bundled cocoon.
The claws were clamoring for a better spot to grip, the appalling digest bunching like loose clay at this point, regularly moistened by the noxious drool the chewy carapace never ceased dribbling. Especially as it began to lick, nibble, and suck at Lickyface’s spine almost in spite; a theorized reason for the golden skeleton parallel to its own is to protect itself from sudden separation from the lower half. Especially when it is particularly ornery, like with the fallen business associate. The colors seemed to naturally blend into the designs later pictured on its carapace, the more fluid blood having collected along the ‘stomach’ of the bug.
I was regrettably unable to see anything else of significance, such as the point the insectoid legs burst from the hardening muck that now survives as the lower half’s carapace, as this was when I began running. It was around this point I had obtained my first picture of it pursuing me through the mists, and the subsequent pictures of it cornering me in the shipping container.
-----------
Now, my attempts to hold a more dominant presence seemed to do little more than egg it on. Not in the way an animal might flaunt its alpha tendencies either. It was playful. Once I had taken my pictures it leaned close, far too close for comfort, and gave me just enough time to take a picture before it seemed to grow tired of playing model.
It gripped my head and tried to force it open with its gruesome claws, covering my tongue and lips with a tepid mixture of the previous mention indescribable flavor and a number of exotic new “spices” that continue to haunt my tongue like the ghosts of the most abysmal particles known to the cosmos.
I am quite lucky my boss saw to giving me a few more tricks, as peculiar and useless as they had previously seemed. In this case, what Doc had called Lockjaw. I was able to seal my jaw shut and prevent the creature from opening it. I even sucked my cheeks and lips inwards causing a mild shield. It all felt natural, but I am sure the ritual Doc had performed was what also made it feel like a muscle I had my entire life. Similarly, Flaps of cartilage, which were quite difficult to adapt to, would cover my nostrils while a thin film would cover my ear ducts and eyes like another eyelid. Finally, the Tragus (or, the once useless fleshy nub) of my ear pressed against the external auditory meatus (ear hole) finished the work of sealing my head. I couldn’t breathe, but at least I was waterproof (The less explained about the other… Traits needed to do this the better.)
Do not get me wrong. I died almost immediately after taking that picture. Horrifically. To the point THAT is the part I can not remember. At least I didn’t have that infectious vomit tamped into my gullet, as it reportedly loves to do.
I also am uncertain what happened to my body. My boss has yet to explain the intricacies of my immortality, saying we all had plenty of time for that another day, but I do know I woke up in one of my boss’s little hide aways (normally a swamp hut like this one) with my similarly enchanted camera.
Horrific as this all is, being nigh unkillable SURELY will make up for it. Hopefully, all the pop culture I read is right that I will either get used to it or get used to it by losing my mind while gaining a more crooked sense of humor.
=========================
=/=/ LOCATION /=/=
Ironwood Hills, Lost Boys
*~*~* BODY *~*~*
Shape by Me
Skin: + Fallen Gods Inc + Obsydian, Red Elemental, Shaved
*~* Head *~*
+ Aii + DreamWeaver (Rage) // Copied and Cobbled into the void in his head.
Hair: Magicka Things
Head: DRD / Death Row Designs | Faces Of Death / F.O.D | Blind Venomous Carnage
*~* Torso *~*
Ro / Remarkable Oblivion - Azrael Bone Wings - Red
Ro / Remarkable Oblivion - Broken Heart Necklace
- Cobbled and Copied by me over Torso and Arms -
+ Aii + DreamWeaver's Eye (Dream)
[ni.Ju] Cheeky Chompers
Yellow JesteR - Jeepers Peepers
*~* Arms *~*
+ Aii + Sinner Hands
*~* Waist & Hips *~*
+ Aii + Gluttonous Orifice
*~* Legs, So Many Legs *~*
+ Aii + Centipede Body
*~*~* CLOTHING *~*~*
*~* Head *~*
Tamagosenbei Purple Eye Yokai Pet
[ The Forge ] Witcher Headpiece, Gold
*~* Torso *~*
.aisling. Fangarth Necklace
.aisling. Ragun
DRD / Death Row Designs | Zombie Apoc - Zombie Arm
PFC / Pucca FireCaster creations ~ Bones - Choker
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
my boyfriend calls me the plant killer because it doesn't matter how much i try, i seem to kill every plant... even the ones that he says are "unkillable". But.... i got this pretty little orchid plant 4 months ago and have not only kept him alive... but he now has 5 new flower buds growing on him. :)
it's seriously a miracle!
explore #18 :)
Strange figures I've seen many times along Pittsburgh's North Shore Trail, but never bothered to shoot... until now.
