![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ThemPlacard.jpg\")
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A series of bizarre deaths and some odd footprints baffle New Mexico policeman James Whitmore.\u00a0 His superiors send the prints to Washington.\u00a0FBI agent James Arness and father\/daughter entymologists Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon arrive to investigate and soon they’re battling huge mutant ants in the desert.\u00a0 Sounds cool, doesn’t it?\u00a0 It is.\u00a0An engaging story, solid performances, and convincing large insects make Them! the best of the mutant bug movies of the 1950s.\u00a0 In fact, Them! serves as a template for many of the alien invasion\/giant insect films to follow.\u00a0 It\u2019s even scary.\u00a0 Scenes in which the team goes underground to explore the ants\u2019 lair have you on the edge of your seat and the sudden blast of ant sound effects (made by the grey treefrog) was startling.\u00a0 Veteran director Gordon Douglas<\/em> (In Like Flint, The Detective<\/strong>) keeps the pace brisk and the story compelling.\u00a0 We learn enough about these characters to like them and the cast, made up of A and B+ level actors push this film way above many in the genre.\u00a0 Warner Brothers made the film and used many of its up and coming actors in cameos.\u00a0Leonard Nimoy, Fess Parker, Richard Deacon, William Schallert<\/em>, and Dub Taylor<\/em> show up in small roles and help give the film some of its polish.\u00a0 They also had a A-list crew with Bronislau Kaper\u2019s\u00a0 original score and Gordon Bau\u2019s make-up.\u00a0 Them! was even nominated for Best Effects\/Best Special Effects at the 1955 Oscars and was the highest grossing film Warner Brothers made in 1954.\u00a0 So next time someone tells you mutant bug films don\u2019t cut it in the quality department, tell them about Them!.\u00a0I mean, any film that has the Wilhelm Scream, moulage, and Santa battling oversized killer ants must be a winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A series of bizarre deaths and some odd footprints baffle New Mexico policeman James Whitmore.\u00a0 His superiors send the prints […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,20,99,147,154,163,189,222,227,242,275,381],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1950s","tag-20","tag-bugs","tag-dub-taylor","tag-edmund-gwenn","tag-fess-parker","tag-gordon-douglas","tag-james-arness","tag-james-whitmore","tag-joan-weldon","tag-leonard-nimoy","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}