86% (2) Them! 94 min, Not Rated, [Horror, Sci-Fi] [Gordon Douglas] [19 Jun 1954]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.
Actors: Edmund Gwenn, James Arness, James Whitmore, Joan Weldon
Writer: Ted Sherdeman (screenplay), Russell S. Hughes (adaptation), George Worthing Yates (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In the New Mexico desert, Police Sgt. Ben Peterson and his partner find a child wandering in the desert and sooner they discover that giant ants are attacking the locals. FBI agent Robert Graham teams up with Ben and with the support of Dr. Harold Medford and his daughter Dr. Patricia 'Pat' Medford, they destroy the colony of ants in the middle of the desert. Dr. Harold Medford explains that the atomic testing in 1945 developed the dangerous mutant ants. But they also discover that two queen ants have flown away to Los Angeles and they are starting a huge colony in the underground of the city. When a mother reports that her two children are missing, the team and the army have a lead to follow. Will they arrive in time to save the children and destroy the colony?
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, a girl is found wandering in the desert in a state of complete shock. When she finally revives, she can scream out only one word: "Them!" As it turns out, "Them" are giant ants, a by-product of the radiation attending the atomic bomb tests of the era.
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80% (2) The Thing from Another World 87 min, Not Rated, [Horror, Sci-Fi] [Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks] [22 Jul 1951]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, Rotten Tomatoes: 88%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Douglas Spencer, James Arness, Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite
Writer: Charles Lederer (screenplay), John W. Campbell Jr. (based on the story "Who Goes There?" by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Scientists at an Arctic research station discover a spacecraft buried in the ice. Upon closer examination, they discover the frozen pilot. All hell breaks loose when they take him back to their station and he is accidentally thawed out!
Rotten Tomatoes: This film is set at a distant Arctic missile base, where a UFO has crashed. The frozen body of the pilot is taken to base headquarters, where it is inadvertently thawed out. The alien escapes into the snowy wastes and proceeds to wreak murderous havoc all over the base.
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70% (1) Island in the Sky 109 min, Approved, [Adventure, Drama] [William A. Wellman] [05 Sep 1953]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Actors: James Arness, John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan, Walter Abel
Writer: Ernest K. Gann (screenplay), Ernest K. Gann (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A C-47 transport plane, named the Corsair, makes a forced landing in the frozen wastes of Labrador, and the plane's pilot, Captain Dooley, must keep his men alive in deadly conditions while waiting for rescue.
Rotten Tomatoes: During WWII, an American civilian transport plane is forced into an emergency landing in the frozen wastes of Greenland. Captain John Wayne is faced not only with his own survival but that of his four crew members, none of whom are truly prepared for this crisis.
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65% (1) Hellgate 87 min, APPROVED, [Western] [Charles Marquis Warren] [05 Sep 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 65%, External Reviews
Actors: James Arness, Joan Leslie, Sterling Hayden, Ward Bond
Writer: Charles Marquis Warren (screenplay), Charles Marquis Warren (story), John C. Champion (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A man is accused of spying for the confedaracy, and sentenced to the notorious Hellgate Prison. After he unsuccessfully attempts to breakout, and is sentenced to solitary confinement, he redeems himself when the prison is taken down by a plague.
Rotten Tomatoes: This western stars Sterling Hayden as a man who innocently tends to the needs of a mysterious stranger. When it turns out that the stranger was part of a notorious gang of mercenaries, Hayden is condemned as a conspirator and sent to Hellgate Prison in New Mexico. He earns a pardon thanks to his courage and medical expertise during an epidemic. Hellgate was one of a handful of ambitious 1950s projects from the otherwise cost-conscious Lippert Studios.
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63% (1) Gun the Man Down 76 min, APPROVED, [Western] [Andrew V. McLaglen] [15 Nov 1956]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 63%, External Reviews
Actors: Angie Dickinson, Emile Meyer, Harry Carey Jr., James Arness, Robert J. Wilke
Writer: Sam Freedle (story by), Burt Kennedy (screenplay by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Three outlaw buddies rob a bank, but one of them is wounded. His two partners and his girlfriend take his share of the loot and run off, leaving him to be captured by the sheriff. Years later, after he gets out of prison, he goes in search of his double-crossing partners and his faithless girlfriend. He finds them in a semi-deserted, run-down town, but instead of killing them right away, he decides to play cat-and-mouse with them first.
Rotten Tomatoes: Two years into Gunsmoke, James Arness took time out of his busy schedule to star in the medium-budget western Arizona Mission. Trading in his white hat for a black one, Arness plays a bandit. He and partners Robert J. Wilke and Don Megowan pull off a robbery; the partners then vamoose with the loot, leaving Big Jim empty-handed and seriously wounded. He is also betrayed by his lady friend Angie Dickinson. When Arness finally catches up with his former chums, he decides to "psych" them out rather than fill them full of lead right off the bat. Written by future director Burt Kennedy, who'd penned many a "Mexican standoff" picture for Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher, Arizona Mission represented the first big-screen directorial effort for Andrew McLaglen. The film was originally released as Gun the Man Down.
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62% (1) Red River 96 min, TV-14, [Western] [Richard Michaels] [10 Apr 1988]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 62%, External Reviews
Actors: Bruce Boxleitner, Gregory Harrison, James Arness, Stan Shaw
Writer: Borden Chase (story), Borden Chase (screenplay), Charles Schnee (screenplay), Richard Fielder (teleplay)
External Links: IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A remake of the 1948 movie of the same name. Arness portrayed a rancher at odds with his son.
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54% (1) Big Jim McLain 90 min, Approved, [Crime, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller] [Edward Ludwig] [30 Aug 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 54%, External Reviews
Actors: Alan Napier, James Arness, John Wayne, Nancy Olson
Writer: Stephen Vincent Benet (quotes from "The Devil And Dan'l Webster"), James Edward Grant, Richard English, Eric Taylor
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee investigators Jim McLain and Mal Baxter attempt to break up a ring of Communist Party troublemakers in Hawaii (ignoring somewhat, as do their superiors in the Congress, that membership in the Communist Party was, at the time, legal in the U.S.)
Rotten Tomatoes: In this Cold War film, Big Jim McLain (John Wayne) and his partner Mal Baxter (Jim Arness) head to Hawaii to investigate a subversive pro-Communist organization. Feigning love for suspect Nancy Vallon (Nancy Olson), McLain ferrets out the name of the Big Cheese in charge of operations.
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