Them! On DVD

One of the best of the 1950's "Creature Features," Them! is an intelligently told yarn about what could happen (or could've happened) if Man's messing with nature blew up in our faces.

It's also a loving DVD treatment from Warner Brothers, right down to the schlocky 1950's tabloid newspaper style menus.

Them, er, they, happen to be a race of giant ants, mutated thanks to the US' first ever nuclear explosion at White Sands, New Mexico.

New Mexico State Trooper Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and his partner come across a poor little waif in the desert, a little girl wandering in apparent shock, with no parents to be found anywhere. They soon come across a travel trailer they assume was her family's, but it has been torn open from the outside and whoever was inside is now nowhere to be found.

Flash forward a bit and, after a couple of more disappearances, the US government gets involved and they begin the hunt for the ants. The plot, which is intelligent and entertaining at the same time, takes them to the drains of Los Angeles where the bugs and the humans make their last stand against each other.

This is a pretty superficial look at the story, of course, but hopefully it'll be enough to t"ant"alize you into taking a look at this above average sci fi flick. And while it was undoubtedly meant as a cautionary tale about the dangers of nuclear weapons (or science in general), we're never beaten over the head with a political slant (as opposed to many of today's movies).

The cast is terrific. Besides Whitmore, we're treated to Edmund Gwenn as the brilliant but eccentric scientist, Joan Weldon as his scientist daughter (and love interest, though it isn't overdone), and James Arness as FBI Agent Robert Graham (and the other half of the love interest). And that's just the main characters. The supporting roles is also well cast and strongly played.

Even the special effects, while terribly dated and hokey by today's standards, are pretty good. The ants aren't completely believable, but they're pretty good, all things considered!

It all adds up to a wonderful monster movie in the Grand Old Tradition, and isn't that something to cherish?

The DVD's great, too. The only downside, which isn't Warners' fault, is that the original aspect ratio is 4x3 fullscreen, which is fine for people with old style TV's but which means widescreen TV owners will have to stretch and/or zoom their TV pictures to fill the screen (unless you prefer burning in the bars on the side).

The picture quality itself is very good, with excellent contrast in the black and white image, and sharp and clean edges with no noticeable artifacts.

Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 and is about what you'd expect from a 1954 black and white monster flick. It's okay, but nothing to write home about.

Extras include "Who's Who," a cast/crew list, some archival footage on how they created and operated the big ants, some notes on other bug movies in general, from "Tarantula" and "the Fly" (both versions) to "Mothra" and "Eight Legged Freaks." You also get a photo gallery and promotional featurette.

As mentioned, the menus are set up like a schlocky tabloid rag and, while we normally find extravagant menus extremely tedious, this particular example is a lot of fun. It worked fine on our standalone home theater DVD players, but we had some trouble getting at the extra features when using a DVD ROM drive.

Them! from Warner Home Video
92 min. black and white, full screen (4x3), not 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital
Starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness
Produced by David Weisbart
Written by Ted Sherdeman, Directed by Gordon Douglas

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