“It creeps….It crawls…It strikes without warning!” It is…The Thing from Another World!
Montana has had its fair share of UFO sightings and cryptid tales,
some told around a campfire and others played out on
film. Who could forget James Arness’
first feature film—the science fiction classic, The Thing from Another World?
Arness is barely recognizable as “the Thing” itself, and Montana’s wintry
landscape around the Cut Bank and Lewistown airports double for the North Pole.
Released in 1951 and based on John Campbell’s short story,
“Who Goes There?” the movie chronicles the experiences of a scientific team
that unwittingly releases an alien being from deep layers of Arctic ice.
The Great Falls Tribune,
Cut Bank Pioneer Press, and Lewistown
Argus-Farmer covered the filming in December 1950 and January 1951. Kenneth Tobey, pictured below in the dark
topcoat at center, played Captain Patrick Henry. Dewey Martin played Crew Chief Bob – and
appears in the photo just left of Tobey, in the tweed overcoat.
Clipping courtesy of the Glacier County Historical Museum
Location scouts chose Cut Bank’s World War II—era
Army Air Force training facility and airport to substitute for the windswept,
icy polar research station, and nearby Mission Lake served as the alien
spaceship crash site. Many locals recall
the filming, and consistently tell the story of how frustrated the filmmakers
became after they arrived.
They picked Cut Bank for its wintry locale and
landscape, but the team had to be creative when chinooks blew snow from the runways and prairie. To create a blizzard and film the
exterior of the “research station,” the crew trucked in snow
from Many Glacier, mimicking a storm by blowing the snow with airplane
propellers. The crew also hired local
crop dusters to whitewash the runways and surrounding land. Severson Air provided several planes—
some used for aerial shots.
Clipping courtesy of the Glacier County Historical Museum
When the crew travelled to snowier Lewistown in January
1951, they employed local “actors” to use a sled dog team
to search for “The Thing” across the hills east of town. Missoula's Johnson Flying Service provided DC-3 planes used in the movie, and the crew modified them to look like
military C-47's.
Great Falls Tribune, Parade section, January 15, 1951.
One Lewistown
poet relayed the events in verse:
…The
kingpins flew ‘til their faces were blue, in search for an ideal place,
And the hit a “bonanza’ in Cut Bank Montana, My! The world seemed dressed in lace.
There was snow galore, and of cold - - much more; it was a “garden spot” for “The Thing,”
Even mittened shmoos and frosty igloos would look at home in that ring.
But the warm chinooks fooled the movie “cooks” and melted away the snow;
The directors moaned and the actors groaned. (Gad! That was a low blow.)
Though their loud cry, they wouldn’t say die and their tone bore a resolute ring;
So the men came down to Lewistown to film the gol ‘durned “Thing.”
They wore grins ‘cuz the airport’s rims were blanketed in virgin snow:
The weather was mild and the big boss smiled, and he ordered “On with the show!”…
And the hit a “bonanza’ in Cut Bank Montana, My! The world seemed dressed in lace.
There was snow galore, and of cold - - much more; it was a “garden spot” for “The Thing,”
Even mittened shmoos and frosty igloos would look at home in that ring.
But the warm chinooks fooled the movie “cooks” and melted away the snow;
The directors moaned and the actors groaned. (Gad! That was a low blow.)
Though their loud cry, they wouldn’t say die and their tone bore a resolute ring;
So the men came down to Lewistown to film the gol ‘durned “Thing.”
They wore grins ‘cuz the airport’s rims were blanketed in virgin snow:
The weather was mild and the big boss smiled, and he ordered “On with the show!”…
- “The Thing,” by Tom Kelley, printed in the Lewistown Argus-Farmer, January 14, 1951
Despite their trouble filming in Montana, the actors and
crew enjoyed the beauty, people, and Montana cuisine – especially the
steaks. In the end, the film received
mixed reviews when it was released in April 1951. Over the past decade, however, critics have
recognized it as one of the best science fiction movies ever. The film and the original short story
inspired John Carpenter’s remake, The
Thing, in 1982, and a prequel to the story appeared in theaters in
2011. Still, the original is dark and
delightful – especially when you know the backstory. Remember the movie’s ominous warning:
“Tell the world. Tell this to everyone, wherever
they are.
Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”