The Thing from Another World 1951
Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!
—Ned “Scotty” Scott
www.popscreen.com/v/7aMWr/The-Thing-from-Another-World Full Feature
www.youtube.com/v/T5xcVxkTZzM Trailer
This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
Howard Hawks' early foray into the science fiction genre took advantage of the anti-communist feelings of the time to help enhance the horror elements of the story. McCarthyism and the Korean War added fuel to the notion of Americans stalked by a force which was single of mind and "devoid of morality." But in the end, it is American soldiers and scientists who triumph over the evil force - or the monster in the case of this film. Even today, this is considered one of the best of the genre.
Film review by Jeff Flugel. June 2013
There's not a lot new or particularly insightful I can offer when it comes to discussing the seminal sci-fi flick, The Thing from Another World that hasn't been written about ad naseum elsewhere. One of the most famous and influential of all 1950s creature features, it kicked off more than a decade of alien invasion and bug-eyed monster movie mayhem, inspired a host of future filmmakers (one of whom, John Carpenter, would go on to direct his own version of the story in 1982), and remains one of the best-written and engaging films of its kind.
Loosely (and I do mean loosely) adapted from John W. Campbell's novella, "Who Goes There?," The Thing is legendary director Howard Hawks' lone foray into the science fiction/ horror genres, but it fits comfortably into his filmography, featuring as it does Hawks' favorite themes: a group of tough professionals doing their job with ease, good-humored banter and practiced finesse; a bit of romance with a gutsy dame who can easily hold her own with the boys; and lots of overlapping, razor-sharp dialogue. Featuring a script by Charles Lederer and an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Thing is easily the most spryly written and funniest of all 50s monster movies. In fact, it's this sharpness in the scripting, and the extremely likeable ensemble cast of characters, rather than the now-familiar story and somewhat unimaginative monster design, that makes the film still feel fresh and modern to this day.
There's likely few people out there reading this who don't know the story of The Thing like the back of their hand, but here goes...When an unidentified aircraft crashes close to a remote research station near the North Pole, Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey, in the role of his career) and his squad are dispatched there to investigate. Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) heads the scientific contingent there, and he informs Hendry that he thinks the downed craft is possibly "not of this earth." A joint team of soldiers and scientists head out to the crash site and find an actual, honest-to-goodness flying saucer lying buried under the ice.
The spaceship is destroyed while the men try to melt the ice around it with thermite bombs, but they find a lone, 8-foot-tall extraterrestrial occupant frozen nearby and bring the body back to the outpost in a block of ice. Dr. Carrington and his crew of eggheads want to study the thing, but Hendry is adamant that it should be kept as is until he gets word from his superior in Anchorage, General Fogerty. It wouldn't be a monster movie without something going pear-shaped, of course, and before you know it, a careless mistake results in the creature being thawed out of his iceberg coffin and going on a bit of a rampage, taking out a number of sled dogs and a few unsuspecting scientists along the way. The rest of the film details the tense battle between the surviving humans and the coldly intelligent, remorseless alien invader, which seems virtually unkillable, impregnable to cold, bullets and fire...
The set-up for the film, and how everything eventually plays out, might seem overly familiarly nowadays, but in 1951, this was cutting-edge stuff, at least in cinemas. The Thing plays as a veritable blueprint of how to make a compelling "alien monster-on-the-loose" movie. Howard Hawks not being particularly well-versed, or even interested in, science fiction per se likely worked to its benefit, as he ended up making, as he so often did in his other films, what is first-and-foremost a well-oiled entertainment, rather than simply a genre exercise.
Typical of a Hawks film, The Thing is meticulously designed, composed and shot, but in such a way as to appear offhand. Hawks almost never went in for showy camera angles or flashy effects. His technique was nearly invisible; he just got on with telling the story, in the most straightforward, unfussy way. But this easy, seemingly effortless style was very carefully considered, by a shrewd and knowing mind. As Bill Warren, author of one of the best (and certainly most encyclopedic) books about 1950s sci-fi filmmaking, Keep Watching the Skies, notes in his detailed analysis of the film:
As most good movies do, The Thing works in two areas: sight and sound. The locale is a cramped, tunnel-like base; the men are confined within, the Thing can move freely outdoors in the cold. Compositions are often crowded, with more people in the shot than seems comfortable, reinforcing the idea of confinement After the Thing escapes, only the alien itself is seen standing and moving alone.
This feeling of a cold, hostile environment outside the base is constantly reinforced throughout the film, and a real tension mounts when, towards the climax, the highly intelligent Thing, itself immune to the subzero arctic conditions, turns off the compound's heating, knowing the humans inside will quickly die without it. (The freaky, otherworldly theremin-flavored music by Dimitri Tiomkin adds a lot to the eerie atmosphere here.)
