Rent Them! (1954)

Very Entertaining SciFi/Horror From the 50s - Them! review by GI

The effects of hydrogen bomb tests and the dangers of radiation resulted in a string of films in the 1950s that dealt with the huge fear of America living in the atomic age. Some of these were cheaply made B movie 'creature features' but some have become classics of the period and were very well made. Them! is one of the best of this cycle of films that were released in this period. It's surprisingly well produced and directed and has a great story that borders the realms of horror and science fiction. It's easy enough to laugh at films like this when viewing them today especially as they rely on models that today would be rendered with digital effects. But these films form an important period in cinema history and many, like this one, are exciting, fun and if you're a cinephile, very interesting too. In New Mexico a local policeman (James Whitmore) finds a small girl wandering alone in the desert, she is suffering from severe shock and the only reaction she gives is to scream "Them" over and over. When several bodies are also found the FBI is called in and a Government scientist (Edmund Gwenn) has an astounding theory which soon reveals Los Angeles to be in extreme danger. The film co-stars James Arness, who later went onto star in the long running TV series, Gunsmoke, and if you're observant you'll spot a young Leonard Nimoy too. This is marvellous fun and a great story. It has mystery, shocks and heroics and yes a film of its time but one that has a place in the history of American cinema.

Ant Misbehavin' - Them! review by griggs

Giant radioactive ants should look ridiculous. Somehow, seventy-odd years later, they're still rather convincing.

Gordon Douglas opens with a properly eerie desert mystery: a little girl wandering New Mexico in shock, a trailer ripped open, a curious trail of sugar. Then the army rolls in to tackle the world's least welcome infestation, and the hunt ends up in the storm drains beneath Los Angeles.

The practical effects are terrific. Those enormous mechanical ants get more believable the longer you look at them, which feels like the wrong way round for a 1954 monster movie. Edmund Gwenn is great fun as the twinkly old boffin, and Joan Weldon's entomologist keeps a straight face while discussing insects the size of a car.

The atomic warning arrives with all the subtlety of a mushroom cloud, and the plot follows a familiar route. Still, Douglas keeps things moving, and I enjoyed the whole ridiculous business. Predictable, perhaps, but remarkably well made.