Them! (1954) Review

Considered one of the seminal science fiction films of the 1950s, I was fortunate to see Them! in the best way possible. Not only on a big screen with an introduction by film experts Craig Barron and Ben Burtt during the TCM Classic Film Festival; with Them’s amazing child actress Sandy Descher included. I also saw it after reading Foster Hirsch’s remarkable book Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties, an engrossing exploration of the decade that saw Old Hollywood change forever and that lays out how Them! played on fears ranging from communism to feminism. All that from a movie about giant ants!

Them! tells the story of the residents of a small New Mexico town who discover a group of gigantic acts are coming to invade America. Two scientists, played by Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon, are tasked with stopping the ant invasion before it’s too late.

I saw this alongside 1953’s It Came From Outer Space, also at the festival, and Them! has the edge, and I’m not talking exclusively about the giant ants here before more interesting to look at then the weird lone eyed creatures in It Came From Outer Space. There’s a tangible quality to Them!, a familiarity that the audience can utilize to infuse the ants with all manner of meaning. Is the film about the rise of nuclear power and what the effects of it could be? Is it about how we should distrust the everyday and ordinary? There is no wrong answer.

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Director Gordon Douglas starts this with all the power of a mystery/thriller, a la the equally game-changing Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Although instead of Cloris Leachman flinging herself into the middle of the road, we see the precocious Sandy Descher walking through the hot deserts of New Mexico — in what the actress said was a heavy wool coat. In just a few minutes of screentime Descher makes a meal out of her scenes, eventually culminating in her screaming “Them! Them!” to give the film its title. Descher doesn’t follow the film to its conclusion but she leaves an indelible mark. There’s a reason people don’t remember Joan Weldon is the actual female lead of this movie.

Them! goes the same route as most sci-fi films of the era: something bizarre happens, the scientists move in and try to find a way to restore order. In this case, a post-Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Edmund Gwenn is the wizened older doctor but the true hero is heroine Joan Weldon. As Foster Hirsch lays out in his book, the character of Patricia “Pat” Medford is a bridge between the rise of women’s liberation that would culminate with second-wave feminism in the 1970s, as well as the growing fear of women in the workplace. Pat struggles to be taken seriously by James Arness’ Robert Graham. When the group goes down into the ants subterranean home it’s Pat that has to save Robert.

And because this is a sci-fi movie of the ’50s you have the dueling schools of law and order working together. Gwenn and Weldon emphasize science while James Whitmore’s Sgt. Ben Peterson is the law and order of the police force. What’s unique compared to other films like Thing From Another World (1951) is that the two groups aren’t working against each other. There aren’t any scientific turncoats who want to use the ants for their own evil purposes. Everyone is working towards a common goal. And, really, giant ants is a pretty unified evil.

Descher, Burtt and Barron talked in-depth about the creation of the ants, even showing home movies of the way puppeteers had to work with the ant models. If you aren’t intimidated by them in the finished product you’d have been howling watching a group of men push an ant torso just so into the frame. As Hirsch lays out, even this is an intentional choice, with the ants easily representing Communism and Russia: a group of workers all with one hive mind infiltrating us for decades. Also, they’re just kinda cool to look at with their mix of fur and weird, glittery eyes.

Them! certainly isn’t a favorite of mine — sci-fi remains one of my least favorite genres next to the Western — but it’s a fantastic relic of the era with fun special effects, a grounded story, and some fantastic characters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4URRp39XOo&t=2s