As groundbreaking and well-structured as the plot of The Thing was (and is), what makes the film play so well today is the great script and the interaction of a bunch of seasoned character actors, who toss off both exposition and pithy bon mots in such a low-key, believable manner. This is a truly ensemble movie, and the fact that it doesn't feature any big name stars really adds to the overall effect; no one really hogs all the limelight or gets the lion's share of good lines. Hawks was a director who usually worked with the biggest names in the business, but, much as in the earlier Air Force, he was equally at home working with a cast of rock-solid character actors.
All this talk of Howard Hawks as director, when it's actually Christian Nyby who is credited with the job, has long been a source of speculation with fans of the film. Todd McCarthy, in his bio Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, seems to clear the issue up once and for all (though really, after viewing enough Hawks films, the results speak for themselves):
The perennial question surrounding The Thing From Another World has always been, Who actually directed it, Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks? The sum of participants' responses make the answer quite clear. Putting it most bluntly, (associate producer) Ed Lasker said "Chris Nyby didn't direct a thing. One day Howard was late and Chris said,'Why don't we get started? I know what the shot should be.' And I said, 'No, Chris, I think we'll wait until Howard gets here." Ken Tobey testified, "Chris Nyby directed one scene. Howard Hawks was there, but he let Chris direct one scene. We all rushed into a room, eight or ten of us, and we practically knocked each other over. No one knew what to do." Dewey Martin, Robert Cornthwaite and Richard Keinen all agreed that Hawks was the director, and Bill Self said, "Chris Nyby was a very nice, decent fellow, but he wasn't Howard Hawks."
Nyby had been Hawks' editor on a number of films, and Hawks apparently decided to help his collaborator establish a name for himself by allowing him directorial credit on the film. This seemingly altruistic gesture didn't mean that Hawks wasn't involved in virtually every aspect of the making of the film, however, and ultimately, The Thing did little for Nyby's directing career, at least on the big screen (he did go on to a long and busy career directing for numerous television programs, however.)
Bill Self was told at the time that Hawks didn't take directing credit on The Thing because it was planned as a low-budget film, one in which RKO didn't have much confidence. But, as critics have been saying ever since it was released, The Thing is a Howard Hawks film in everything but name. The opening scene of various members of the team bantering is so distilled as to be a virtual parody of Hawksian overlapping dialogue. Even more than Only Angels Have Wings, the picture presents a pristine example of a group operating resourcefully in a hermetically sealed environment in which everything in the outside world represents a grave threat. (3)
In addition to all the masculine camaraderie and spooky goings-on, one of the best aspects of The Thing is the fun, charming little tease of a romance between Capt. Hendry and Nikki (top-billed Margaret Sheridan). Nikki works as Prof. Carrington's assistant and is not merely the requisite "babe" in the film. True to the Hawksian norm, she's no pushover when it comes to trading insults with the men, nor a shrinking violet when up to her neck in perilous situations. Unlike most actresses in 50s monster movies, she doesn't utter a single scream in The Thing
and in fact, it's her practical suggestion which gives Bob, Hendry's ever-resourceful crew chief (Dewey Martin), the notion of how to finally kill the monster. Lederer and Hecht's screenplay hints at the backstory to Nikki and Pat's relationship in humorous and oblique ways, and their flirtation amidst all the chaos adds sparkle to the film but never gets in the way of the pace of the story. One nice little throwaway exchange near the finale encapsulates their verbal give-and-take, as Nikki playfully pokes the temporarily-befuddled Hendry, as his men scurry about, setting Bob's plan in motion.
Nikki: Looks as if the situation's well in hand.
Hendry: I've given all the orders I'm gonna give.
Nikki: If I thought that were true, I'd ask you to marry me.
Sheridan, a former model signed to a 5-year contract by Hawks, is quite good here, but after The Thing her career never really caught fire and she retired from acting a few years later. The closest thing to a star turn in the film is Kenneth Tobey as Capt. Hendry. Tobey racked up an impressive number of credits throughout his nearly 50-year-long career, generally as gruff, competent military men or similar types, and he was always good value, though it's as Capt. Hendry in The Thing that he truly shines. He consistently humanizes the no-nonsense, take charge man of action Hendry by displaying an easygoing approach to command. Most of Hendry's men call him by his first name, and delight in ribbing him about his budding romance with Nikki, and he responds to all this joshing in kind. When things get hairy, Tobey's Hendry doesn't have to bark his orders; it's clear that, despite the friendly banter, his men hold him in high esteem and leap to do his bidding at a moment's notice.
