The Thing from Another World (1951)

One of the best 50's sci-fi films
One of the worst book to film adaptations ever.

It is hard to believe the the giant walking carrot in the '51 film was James Arness of Gunsmoke fame. Excellent and very creepy film...

It's grown on me over the years. I thought it was slow but on repeat viewing, I appreciate the acting and suspense better.

Since you asked, I'd say it represents a pinnacle of the decade in the sci-fi genre. It's got everything: suspense and shock; intelligence and humor; pace and action. I've loved it since my first viewing at probably no more than the age of six, yet it reveals more and more to appreciate as one matures, still satisfying me at the midway point between sixty and seventy.

If I may, I'll add to teleadm's behind-the-scenes pic with one of my own below, depicting the RKO Ranch in Encino, CA where the exterior scenes of the spacecraft discovery (and subsequent inadvertent destruction) were shot. Running horizontally along the bottom of the image is Burbank Blvd; the diagonal construction at the top is a concrete-lined portion of the Los Angeles River. Just below it, a little left of top center, you'll observe what appear to be wide, blank, billboard-like structures joined together. This served as a backdrop in numerous productions, onto which could be painted mountains and sky or whatever background was required, and before which the wonderful scene involving the spacecraft below the ice was staged.

Just right-of-center in the image, recognizable by its three Gothic arches, is the portion of the Notre Dame cathedral constructed for The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939), and somewhere on that acreage was also the main street of Bedford Falls (It's A Wonderful Life, 1946).

From '55-'60, I lived about a mile due south, yet had no inkling at the time that what I was seeing on the TV screen at such a young age had taken place so nearby.        

A few years back I got the opportunity to do a radio interview with the actor who played  ' Lieut. McPherson' who was appearing in a nearby regional theater stage production. I posed that very same question (I think he gets asked that a lot).

He verified that it was almost all Hawks working with the performers, with Nyby handling technical stuff (Hawks wanting to give his favorite editor a directing screen credit).

Other Hawks touches -- overlapping dialogue, isolated group, guys bounded by and respecting one another's professionalism, wise-cracking female who is 'one of the boys.' None of these appear in any of Nyby's other later work.

So, so bad. Can't hold a candle to the Carpenter version.

Awesome movie!