The Thing from Another World - "We finally got one..."

From Howard Hawks' production of The Thing from Another World. Made in 1951, The Thing was perfect for its time. Sightings of UFOs were going up (Kenneth Arnold used the words saucer, disc or pie-plate to describe the one he saw and the term "flying saucer" grew out of that) and this film plays into that zeitgeist perfectly.

This is my favorite scene in the film, in fact my favorite in any SF film of the 50's. An arctic research station has detected a crash landing of a large aircraft and an Air Force support crew, headed by Ken Tobey, goes up to help investigate. They fly out to the crash site with the scientists from the station and a reporter, Ned Scott, played by Douglas Spencer.

When they get there, something is frozen in the ice. A fin or stabilizer is jutting out just above the surface of the ice and a shape is clearly visible. The head of the research station suggests they all stand at the edges of the object to determine its shape. That's when they realize...

Everything in this scene is perfect. The acting, the writing, the music, the camera placement. It's not widescreen, but it effectively uses academy aperture to indicate that whatever they've found is big. The camera pans from right to left, keeping us off balance and letting us know the find is too big to fit in the frame. Dimitri Tiomkin's music is right on, especially the "sting" when they realize...

Just watch...

I have uploaded this without permission from the authors for educational purposes only. this is merely an extract, there are no other parts uploaded.