Many of the other members of the cast, while none of them ever became household names, will likely be recognizable from countless other roles in both film and television. Hawks gave Dewey Martin co-star billing in The Big Sky a few years later. Robert Cornthwaite kept busy for decades on stage and television, as well as in supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business, Kiss Me Deadly and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? John Dierkes (Dr. Chapman) and Douglas Spencer (Scotty) both had juicy roles in the western classic Shane, as well as many other movies too numerous to name. Sharp-eyed viewers will also recognize Eduard Franz, Paul Frees (he of the famous voice) and Groucho Marx's right-hand man on You Bet Your Life, George Fenneman, in pivotal roles. And of course we mustn't forget 6' 7" James Arness (years before becoming renowned as Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) as the hulking Thing.
A quick note on the "remake": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a bleak, grisly and brilliant take on the story, was a box-office dud when first released, but has since attained well-deserved status as a modern classic. While most fans seem divided into two camps - those who love the more restrained, old-fashioned thrills of the original, and those who prefer the more visceral, paranoiac Carpenter version - I happen to treasure both films equally and revisit each of them often. The Carpenter version is by far the gutsier, unsettling one, emphasizing as it does the "trust no one," shape-shifting "the alien is one of us" scenario imagined by John W. Campbell, but the Hawks' film is the most fun, with a far more likeable array of characters, working together to defeat an implacable menace. Each has its own clear merits. I wouldn't want to do without either film, and frankly see no need to choose one over the other.
"Every one of you listening to my voice...tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are: Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Acting Credits
Margaret Sheridan - Nikki Nicholson
Kenneth Tobey - Captain Patrick Hendrey
Robert Cornthwaite - Professor Carrington
Dewey Martin - Crew Chief
Douglas Spencer - Ned "Scotty" Scott
Eduard Franz - Dr Stern
Robert Nichols - Lieutenant Ken Erickson
William Self - Colonel Barnes
Sally Creighton - Mrs Chapman
John Dierkes - Dr. Chapman
James R. Young - Lieutenant Eddie Dykes
Norbert Schiller - Dr. Laurenz
William Neff - Olson
Allan Ray - Officer
Lee Tung Foo - Cook
Edmund Breon - Dr. Ambrose
George Fenneman - Dr. Redding
Tom Steele - Stuntman
James Arness - The Thing
Billy Curtis - The Thing While Shrinking
CENTER:
• INDIVIDUAL: PRIMAL DEITY:
Mup'Horlem is a powerful Primal Deity of disputed classification, having a unique form that exhibits traits characteristic of and normally thought to be exclusive to the Idol–Classes, Serpentine–Classes and Mage–Classes. Officially considered a male, he is the "god" of the small, remote Zeta Octant planet known as Umozatch, and of its people, the Wuccigans, who are considered to be utterly and hopelessly enthralled to him, and has been for all of recorded history. This makes Umozatch and Proolycoles the only two planets in the Prime Galaxy whose people are currently, entirely and in all likelihood permanently in the service of a Primal Deity, and indeed, Mup'Horlem is considered to be the second–most–powerful Primal Deity in existence, next to the monstrous Junt'Vubis who controls the aforementioned Proolycoles and the Monsgnarl Pantheon which includes several other, lesser deities. However, there is a key difference between the natures of Junt'Vubis and Mup'Horlem; while the former is an irredeemable being of pure evil and one of the greatest, most active threats to the Prime Galaxy at large, the latter – despite being a Primal Deity, a being whose very existence goes against God's will and puts many souls in jeopardy – is actually not all that bad a guy.
Mup'Horlem generally lacks the malevolence traditionally (and rightfully) associated with Primal Deities; he does not seek to draw any other races besides the Wuccigans into his cult by force, manipulation nor any other aggressive or subversive means, being content to call Umozatch alone his domain. Outsiders are welcomed and encouraged to "join" him, but this is the extent of Mup'Horlem's efforts to gain more followers. He acts as a largely benevolent leader and God–figure to his people, who willingly embrace him with next–to–no exceptions and without their devotion to Mup'Horlem appearing to be due to any brainwashing, corruption or other alteration of their minds or spirits on his part. For these reasons, this Primal Deity is perhaps the most tolerated of all such beings active throughout the Nava–Verse today by God–fearing populations.
