WHO GOES THERE?

Released in 1951, RKO's THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD drew it's inspiration from a novella published in a pulp magazine a little over a decade before.

"Who Goes There?" appeared in the August 1938 issue of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION published by Street & Smith. It was written by Don A. Stuart, a pseudonym for John W. Campbell who had taken over the editorship of the magazine about six months before. A manuscript found later in Campbell's papers indicated that he had written the story as a full-length novel called "Frozen Hell".

First edition (Shasta, 1976) - Jacket art by Hannes Bok.

Over the ensuing years, the story became greatly influential, inspiring authors such as A.E. van Vogt, who regarded it as "the best horror tale in science fiction". It also spawned radio, television shows and films, most notably John Carpenter's 1982 re-make, THE THING.

Here is "Who Goes There?" as it appeared in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, August 1938. It is a good read and I recommend it.

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD

"Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking.

Keep watching the skies!"

Based on the novella, "Who Goes There?", by Don A. Stuart (a pseudonym for John W. Campbell), RKO's THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD released on April 7, 1951, is recognized as one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It grossed $1,950,000 and out-performed two other scifi classics released that year, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE. Cited by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", in 2001 it was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry.

The crew get their first look at The Thing.

The film was shot at Glacier Nation Park in Montana, the Ice & Cold Storage Company in Los Angeles and RKO's Encino Ranch. It has the distinction of being one of the earliest stunts where the stuntman was engulfed in flames. The familiar last line of dialogue in the film, "Keep watching the skies!" has since entered into the lexicon of UFO and extraterrestrial enthusiasts.

The Thing is destroyed by electrocution.

The six-foot-five James Arness had yet to become famous as Dodge City's Marshall Matt Dillon in TV's GUNSMOKE when he played the role of The Thing. It took makeup artist Lee Greenway two hours to turn the actor into a menacing alien. This was after two months of experimentation (see photos in article below).

This widely-reproduced publicity photo was not released until the 1980s.

And one more thing: it scared the stuffing out of a certain young monster kid. I mean, come on, that giant, lumbering thing turned out to be a plant! How creepy is that?

This exceptional article by the late cinephile George Turner from CINEFANTASTIQUE July-August 1982 provides a detailed background of the picture in a retrospective published over three decades later.