Them! (1954)

Anyone who has watched more than one episode of Archer, the very funny animated show about a dysfunctional, and often drunk, secret agent, should be all too aware of what you can do to get ants. Sugar spillages, sweet treats left around, just wandering around making funny noises while waggling discarded car radio aerials from your head, all of these things can attract ants. It wasn't just Archer that told us about this though. Back in 1954 we had Them! to thank for alerting us to the ant menace. These weren't any normal ants either. They were gi-ants.

While the cast here includes James Whitmore as a Sergeant, Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon as two scientists who are also father and daughter, and James Arness, the real reason for watching Them! is the giant ants, which are actually shown onscreen earlier than I thought they would be. The film is presented as a mystery for a number of the early scenes, but all of the clues are there to point towards the kind of creatures shown on the movie poster. What begins in the desert landscape of New Mexico will end in the very different terrain of L. A. in a film that holds up as a classic of the "oversized beastie" sub-genre.

Based on a story by George Worthing Yates, adapted and worked into screenplay form by Russell S. Hughes and Ted Sherdeman, Them! benefits from great pacing, more ambition than many of these films would have in subsequent years, and moments of mayhem that, despite being dated, still hold some power when watched today. Director Gordon Douglas does well with material that could have easily been mishandled, keeping things nicely balanced between the mystery, thrills, and the exposition. There's an energy and momentum to the whole thing, and it's somehow also light enough without injecting any forced and eye-rolling humour into any of the main sequences.

Considering how long I waited to finally get around to this, even after finding out about some of the main plot beats and the excitement of the third act, I was expecting to come away from this slightly underwhelmed. That wasn't the case though. This remains very deserving of a special place in the hearts of film fans, and those who love it will struggle to find anything coming close to it. You can get a fantastic film full of normal-sized ants with Phase IV, but your decent overgrown ant movie choices really boil down to just Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and Empire Of The Ants . . . none of the other attempts to wander through this territory have worked for me.

Everyone who is into their monster movies has already seen this by now. I am surely the last. But if you're a newcomer to creature features, or if you've just delayed this for as long as I did, then I highly recommend it. From the concept to the finalised special effects, from the sound design to the spectacle, it's just an absolute winner from start to finish. Get this cast and crew in place . . . and THAT'S how you get ants.

8/10

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Latitude Zero (1969)

Stop me if you have heard this one already. Two scientists and a journalist are stuck in a submarine, trapped underwater until they are rescued by another submarine. Okay, it's not actually the start of a joke. It's the beginning of Latitude Zero, another film directed by Ishirô Honda, with a screenplay written by Shin'ichi Sekizawa (based on source material by Ted Sherdeman).

Dr. Ken Tashiro (Akira Takarada), Dr. Jules Masson (Masumi Okada), and Perry Lawton (Richard Jaeckel) are the three men rescued by Captain McKenzie (Joseph Cotten). They end up on a super-sub, Alpha, which is apparently much older than it looks, as are the captain and crew. While that seems difficult to believe, Captain McKenzie soon proves what superior technology can do for the health and lifespans of those on board the Alpha. There's a rival trying to destroy them though (Dr. Malic, who has a super-sub named Black Shark), and Tashiro, Masson, and Lawton find themselves in the middle of an ongoing undersea battle.

While certainly not on a par with other films from Toho in this era, Latitude Zero is a fun adventure film, helped by a decent cast and a selection of crazy creatures that liven up the second half of the film. You get giant bat-humans, giant rats, and a winged lion with a human brain placed inside it. There are also the scenes that just show off the subs moving around underwater, a real treat for those who enjoy practical effects and model work (even if it's far from the best examples of either).