On Mup'Horlem's physical form: he can size–shift himself at will, his smallest possible state being comparable in size to one of his own worshippers and his default, most massive state measuring nearly one hundred feet from its bottommost to topmost points, the largest size attainable by any known Primal Deity. As stated above, the shape and features of the body itself are very nonstandard and make Mup'Horlem impossible to categorize under any of the five otherwise clear–cut Primal Deity classes, which cannot be said of any other Primal Deity. Most of his upper body matches the "Idol–Class" model, yet it boasts distinct and fully–formed arms whereas "true" Idol–Class deities possess, at most, mere semblances of such limbs. His lower half, meanwhile, consists of several elements, most notably a bluish, sub–corporeal "tail" that is very tentacle–like in nature, having several "branches", and appears to serve as Mup'Horlem's center of balance in terms of his floating, but not free–flying, movement. This "tail", which gives the deity a Serpentine–esque element to his form, is flanked by two fleshy and equally tentacle–like appendages that are composed of patchwork amalgamations of various substances and textures and support Mup'Horlem's dual Tikis, which generally rest at ground level (and will be described later on in this entry). The backdrop to all three of these structures is the concave face of what essentially amounts to a decadent "cape" originating near the bottom of Mup'Horlem's "main", Idol–like body, of which it is an actual part rather than a garment. The purpose and function of this "cape" is uncertain, but it is most likely a superficial feature, serving to enhance the deity's physical and atmospheric presence and doing little else. It is likely that the overall durability value of Mup'Horlem's body is, give or take, close to 40,000.
The temple serving as Mup'Horlem's main abode is known simply as "The Bask" and is located within the Wuccigan race's capital on Umozatch, known simply as "The Hollow". From there, he may be summoned, once per twenty hours globally, to any of the thirty–one magical waypoints to which he is attuned, and of which one exists in each of the thirty–one lesser settlements located across the planet. Properly summoning Mup'Horlem to any of these spots requires the help of at least one of his many "upper–acolytes", who are the only ones possessing the knowledge of the ritualistic rites for doing so. All of Mup'Horlem's upper–acolytes, whom also effectively serve as regional leaders for the respective settlements they each reside among, are also responsible for scheduling out when each settlement will have its next "turn" to call upon the deity, and to this end they remotely convene with one another, formerly with the assistance of Mup'Horlem's magic but presently through use of practical mass–communication technology, on a more–than–once–daily basis. Summoning Mup'Horlem more than once within a twenty–hour period is normally considered a grave transgression for which the blame rests solely on the shoulders of the upper–acolyte(s) responsible and for which the punishment is death; however, exceptions to this rule are occasionally made for situations which the deity recognizes as having been genuine emergencies severe enough to constitute valid excuses.
Whenever it occurs, the calling forth of Mup'Horlem, which each village on Umozatch is typically allowed to conduct at least once and no more than twice per cycle, generally leads to one (or more) of three things: the placement of a blessing upon crops and harvests, a session of teaching and channeling in Horlematurgy, or, most often of all, the commencement of ravingly wild festivities (the significances of each of these events are explained in the passages below).
The harvest and agricultural fertility are a major aspect of Mup'Horlem's being and range of powers. It is said by his followers that, before he came along, Umozatch, presently a very fruitful (no pun intended) world from which large amounts of many highly–demanded crops are exported, was barren and plagued by famine, though there is no concrete evidence going back far enough to either confirm or deny this. Regardless of whether this account is true, the overall harvest theme is heavily reflected in Mup'Horlem's physical form, namely in the deity's two large arms previously mentioned in the discussion of his dubious classification. The left has a vine–like consistency and distinctly vegetal fingers and is known as "The Sower", and the right, in contrast, is beefier and ends in a hand with a pair of small scythes (which are agriculturally symbolic, not weaponized as some have mistakenly interpreted) in place of two of its fingers, and is known as "The Reaper" (a name which, again, should not be incorrectly taken in a violent/death–evoking sense).
"Horlematurgy" is the term for the "brand" of magic derived from Mup'Horlem and practiced by his followers. Although believed to be a distinct and unique form of energy by the Wuccigans, it is generally thought to actually be a metaphysical compound of Primal Energies, Dark Magic and Rainbow Energy, an explanation which, despite being more "mundane" than the alternative, is still otherwise unheard of in the field of what Primal Deities can do, and further solidifies Mup'Horlem's uniqueness and mystique. Horlematurgy is generally low–key in its application by its Wuccigan practitioners compared to how various supernatural beings can use their respective forms of magic, but as any harnessing of magic, whether its nature be Divine, Demonic, Primal or any combination of the three, by mortal humanoids is exceptionally rare, it is still of great note as a field of practice. Common spell effects include induced mineral, herbal and chemical synthesis for mostly medicinal purposes, conjuration of minor illusions and light displays that are of little practical use, and fortune–fortification (good–luck–charming) whose effects have been proven to be existent but inconsistent.
