The Thing from Another World

Director: Christian Nyby
Writer: Charles Lederer
Released: 1951
Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James R. Young, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Eduard Franz, Sally Creighton, James Arness

STEVE says: Watching the original again, I'm thinking it's unfair to call Carpenter's version a remake, as the two share very little in the way of similarity. Sure, they both take place in the arctic, and they both have an alien antagonist, but that's really where the similarities end. Carpenter's movie (and, indeed, the original story it's based on) deals with a creature that consumes and imitates whatever life it finds here on Earth, and Nyby's creature is just James Arness with a prosthetic forehead, hiding in the snow and occasionally smashing through a door.

It's a classic, yes, and I enjoy watching it - I'm just not sure it earns the "based on a story by John W. Campbell, Jr." credit.

3/5

Harold and Maude

Director: Hal Ashby
Writer: Colin Higgins
Released: 1971
Cast: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles, Charles Tyner