Capital Celluloid - Day 43: Saturday Feb 12, 2011

The Thing From Another World: BFI Southbank, 8.45pm, NFT 2

Let's get the boring bit out of the way first. This is credited to Christian Nyby but as Geoff Andrew points out in his essential Film Handbook this movie is "clearly the work of the master [Howard Hawks]."

Hawks is ostensibly the producer but the fast-paced, overlapping dialogue; the imperilled, isolated group; the sexual tensions and mise-en-scene are all characteristic of the great director.

It's genuinely scary in parts and has a theme, rationality versus emotion, which is quintessentially Hawksian and which ensures the picture lives long in the memory.

A rare treat to see this on the big screen too. Here is the trailer.

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