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The Ken Films cutdown of this 1951 thriller is a well done and satisfying digest.
200 foot version:
We start with the original title, cutting out before “From Another World” dissolves in. The first scene here is from 26 minutes into the feature. At a North Pole outpost, a transport plane lands and its cargo is unloaded.
A large block of ice is brought into the research facility. A figure can be glimpsed in the ice.
That evening, the person standing guard turns around to discover that the ice has melted and what was inside is coming towards him! He fires a few shots and runs out to get help. Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) arrives with the rest of his crew to investigate. The melted ice block shows the outline of a large….thing.
In another part of the outpost, the crew is anticipating an attack by the creature. They use a Geiger counter to gauge its distance. The door is flung open, they douse the creature in kerosene and use a flare gun to set it on fire.
The monster continues to attack, finally jumping out a window into a snow drift. A subtitle explains that “He’s gone to the back”.
This allows the digest to jump to a scene that actually occurs earlier in the feature(!) where the Thing tries to enter through the greenhouse door. They fight it off and barricade the entrance. Going out of sequence cleverly sets up the climax which occurs in the same location.
They plan on wiring the walkway to electrocute the monster. Scotty, a journalist, plans on getting a picture of the action.
The Thing breaks through the barricade, but right before they can throw the switch, one of the scientists kills the power. He attempts to communicate with the big guy, who finds him annoying and strikes him down.
The power now restored, they maneuver the Thing back onto the wired walkway and electrocute the creature. Sadly, Scotty never gets his picture. He faints.
Ken uses the film’s original “The End” title which then dissolves to the RKO Radio Pictures logo.
With a running time of 8 minutes at 24fps, this cutdown has all of James Arness’ scenes as the Thing, except for the brief battle with the sled dogs. Ken also nicely uses a couple of exterior shots as cutaways to smooth out connecting separate scenes. It’s clear that some thought went into the edit for this one. The print is sharp with good contrast.
50 foot version:
This starts with a shorter cut of the opening plane sequence, then goes to the ice block being brought inside. It continues with the same edit as the 200 footer, ending right after the burning creature escapes out the window.
Adding sound:
Although The Thing is a nicely edited silent digest, it greatly benefits from the addition of sound. Dimitri Tiomkin’s tension filled score is amazing. Ken provides plenty of subtitles, however there’s an awful lot of exposition missing.
The beginning part syncs up easily, with only three edits in the first two minutes. I put the line “Mac, you stay here” over the shot of the creature in the ice block, since that leads into the rest of the crew leaving. There are nice long sequences after the ice melts, so there’s nothing difficult there. In the scene where they discuss the possibility of using electricity on the monster, it’s interesting to see that the subtitles have nothing to do with what’s actually being said!
The last four minutes of the digest has no edits, making it very straightforward to sync up. I used a shortened version of Scotty’s soliloquy over the last shot of the digest.
"Every one of you listening to my voice, tell the world, tell this to everybody wherever they are. Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies."
200 foot version:
We start with the original title, cutting out before “From Another World” dissolves in. The first scene here is from 26 minutes into the feature. At a North Pole outpost, a transport plane lands and its cargo is unloaded.
A large block of ice is brought into the research facility. A figure can be glimpsed in the ice.
That evening, the person standing guard turns around to discover that the ice has melted and what was inside is coming towards him! He fires a few shots and runs out to get help. Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) arrives with the rest of his crew to investigate. The melted ice block shows the outline of a large….thing.
In another part of the outpost, the crew is anticipating an attack by the creature. They use a Geiger counter to gauge its distance. The door is flung open, they douse the creature in kerosene and use a flare gun to set it on fire.
The monster continues to attack, finally jumping out a window into a snow drift. A subtitle explains that “He’s gone to the back”.
This allows the digest to jump to a scene that actually occurs earlier in the feature(!) where the Thing tries to enter through the greenhouse door. They fight it off and barricade the entrance. Going out of sequence cleverly sets up the climax which occurs in the same location.
They plan on wiring the walkway to electrocute the monster. Scotty, a journalist, plans on getting a picture of the action.
The Thing breaks through the barricade, but right before they can throw the switch, one of the scientists kills the power. He attempts to communicate with the big guy, who finds him annoying and strikes him down.
The power now restored, they maneuver the Thing back onto the wired walkway and electrocute the creature. Sadly, Scotty never gets his picture. He faints.
Ken uses the film’s original “The End” title which then dissolves to the RKO Radio Pictures logo.
With a running time of 8 minutes at 24fps, this cutdown has all of James Arness’ scenes as the Thing, except for the brief battle with the sled dogs. Ken also nicely uses a couple of exterior shots as cutaways to smooth out connecting separate scenes. It’s clear that some thought went into the edit for this one. The print is sharp with good contrast.
50 foot version:
This starts with a shorter cut of the opening plane sequence, then goes to the ice block being brought inside. It continues with the same edit as the 200 footer, ending right after the burning creature escapes out the window.
Adding sound:
Although The Thing is a nicely edited silent digest, it greatly benefits from the addition of sound. Dimitri Tiomkin’s tension filled score is amazing. Ken provides plenty of subtitles, however there’s an awful lot of exposition missing.
The beginning part syncs up easily, with only three edits in the first two minutes. I put the line “Mac, you stay here” over the shot of the creature in the ice block, since that leads into the rest of the crew leaving. There are nice long sequences after the ice melts, so there’s nothing difficult there. In the scene where they discuss the possibility of using electricity on the monster, it’s interesting to see that the subtitles have nothing to do with what’s actually being said!
The last four minutes of the digest has no edits, making it very straightforward to sync up. I used a shortened version of Scotty’s soliloquy over the last shot of the digest.
"Every one of you listening to my voice, tell the world, tell this to everybody wherever they are. Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies."
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