Although Christian Nyby is officially credited as director, there can be little question in anyone's mind but that ‘producer' Howard Hawks is primarily responsible.... Based on ‘Who Goes There?', a terrific short story by John W. Campbell (writing as Don A. Stuart), it deals with an isolated group of scientists threatened by the malevolent, extra-terrestrial vegetable they thaw out of the Antarctic permafrost. (Actually, the film gives the scientists a better break than the story; in the original, the monster was telepathic, while in the film it's merely strong.) Lightning pacing, overlapping dialogue, and a concentration on group dynamics (all the Hawksian trademarks, in short) work to make this a guaranteed edge-of-your-seat thriller. The scene where the scientists spread out on the ice to mark the outlines of a buried spaceship, and form a perfect circle, is one of the most chilling moments in cinema - and worth the price of admission alone. James Arness plays The Thing.”