On the specifics of Mup'Horlem's personality and the ways of living he and his cult encourage: while, again, not truly malevolent and rarely prone to actually hurting anyone, he possesses an intimidating and maniacal demeanor typical of Primal Deities, the difference in his case being that it does not usually represent any serious intentions of causing harm. Instead, Mup'Horlem means to instill in his followers a "fun" type of faux–fear, with the Wuccigan culture under his control/leadership being one that places great emphasis on thrills, excitement and partying. Their most wild parties of all are initiated during certain summoned appearances of their deity, with other, lesser parties taking place frequently and often tending to break out suddenly.
Mup'Horlem's two (not three, as most other Primal Deities who possess any of them have) Tikis (minor heads) are named "The Freak" and "The Spook", the latter stemming from the left side of his body and the former from the right side, and are the only Tikis of any known deity to have "official" names besides those of the feelings/traits/sentiments they embody. Conversely, it is not "confirmed" what, precisely, they do embody in terms of raw personality aspects, but the Freak has more often than not been described as representing indulgence in psychedelic thrills while the Spook has usually been described as embodying the "fun" sort of fright and artificial, harmless senses of danger and intimidation that Mup'Horlem loves to perpetuate. Like other Tikis, both of them are moderately talkative, having minds of their own, albeit simple ones, but unlike others, they are considerably more "organic" in their composition and "fluent" in their animacy. The Freak also notably sports an aperture in its "chin" into which offerings to Mup'Horlem, consisting of various small objects, can be and frequently are inserted.
UPPER–RIGHT:
• Wuccigan: A very much "neutral" race of humanoids inhabiting the planet Umozatch and willingly serving the Primal Deity Mup'Horlem almost without exception. Wuccigans are rather animalistic in appearance; they have brownish–or–orangish fur covering most of their bodies, with varying thicknesses in different anatomical regions, claw–like, boney fingers and tall, pointed ears similar to those possessed by a number of decidedly non–humanoid mammalian animals. However, their overall statures, measurements and body shapes are fairly standard, as is the durability value range for adult individuals, which stands at 600–900. Despite Wuccigans tending to eat more heavily than most peoples, they usually have little body fat and well–toned muscles while also possessing above–average lifting power. Roughly one–in–seven Wuccigans are adept in some application of what is known as "Horlematurgy"; further details on this may be found under Mup'Horlem's entry.
As a people and especially in outside public perception, Wuccigan–kind is all–but–defined by the fact that its members all serve a Primal Deity, which has led to no small amount of prejudice against them from other races, especially following the wars fought against the Anyugari, another, decidedly more hostile Primal Deity–serving race from the Zeta Octant. As of the current era, though, these prejudices have lessened immensely among most circles where they used to be common, and the Wuccigans, like their master, are presently tolerated, though not necessarily liked, by most. In large part due to all this and in another large part because of their allegiance to their deity and reliance on frequently summoning him, something which can only be done from the shrines at the hearts of their planet's various settlements, few Wuccigans live off–world of Umozatch. However, their kind and world are very active in interplanetary trade, namely of the many crops they grow but also including significant quantities of the sweet, decadent culinary concoctions whose making is one of their many common pastimes.
"Eccentric" is perhaps the best single word with which to describe the Wuccigans in terms of beliefs and practices. For one, although devoting themselves to Mup'Horlem rather than God the Father, and contrary to popular assumption, they do not believe their deity to be superior to God or entitled to anything resembling total control of all things, but rather believe him to be the true and rightful master of their kind specifically and exclusively, which is also Mup'Horlem's own stance on himself. Relatedly, Wuccigans believe that, rather than going to either of the standard afterlife realms upon physical death, their persons are reincarnated and their souls rejuvenated by their master at that point instead in an indefinite cycle. This is considered a highly positive thing – a thrilling, exciting prospect that provides limitless opportunity – in their perspective. While one would and should assume by default that this is an incorrect belief, it technically is not known for certain. Across the very few and very brief real–time glimpses into the afterlives of Heaven and Hell that the living, including the Custodian of the Nava–Verse himself, have ever been allowed, not enough Wuccigan souls have been identifiably witnessed for the conclusion that all members of their kind are judged just like everyone else to be confirmed as a sound one. Due to both this lack of data and the mysterious nature and great power of Mup'Horlem himself, the Custodian has no choice but to acknowledge the possibility that Wuccigans and their souls may (may) receive special afterlife treatment after all.
