Allen Ashley is training his eye on classic genre films for us, looking at not just the film but the context in which they were released. Here’s the first instalment in his new blog series.
Welcome to a new, irregular series in which I will be taking the magnifying glass to a genre classic film. Generally, I will be reaching back to the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, so you will likely be familiar with most or all of the films that I intend to cover. I will be putting the film into its socio-historic context but also casting a modern, critical, twenty-first century eye over proceedings. I will be referring to events across the plot but I hope that I can do so in a manner that will not spoil your enjoyment should you be inspired to revisit these celluloid classics.
And our first subject is…
One: “Them!”
“Them!” (1954)
Director: Gordon Douglas
Black and white
94 minutes running time
(All images taken from imdb.com)
I don’t think I’m giving anything away in plot terms when I tell you that this is a science fiction horror film in which humans are pitched against giant ants. Originally conceived as a 3D production (shame that didn’t materialise), this is a classic example of the “creature feature” sub-genre, as people battle against an oversized or otherwise imminently threatening foe from what one would generally term as the natural world. The original “King Kong” (1933) is probably the first example and “Jaws” (1975) is the other best-loved iteration, with the “Jurassic Park” franchise (from 1993 onwards) also extremely popular creature features. But I always think of the genre as having its heyday in the 1950s, especially with films that also fall into the “Atomic Anxiety” category. More on that later. Put simply, even a nest of ants in your backyard can be a nuisance but not deadly; however, what if each one of those creatures was two or three metres in length and out for blood and sugar?…
There’s a lot to enjoy in the opening sequences of the film, especially the crispness of the black and white visuals that take in the New Mexico Desert, Joshua trees, tumbleweed, sandstorms, a 1950s wood-panelled station wagon, a “trailer” that we Brits would call a touring caravan, cops in a light plane and a patrol car, including likeable, good-hearted Sergeant Ben (played by James Whitmore). We are thrown straight into the action as the cops are confronted with the mystery of the smashed-up trailer, the large but unidentifiable footprint and, most significant of all, the traumatised young girl wandering alone, clutching her soft toy as comfort (the actress is Sandy Descher).
“Them!” is a clever film in that its founding concept is science fictional—radiation has produced giant mutant ants as a new threat to humankind—but many of its signifiers and plot moves fit it closer to the horror genre.
For example, at about 9 minutes in, we get the first use of the eerie ant music sound—“the strigulation”, communication with the colony, as Dr Patricia Medford (played by Joan Weldon) later identifies it. It’s a well-loved horror convention that one hears the monster before one sees it. The first character sacrifice (ca. 14 minutes in) occurs somewhat out of sight but is soundtracked by this otherworldly call as an offstage ant kills state trooper Ed (Chris Drake). In keeping with other regular filmic tropes, we don’t get to see our enemy properly until nearly a third of the way into the film (about 27 minutes), when one of the beasties threatens the beauty, i.e. our heroine, the aforementioned Patricia Medford.
(Just noting in passing that my timings are approximate; I watched the film on DVD wearing a cheap wristwatch on my arm.)
The optimism of 50s America vs atomic anxiety
This is an exciting and engaging movie dating from President Eisenhower’s optimistic America, the one just on the verge of inventing the teenager. The changing social mores are expressed in what became a recognisable moment over succeeding decades as, at about the 40-minute mark, our clean-cut, fair-haired FBI agent hero Bob Graham (played by James Arness) tells Patricia “It’s no place for a woman” as they are about to investigate the giant ants’ nest they’ve located deep in the desert. Pat reminds him that she’s the myrmecologist, the necessary brain to accompany his and Ben’s brawn and bravado; and the action continues.
Two (then) intimately linked recent events mould this film: American victory in World War Two, and the testing of atomic weaponry at White Sands, just a few miles from the film’s opening location. In the finale, we have brave troops in jeeps pouring into the storm drains of Los Angeles in order to mop up the last outposts of those German or Japanese troops… oops, I mean the new nest created by the prolific egg-laying ant queen. The triumphant ending will have resonated with a fifties audience not too far removed from recent global conflict. But it’s the uncertainties of the newly ushered-in Atomic Age that hangs most prominently over the movie like a mushroom cloud. Our doomsaying prophet is Dr Medford Senior, Patricia’s scientist father (played by Edmund Gwenn), who quotes freely from the Book of Revelations as well as suggesting that if these radiated super-insects establish any sort of stronghold this would mark “the beginning of what may be the end of us.” Dr Harold Medford even gets the final say: “When man entered the atomic age he opened the door into a new world. What we’ll eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.” It’s uttered ominously just before “The End” titles come up abruptly, as was the fashion at the time.
A classic creature feature
This is a classic creature feature—humans threatened by but eventually overcoming the unnatural monster. Ants as the enemy is a masterstroke; as Medford explains to the President’s Emergency Committee, ants have a “talent for industry, social organisation and savagery”. They also breed soldiers and go to war. Only their current size is keeping them beneath our stamping feet. The film is also demonstrative of the atomic anxiety that subtly permeated the early-post WW2 America which otherwise seemed to be all about cars with fins, coke bottles, cigarettes, and gals who knew their own mind.
The outstanding moment that truly elevates this action shocker to greatness occurs about halfway through. We have Bob, Ben, and Pat clambering down into the ants’ nest in the desert and all the descending into hell metaphors such a movement evokes. They are going to burn and gas the insects using flame and cyanide. What really impresses is that they themselves have in this scene an insectile appearance with their goggles, gas masks, air tanks, and backpacks; these latter could almost be dorsal wings folded back, awaiting flight. Pause your viewing at this point when our heroes are in close up and you will see what I mean.
In the latter third of the film, the half-drained riverbed with its concrete sides is a sort of prefiguration of a J.G. Ballard landscape. The claustrophobic tension leading up to the final conflict, and the clever use of periods of silence, chittering and battle sounds, makes this a vicarious feast for eyes, ears and emotions. And if all else fails, you can just run into a corner at the slightest provocation from friends or family, like the frightened little girl in the movie, and keep simply screaming, “Them! Them!” Sounds like a plan!
What did you think of Them! and its giant ants? Let us know in the comments below ⬇️
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