Silver Screen Standards: Them!
Capitalizing on nuclear anxiety, Them! (1954) helped to usher in a new era of monster movies guaranteed to give post-WWII Americans nightmares about the possible consequences of the Atomic Age. In Japan, this metaphorical threat took the colossal form of Godzilla, who also made his debut in 1954, but Them! suggests that no place on Earth is safe, not even the middle of the desert. Creepy creature and alien movies would become standards for the growing drive-in culture and the teens who flocked there, but few of the later pictures boast the same quality performances, practical effects work, and cinematography that make Them! such an influential classic of the genre.
James Whitmore stars as Sgt. Ben Peterson, a police officer whose beat covers a desolate area of desert near White Sands, New Mexico. When Peterson and his partner, Ed Blackburn (Chris Drake), find a young girl (Sandy Descher) alone and catatonic, they at first suspect a psychopath, but the evidence soon shows that no human being is behind the killings and destruction. FBI Agent Bob Graham (James Arness) arrives on the scene and is soon followed by a father and daughter pair of myrmecologists, Doctors Harold and Pat Medford (Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon). Together they discover the giant mutant ants and pursue newly hatched queens who could produce enough monstrous offspring to destroy humanity.
Sci-fi movies of the 1950s are often derided for their wooden acting, but Them! features an excellent cast that invests each character with personality and gravity. Most modern viewers will find stars like James Arness, Edmund Gwenn, and even Fess Parker more familiar, but James Whitmore is really the central hero of this story, a regular guy driven first by his concern for the little girl and then for his community, country, and planet as the scope of the threat becomes clear. Whitmore had already earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Battleground (1949), and in 1975 he would garner a nomination for Best Actor for the film adaptation of his one-man show, Give ‘em Hell, Harry! (1975). Edmund Gwenn, who plays the elder Dr. Medford, had actually won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance as Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and he had picked up a second nomination for Mister 880 (1950). These are lofty accolades for actors in a movie about giant ants, but even the less lauded performers sell us on their characters and the peril they face. James Arness is solid as Bob, a government man right down to his willingness to keep a sane man locked up in a psych ward, and Fess Parker has a brief but memorable scene as the unfortunate pilot Bob sacrifices to government secrecy.
One of the things I personally appreciate about this movie is its treatment of its female characters. We only have two, but Them! would not be such a compelling classic without them. Sandy Descher sets the tone for the whole movie with her memorable performance as the sole survivor of the Ellinson family. Her blank face and stare testify to unfathomable horror, and her plight makes the danger personal rather than abstract. The film stays with her long enough to show us her dramatic reawakening and assure us that she has extended family who will take care of her, but it also uses her character to demonstrate the quiet decency of Ben Peterson. When Pat Medford arrives, her presence sheds more light on Bob’s character and its limitations, especially where his typically sexist attitudes are concerned. Pat’s father is more enlightened, and I love the way he calls her “Doctor” when they converse because he really sees her as a valuable and respected peer. Pat pushes back against Bob’s chauvinism and courageously enters the ants’ tunnels to ensure that all of the queens are destroyed, and it’s exciting to see her suited up and plunging into the dark with the men. We sense the low-key attraction between Pat and Bob, but the movie wisely keeps the focus on their mission and never implies that Pat will or would even consider giving up her important scientific work to wash socks for a husband. It’s a shame that Them! didn’t inspire sequels to tell us more about the later adventures of Pat Medford and even the Ellinson girl, who might have grown up to join an agency like Godzilla’s Monarch organization. On the plus side, their presence helps pave the way for later female characters in science fiction, including iconic figures like Ripley and Newt in the Alien franchise or Dr. Ellie Satler and Lex in the Jurassic Park series.
In 2023, there were reports of director Michael Giacchino remaking Them! with a modern twist, but it’s unclear if the project has progressed since then. Gordon Douglas, who directed the original version, also directed Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950), Only the Valiant (1951), and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), to name just a few. If you love Them! and the whole genre of giant monster movies, I do recommend the Apple TV+ series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which has wrapped production on a second season. For more from the 1950s, see The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Tarantula! (1955), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), The Blob (1958), and the wonderfully terrible Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), which I particularly enjoy inflicting on my loved ones.
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— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub
Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.
Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.
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