Them! | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Gordon Douglas |
Screenplay by | Ted Sherdeman Russell Hughes (adaptation) |
Story by | George Worthing Yates |
Produced by | David Weisbart |
Starring | James Whitmore Edmund Gwenn Joan Weldon James Arness |
Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
Edited by | Thomas Reilly |
Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2.2 million (rentals)[2] |
Them! is a 1954 black-and-white science fiction giant monster film starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness.[3] Produced by David Weisbart, the film was directed by Gordon Douglas, based on an original story by George Worthing Yates that was developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman, with adaptation by Russell Hughes.
Them! is one of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" movies, and the first with big bugs as the threat. A nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert; they quickly become a national threat when it is discovered that two young queens and their consorts have escaped to establish new nests. The national search that follows culminates in a battle with the last surviving colony in the concrete spillways and storm drain system of Los Angeles.