James Arness was the original Thing in the 1951 “The Thing.” I understand that he used method acting to get into the role.
Still one of my favorite, cheesy, horror flicks. With some interesting story lines concerning the leftist scientist who would rather the monster killed everyone on earth because human beings are so awful opposite the heroes (Ken Tobey etal) who simply wanted to kill Marshall Dillon er I mean The Thing. As the movie was made in 1951, and the kill-the-darn-thing good guys won out, I wondering if this wasn’t a metaphor for what was going on politics-wise with McCarthy and the communist investigations?