While the cast has a good mix of both Japanese and American players, it's the latter getting to have more fun here. Cotten is as stolid and decent as you'd expect in the role of Captain McKenzie, and his crew is brightened up considerably by Linda Haynes in the role of Dr. Barton. Takarada, Okada, and Jaeckel are largely used as witnesses, they have the information conveyed to them that is therefore also conveyed to the audience, but they're fine. The Black Shark is more fun though, with Cesar Romero playing Dr. Malic in a very fun performance, accompanied by his lover (Patricia Medina) and the captain of the sub (Hikaru Koroki). The film moves back and forth between the two subs in a way that helps the pacing of the whole thing while it punctuates the dry science chat with scenes of Romero growing impatient and irate as he aims to close in on his prey, not entirely dissimilar to the way he would perform his most iconic villain role on a show that also featured at least one Batman.

Honda remains as capable behind the camera here as he was on so many other projects, and the screenplay maintains a consistent "boys adventure" tone throughout that will allow most viewers to know whether or not they are going to be able to relax and have fun with this in the first 5-10 minutes. I thought this was great, even if the very last scene seemed a little bit abrupt and lazy, and it's got me hankering for a deep dive (no pun intended) into many other submarine movies I have neglected to watch/rewatch over the past decade. So don't be surprised if you start seeing more reviews from me that are sent up from the watery depths of various ocean trenches.

8/10

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Prime Time: Scandal Sheet (1952)

Similar to at least one or two other fantastic film noirs, Scandal Sheet is based on a novel, “The Dark Page”, by Samuel Fuller, and there’s an extra edge to it that allows the whole thing to feel like a Fuller movie, despite him not being involved in the direction, or even in adapting it from page to screen.

Broderick Crawford plays Mark Chapman, a man who has changed the fortunes of the newspaper he is in charge of, mainly by choosing to capitalize on scoops and any chance to sensationalize the worst crimes they cover. Steve McCleary (John Derek) and Julie Allison (Donna Reed) both work for the paper, which puts their own relationship through some ups and downs, and they seem more than up to the task when they’re tasked with investigating the murder of Charlotte Grant (Rosemary DeCamp). We viewers know something that they don’t know, however, and that is the identity of the murderer. It’s their boss, Chapman.

Written by Ted Sherdeman, Eugene Ling, and James Poe, three writers with numerous separate credits that  you should check out, Scandal Sheet manages to bounce along between the main plot points with a lightness of touch offsetting the more unpleasant aspects. Maybe it’s due to the behaviour of the newspaper staff seeming somehow more repugnant than the people they are trying to bring to justice, clarified in an opening scene that shows McCleary and a photographer (Biddle, played by Harry Morgan) deceiving a grieving woman into giving them some juicy info. Or maybe it’s just the pacing, with momentum building throughout the second half of the movie towards a very satisfying final sequence, punctuated by a wonderfully cynical “punchline”.

Director Phil Karlson may not always be on top form, but his work is well worth your time when he is, as is the case here. Helped by the script, and some great leads, Karlson delivers something fun, but not without moments of tension to remind everyone that the main characters are getting closer to danger as they get closer to discovering the murderer they are trying to track down. The busy newspaper office environment helps, lulling you into a false sense of security before scenes set later on in the evening, when the rest of the staff have gone home, leaving only the people most heavily involved in trying to crack the case.

Derek and Reed are good enough in their lead roles, although the latter is the one who shines much brighter than the former, and you become more invested in their safety as they become more determined to solve the murder. Crawford is excellent, a brooding presence always doing his best to stay one step ahead of his employees. Having maintained a facade for many years, he becomes meaner and more desperate as the net closes in around him (metaphorically). DeCamp is very good in the one or two scenes she has, and Morgan is a welcome addition (although that’s more to do with Morgan as an onscreen presence, rather than his character). There is also a great turn from Henry O’Neill, playing a down-on-his-luck/alcoholic former reporter named Charlie Barnes who may end up inadvertently discovering the truth before anyone else.

Like many (the best?) film noirs, this gets everything done within a relatively brisk runtime - about 82 minutes - and has a brilliantly bittersweet resolution. It has also made me want to hunt down the source material, and any more writing from Sam Fuller that I can check out.

8/10

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