Other, less fundamentally profound beliefs held by Wuccigans include perceived importance or sacredness of various objects and symbols and several superstitions relating to acts that may cause long–term misfortune. More interesting is a historical myth claiming the past existence of ghastly, nigh–unkillable and mass–murdering humanoid demons called "Nightmaritans" on Umozatch, which were all vanquished by Mup'Horlem concurrent to his bestowing upon the planet, claimed to have previously been barren, the favorable terrain and climate it retains today, long ago. The truth value of this story is most likely little–to–none, but in any case and for whatever it is worth to the field of entertainment, various and numerous takes on the Nightmaritans have been featured in overtly fictional horror stories penned by Wuccigan authors, literature of such a variety being another common pastime and secondary export of their kind.
Wuccigans have a somewhat, but not wholly, hedonistic general way of living; while they do have various productive responsibilities that they are usually good with meeting, they make full, active and reckless use of nearly all their free time, their lives generally being composed of significantly more "play" than "work". They are thrill–seekers who enjoy being scared, so long as it is recreational and there is no real danger, and frequently partake in wild parties that generally take place at night and more often than not last throughout the whole night. These values and practices are, again, endorsed by Mup'Horlem, and again (again), more details regarding the topic can be found under his entry.
LEFT:
• Dunthisis: A small mammal that is present in large numbers all across Umozatch, but particularly common in and around Wuccigan settlements, this being due to the fact that the Dunthisis species has long–since been domesticated by Umozatch's people. It is, furthermore, considered to be both Wuccigan–kind's natural friend and ally and a blessed creature in general according to Mup'Horlem's doctrine. The former of these beliefs, at least, is an observably accurate one, for as pets to Wuccigans, Dunthises are harmless and more–than–occasionally helpful, and even the most unkempt–looking of wild specimens are usually friendly towards the humanoids to whom their kind is viewed as a companion species. A majority of Wuccigan family units have at least one Dunthisis affiliated to them, though owning any more than three of the creatures, especially if one otherwise lives alone, is viewed as unhealthy and, more superstitiously, as a potential cause for long–term bad luck. Meanwhile, the perceived "sacredness" and ritual significance of Dunthises, which, needless to say, has far less rational basis, is nonetheless a harmless belief that, if anything, only enhances and improves existence for the creatures, them being commonly pampered by their owners and, in some special cases and for various reasons, practically worshipped. And though animal sacrifices are frequently performed in Mup'Horlem's name, it is a written rule that no Dunthisis is ever to be made such an offering of, being the only animal on Umozatch that is "off–limits" in terms of ritual slaughter.
Dunthises are four–legged creatures with partially fur–coated and partially hide–skinned bodies, clawed paws and fairly long tails ending in arrowhead–like natural tips. More distinctively, they possess near–perfectly–rounded scalps covered with fine, silky fur not found elsewhere on their bodies, and small wings positioned midway down their backs. Dunthises are very nimble and agile, and though they cannot fly, the flapping of their wings can still generate enough air resistance to significantly slow/break falls from most heights. The creatures themselves are well aware of this ability, and take great advantage of it by frequently, readily making jumps that would be incredibly dangerous for an otherwise identical creature lacking the Dunthisis' wings. The durability values of Dunthises are typically between 300 and 500, and they rarely live for more than a few decades.
There is particularly great variation in color schemes and other largely superficial, but highly visible, traits between different Dunthises. According to Wuccigan beliefs explicitly endorsed by Mup'Horlem, black, purple and orange are the most desirable colors for a Dunthisis to sport, with "perfect" combinations of these colors leading to many of the above–mentioned cases of the creatures being borderline–worshipped. As of recent years, many Wuccigans have taken to trying to specially breed Dunthises for purposes of creating more "ideal" specimens, though they have yet to fully figure out the correct selection methods for reliably achieving this.
• Lanshafski: A large – almost man–sized – insectoid creature that can also be found in most–to–all regions of Umozatch's biosphere, although in smaller numbers than the Dunthisis. Standing nearly four feet in height, it should go without saying that the Lanshafskis are the largest and strongest insectoid–type creatures on their planet. The "maximum" durability value for any common Lanshafski to reach is just below 800. Based on one's first glance at it, this creature might easily be mistaken for some advanced new form of Nirtrid, but it is in fact both wholly unrelated to the ever–virulent family of demonic insects and much less hostile and grotesque in nature. Lanshafskis usually live in small groups, similar and seemingly equivalent to the average 3–5–person family unit, within shallow–dug but spacious warrens beneath various spots in the many grassy fields that make up a large chunk of Umozatch's terrain. Though easily rupturable, these dwellings are just as easily replaceable for the creatures that live in them, them being expendable and with a Lanshafski that is able to live out its full twenty–year lifespan making use of dozens of different dugouts over the course of that time. Disruption of Wuccigan crop fields due to Lanshafski activity beneath them is an occasional, but not quite frequent enough for it to truly be labelled as common, occurrence.
