“You ever hear of a fence for hot sugar?!”
“They didn’t even give me a rope to hold up my pants.”
It’s not particularly one or another, but the idea that you lock someone up in a mental institution because he wants to say something the government doesn’t want revealed smacks of totalitarianism (Fess Parker – note what the government agents tell his doctors).
But as CalMeachum points out, the government is often involved in fighting monsters in 1950s monster movies (add Tarantula to the list, where the air force, led by an almost unrecognizable Clint Eastwood, takes care of the monster). People still remembered WWII and how the government dealt with a monster then.
Yes, the Mayor or someone calls up the local USAF base. “We’ve got a giant spider terrorizing the town!”
“OK, we’ll send a Sabre jet right over!”
And Richard Deacon in a bit part as a reporter at the press conference.
Keep watching the skies.
‘Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze’ clip
Held the cat’s attention for a bit.
The movie shows that the government was tapped into the media even back then. Sign in one of the operations rooms:
MONITOR ALL NEWS FOR
[ol]
[li]KIDNAPPINGS MISSING PERSONS[/li][li]UNSOLVED MURDERS[/li][li]ALLEGED SUICIDES[/li][li]MIGRATIONS OF WILDLIFE[/li][li]THEFTS OF SUGAR SYRUPS SWEETS[/li][li]STRANGE PHENOMENON AS[/li][/ol]
FLYING SAUCERS
STRANGE ODORS
HIGH PITCHED SOUNDS
UNNATURAL THINGS LIVE OR DEAD
Incidentally, there is a quest in Fallout 3 called Those! involving a town overrun with giant ants. It’s pretty fun. 
When I was in college, our sci-fi club managed to arrange a showing of Them!. We got out of having to pay licensing fees by finding an entomology professor who was willing to make it part of the syllabus for his class, and he showed up to give a lecture about what the movie got right and wrong, including the reason why ants can’t generally grow to be as big as they did in the movie.
Leonard Nimoy also have a bit part as soldier in this.
I hate the fact that they used treefrog recordings for the ant sounds - in the spring & summer that’s all I hear where I live, and it always reminds me of this movie.
not just no, but oh, HELL NO!!!
considering the recent track record of remakes - tho i hear fright night may be the exception - i shudder to think what today’s hollywood could make of my (second) favorite 50s scifi flick.
the thing has already been remade. i wasn’t overly impressed with what carpenter did to it, as i’m not a fan of blood and gore, altho he was closer to the short story than the original.
i’m not going to bother with the prequel. i figure there will be plenty of fellow dopers to report back on whether or not it’s any good.
the remake syndrome is out of control. i was in the theater last weekend to see cowboys & aliens. every damn poster i saw in the lobby was an advert for a remake!! :eek: the hell is THAT about??