Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Them! Blu-ray Movie Review

They're Coming to Take Me Away

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 26, 2015

In the phrase coined by cultural critic Susan Sontag, classic science fiction films are about "the imagination of disaster" as a way to exorcise genuine fears. The 1954 creature feature Them! approaches this task more directly than most, because its monster has been created by the first nuclear test in the New Mexico desert in 1945. As noted by its scientist character (an essential figure in all such films), "When man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict." Unlike the Japanese filmmakers whose imaginations transformed their nation's first (and horrific) encounter with the nuclear age into a giant lizard whose rampages left cities in ruins, the creators of Them! envisioned an enemy more in line with prevailing American fears about radiation, the Cold War and domestic politics. In the script by Russell S. Hughes (Jubal) and Ted Sherdeman (Hell to Eternity), the enemy was a powerful but stealthy predator, who could hide for years undetected, emerging suddenly into the light to wreak havoc before disappearing again to multiply and spread in secret.

With direction by Gordon Douglas (Robin and the 7 Hoods), Them! was Warner Brothers' biggest success of 1954, despite last-minute budget cuts that forced the production to scrap its original plans to shoot in color and 3D. Warner is now releasing it both singly and as part of a Special Effects Collection, in its original widescreen for the first time.

It gives away nothing to reveal, as the film's promotional campaign did not hesitate to do, that Them! is about giant ants, the product of genetic mutation caused by radiation. Still, the film defers the appearance of the creatures for the first 25 minutes, while an increasingly alarmed group of law enforcement and scientific personnel investigate a string of missing persons and apparent robberies in the desert near White Sands, New Mexico. The case begins as a local matter investigated by Police Sgt. Ben Peterson (a young James Whitmore), who finds a mute little girl (Sandy Descher) wandering in shock after an attack on her family's trailer. (She provides the film's title, screaming "Them!" when she is finally brought around.) Ben is shortly joined by FBI Special Agent Robert Graham (James Arness, who was Marshall Dillon on Gunsmoke and the original The Thing from Another World).

Scientific expertise is provided by a father-and-daughter team. Dr. Harold Medford (Miracle on 34th Street) is the classic absent-minded professor, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the insect world. Dr. Patricia Medford provides Them! with the rare female lead in a film from this era who does something beyond screaming in terror (though she does that too). The Medfords arrive on the scene already convinced that they are dealing with a mutated ant but unwilling to say so until their theory is confirmed. When one of the creatures attacks their party in the desert, the need for discretion is over.

Most of Them! involves the increasingly urgent effort of an ever-expanding coalition to wipe out the giant ants before they can establish so many colonies that resistance is futile. The project begins with a search for the original nest in the desert and culminates in a hunt through the storm drains of a Los Angeles patrolled by troops, where a national search coordinated by the Medfords has tracked a new queen ant who has laid her eggs. Director Douglas wisely focuses on the tense faces and professionally fearful dialogue of his cast, and he skillfully uses the high-pitched sound of the giant ants' communication and the wreckage left in their wake as stand-ins for the creatures themselves, since the huge puppets had only limited motion. (Note how often they are photographed with fire, smoke, sand or other distorting elements to conceal the fakery.) Douglas also employs the time-honored device of putting children at risk, which always raises the stakes.

If Douglas had been able to create CGI bugs like the vicious predators in Paul Vehoeven's Starship Troopers, Them! might have been scarier, but it would have been less suspenseful. The film remains a classic of the genre despite the dated effects, because it relies on the human actors to convey the characters' conviction that their entire world is at risk, and it's up to them to save it.

Them! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Them! was shot by cinematographer Sid Hickox (The Big Sleep) during Hollywood's transition to widescreen, when studios were experimenting with multiple aspect ratios. Originally planned as a color production in 3D, the film was downgraded to black and white in pre-production, with an intended aspect ratio of 1.75:1. Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, based on a new 2k scan of a fine grain positive by the studio's MPI facility, is, to my knowledge, the first home video presentation of the film in anything close to its intended ratio. (The Blu-ray's measured AR is exactly 1.78:1.). Consistent with Warner's commitment to abandon low bitrates, the feature has been mastered with an average rate of 27.93 Mbps.

