Incidentally, Harryhausen is a staunch conservative Republican. His producer, Charles Schneer, was an equally staunch liberal Democrat, and actually helped to break the Hollywood blacklist. I guess you can think of Harryhausen and Schneer as the Stewart and Fonda of special effects.
By the way-I read somewhere that Hawks originally intended to do his version faithful to the story "Who Goes There?" by Cambell-have the Thing be a shapeshifter, as Carpenter did-but when he found out the price, said: "Jesus! The guy wants (exact amount not remembered by me) a TENTACLE, for Christ's sake! Get me a big guy, put him in a suit, and turn out the lights!" LOL