Feature–wise, the Lanshafski has an upright, round torso, a large and singular cluster of many tiny eyes for vision, and two small mouths whose respective tracts converge near and ultimately lead down into a singular stomach. Atop its flat–topped head is a trio of small antennae surrounded and partially obscured by a fuzzy, matted mane that is the only visible patch of hair on the creature's body. More notable and relevant to function are the Lanshafski's many limbs, which include not only two "sets" consisting of four basic, lengthy appendages each, with the upper four ending in standard adhesive nubs and the lower four having simple pairs of claws, but also a pair of beefy and muscular, albeit short, arms originating from the animal's "shoulders" above either set of lesser limbs. Most notable and functionally–relevant as far as Lanshafskis and their features go, however, are the lowermost parts of their bodies, which facilitate an extremely nonstandard means of locomotion.
The bottom portion of this insectoid consists primarily of a hard (almost stone–like) and lumpy sphere semi–attached, via an amorphous, internal gel–like substance that creates a bond similar to magnetism between metals, to a tube–like structure that continues upward and transitions into the lower torso. This results in the Lanshafski being able to move without use of its legs by rolling on this "ball". Positioned behind all of this is the secondary component of the creature's most unusual lower body: another downward–protruding structure, at the bottom of which is a small part resembling a wheel in both appearance and function. Predictably, this wheel and the "leg" supporting it serve to provide balance while movement by way of the "rolling ball" is taking place. The only other mortal animals the galaxy over with remotely similar movement methods to this incredibly unique mechanism of the Lanshafski are Coneforfad's Whaldort and the Venedidenev of Tarterbiss, and unlike the Umozatch creature, which, again, has ten additional limbs, neither of those creatures have other, more standard means of locomotion to fall back on in the event that their wheel–like mechanisms become irreparably damaged. In fact, and as to that, Lanshafskis, whose most vital organs are all located within the upper torso or above, can survive losing not only their "rollers", but the entireties of their lower body halves, including the lower of their two four–leg sets, as well, in which event they will still have six working limbs. That being said, however, it should be noted that a Lanshafski is unable to reproduce while in this state.
• Glomeyark: Considered an arthropod, the Glomeyark is a quadruped slightly larger in scale but much larger in overall mass than the Dunthisis, and being that creature's near–opposite in terms of its more specific physical traits. Additionally, while killing Dunthises for almost any reason is strictly forbidden both by standard Wuccigan law and by the "sacred" edicts of Mup'Horlem, Glomeyarks have long been the number–one go–to animal for the sacrificial slaughters the people of Umozatch frequently hold, being both an "acceptable target" for such cruelty and a reasonably challenging, worthy game to hunt down.
A bulky, slow and brutish carnivore of limited intelligence, the Glomeyark's torso is close to a rectangular prism in shape and has a thick, shell–like consistency, from out of the holes in whose sides extend its limbs. The creature's legs are plated and clawed, and while the hind legs are visibly distinct from the forelegs, neither pair provides any real "special" functionality that the other does not. The head, meanwhile, extends outward and upward from a larger opening at the very front of the torso, and exhibits, in addition to three eyes with rather rectangular sockets, a rather wide, "bloated" even, cranial area. This is due to the fact that the Glomeyark possesses three brains, only one of which is active at any one time, the other two being redundant, "backup" organs whose activation is triggered by and only brain death of the previously active brain(s). By default, the initially active brain is partially exposed through a hole in the Glomeyark's upper skull; though both it and its "backups" possess regenerating natural coatings that protect them from wear and tear from exposure to things like wind, water and dirt, they have no such ability to withstand more severe, forceful trauma, and are thusly left very vulnerable to such damage when not fully shielded by a skull. If and when one brain of a Glomeyark is "killed", it will immediately begin to decompose, doing so rapidly as the next brain soon starts to gradually move into the space it had occupied, ultimately becoming partly exposed as well. This replacement process takes long enough, though, so that the Glomeyark, whose "new" brain fully activates the instant the old one "dies" and while still tucked deeply away in the skull, is given a significant immediate period of decreased vulnerability, due to its new cerebrum not yet being exposed. Note that, when ritually slaughtering Glomeyarks, Wuccigans do so by decapitating them at the neck with a large ceremonial blade, a method which obviously renders their extra brains a moot point.
An average durability value for a Glomeyark is 750, and due to its multiple backup brains, the creature can potentially live for upwards of eighty years, though this age is rarely reached, with specimens in the wild seldom surviving past thirty or forty.