Dissatisfaction has been expressed with Them! on Blu-ray, based on a small selection of screenshot comparisons to Warner's 2003 DVD. The concern is understandable but misguided. DVD, with its low resolution and limited color space, was never promoted as a medium capable of reproducing the texture of film; to compensate for the format's limitations, telecine colorists applied various techniques, including artificial sharpening and contrast boosting. No such manipulations have been applied by MPI to this new transfer, which will probably be perceived by those familiar with the DVD in the same way that a professionally calibrated TV is perceived by its owner—at first, it seems to be less bright and eye-catching, but as one's eye adjusts, significant gains in depth and detail become apparent.

The Blu-ray image has solid blacks and fine delineations of grays and whites. A number of scenes are exceptionally dark and are intended to be that way; the descent into the ant nest in New Mexico is a prime example. Others are soft and blurry because the image was deliberately obscured; the entire sequence leading up to the first appearance of a giant ant is a perfect demonstration of an image that has been purposefully softened by simulating a sandstorm, the better to hide wires, rigs and puppeteers, when the first beast appears. In other scenes, when the source allows, the image is quite detailed. As a demonstration of the degree to which the selection of images can influence a reader's perception of a disc, I have tried to concentrate on those scenes in selecting screenshots to accompany this review.

Equally unconvincing is the complaint that the colors are wrong in the title card, the only place in the film where color occurs, with the word "Them!" in red and blue. Unless one has access to an answer print or other authoritative source, one cannot know whether it's the DVD or the Blu-ray that is right. MPI has such access; the rest of us do not.

An additional concern (raised by another review site) is that the Blu-ray image is "stretched" horizontally. Here, again, this claim rests on the fallacy that the 2003 DVD of Them! represents a standard by which any subsequent iteration should be judged, but DVD-era transfer technicians were frequently more concerned with compensating for overscan than maintaining image accuracy. Priorities have changed with Blu-ray, and a new scan in the original aspect ratio is more likely to feature the correct geometry than a 12+-year-old scan in the wrong OAR. To confirm this, all one has to do is watch the new Blu-ray and note whenever a circular object appears; if the image were "stretched", all those circles would be ellipses, and they are not. The screenshot used by the other site of child actress Sandy Descher as "The Ellinson Girl", which some readers have thought makes her face look oddly fat, only demonstrates that one can always pick an unflattering camera angle. In other frames from the Blu-ray, of which I have provided several, young Ms. Descher's face looks perfectly normal. (By contrast, the film's trailer, which has not been remastered, is horizontally squeezed, and this is obvious from the logo "stamped" on the opening, which should be circular but is not.)

Mistakes do happen in Blu-ray mastering, and there are some notorious examples. Them! isn't one of them.

Them! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Them!'s original mono soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA mono, and it is very effective. The dialogue is clear, as are certain key sound effects, notably the high-pitched, slightly electronic wail of the ants' communication. Various explosions and gunfire have the limited impact that one might expect from a 1954 soundtrack, but they make their point. The dramatic score is by Polish composer Bronislau Kaper (A Day at the Races ).

Them! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2003 DVD of Them!

• Ants (480i; 1.37:1; 3:06): This short collection of outtakes showcases the giant ant puppets and their operators.



• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1.37:1, enhanced; 3:19): A great old-fashioned trailer with mock-serious narration.

Them! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Among its other pleasures, Them! holds an important place in the history of sci-fi. The scene in which Pat, Ben and Robert burn out the egg chamber with flame throwers is an obvious precursor to a famous sequence in Aliens, and the film contains an uncredited (but speaking) appearance by future Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy as an Army information officer. Already in the early Fifties, Mr. Spock had found his destiny helping to save the world. Meanwhile, Warner's Blu-ray of Them! is a fine presentation, and highly recommended.