I watched this 1954 black and white science fiction monster movie, Them!, on Svengoolie. This Warner Brothers film was produced by David Weisbart (The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Love Me Tender, Valley of the Dolls), directed by Gordon Douglas (Up Periscope, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Way…Way Out, Stagecoach, Tony Rome) and starring James Whitmore (Oklahoma!, Planet of the Apes, Tora! Tora! Tora!), Edmund Gwenn (Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street),
Joan Weldon (singer, film and television actress, and James Arness (Marshall Matt Dillon for 20 years in Gunsmoke, Hondo, The Alamo:13 days to Glory, brother of Peter Graves). Them! was the first of the big bug movies and was supposed to be in color and 3D but technical difficulties canceled those plans.
The giant ants were a product of screenwriter George Worthing Yates (The Lone Ranger, Sinbad the Sailor, Frankenstein 1970, King Kong vs Godzilla). They were constructed and operated by unseen technicians supervised by Ralph Ayers.
You only see three, at a time, in any shot because that was the number constructed. lso appearing in this movie were Fess Parker (Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett), Olin Howland (Gone With the Wind, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Blob), Chris Drake (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle),
Sandy Descher (little girl that screams Them!, Miracle on 34th Street, a couple of episodes of My Three Sons), Leonard Nimoy (Spock on Star Trek, Mission Impossible), Dub Taylor (Dragnet, A Star is Born, No Time For Sergeants, Bonnie and Clyde, Bandolero!, Shakiest Gun in the West, Back to the Future III)
and Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Fred Rutherford on Leave it To Beaver). I enjoyed Them! and will give it 4 out of 5 stars! For more information read Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
