This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'The Thing From Another World' released by Warner Archives in November, 2018.On the off chance that you are not familiar with this movie, this is the 1951 original and does not have a lot in common with the original novella by John Campbell nor the John Carpenter classic from 1982 and it's prequel in 2011.I have included a brief comparison between the novella and three movies made based on the novella below.BLU-RAY & EXTRA'S: The picture is clear but not perfect. Like many of these releases from the time period, the picture sharpens and softens throughout. I'm guessing that's because of the source materials. The picture itself is free from most imperfections and I didn't really notice any spots, lines, etc.As far as the extra's go, you get two trailers and subtitles. The two trailers are essentially the same. One of them is HD. That is the one with Spanish subtitles. The American one is in standard definition. Both have many imperfections and have not been cleaned up. To tell you the truth, I didn't notice much difference between the HD and the SD versions.PLOT/SUMMARY: The movie opens with Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and some other air force service men sitting around in Anchorage, Alaska. Hendry gets a request from Dr. Carrington near the North Pole to head up there. They are told that an airplane has crashed near by. When they get there they find out that it is probably not an airplane but some sort of UFO that has crashed about 40 miles from their outpost. They take their plane and find the crash site. The ice has melted from the heat generated by the UFO and re-froze around it with just the tip sticking out of the ice. They make the very questionable choice of using thermite bombs to try and free the UFO. The ship ends up exploding but they find an alien frozen under the ice. They cut out a block of ice that contains the alien.Back at base, Captain Hendry decide's against Dr. Carrington's wishes to leave the alien frozen until they receive further orders. They are having trouble with the radio. Unfortunately, Corporal Barnes puts an electric blanket on the block of ice so he doesn't have to look at the alien. Well...it melts and after Barnes fires at it, the Thing goes hunting for food. The problem is that it's preferred food is blood. The Thing is some sort of super vegetable and for nutrition it uses the blood of living creatures. Aside from the dogs there are only humans to feed on. Since it is made up of vegetable matter it has no blood and you can't kill it by shooting it. The base must find a way to stop the 'Thing' before it kills all of them. Either that or they must hold out till help can arrive. Either way they must stop it because it reproduces at a very high rate and will threaten the survival of all living creatures on Earth.WHAT DOES THE THING'S ORIGINAL FORM LOOK LIKE?: This is unclear but a description is given twice in the 1938 novella.Here is a quote from the novella about whether or not one of the scientist's believes they have seen the Thing's real form:"It may have been imitating the beings that built that ship - but I don't think it was. I think that was its true form."Here are two descriptions given in the novella:"It was face up there on the plain, greasy planks of the table. The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood, from a face ringed with writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow"."They haven't seen those three red eyes, and that blue hair like crawling worms".A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE NOVELLA "Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell and THE THREE 'The Thing' MOVIES:-Who Goes There? (1938) The novella was first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine. The author, John Campbell was a legendary editor of the magazine who helped many famous science fiction author's get their start such as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and A.E. van Vogt.- The lead protaganist, MacReady, is the same in John Carpenter's 1981 version of 'The Thing' as it is in the original story.-The testing sequence is done similarly in the novella and the 1982 movie.-After the testing is done, the novella is different from the movies based on it.-The Thing in the novella is telepathic and it is building a device with which it hopes to escape.-The Thing From Another World(1951) - The main difference at the start is the setting and premise.This movie takes place in the Arctic instead of the novella's Antarctica.-In the 1951 movie the military discovers the UFO and in the novella it's a scientific research team just as in the 1981 movie.-A UFO is discovered in the ice and it is accidentally destroyed by using thermite charges.-An alien frozen in a block of ice is recovered and brought back to base. From this point on, this movie takes it's own course and is very different than the novella. There is no creature taking over other people's bodies.-The Thing (1982) This movie will ultimately become the second movie of a two movie sequence that starts with the 2011 movie. The 2011 movie serves as a prequel to this one.-This movie uses the middle part of the novella along with the premise of a scientific research team as the principals. In the novella, the thing takes over a dog and a scientist. Whereas in this movie a dog comes to the base after it has already taken over it's body at another base. The main part taken from the novella is the testing sequence. Once it is discovered there is a creature, testing is done using blood samples much the same as in the novella.-The novella goes in to much more detail with the testing and the aftermath.-After the testing is done, the novella and this movie go in a different direction.-The Thing (2011) - This movie serves as the prequel to the 1982 movie.-This movie starts with the premise of the novella that a spaceship has been discovered in Antarctica. Instead of blowing up the ship as is done in the 1951 movie, an alien is discovered nearby. It is brought back to base much the same as it is done in the novella and 1951 movie. The creature gets loose and the goes on to kill most of the people on the base. The movie from this point on doesn't have a lot in common with either the novella or the 1951 movie.-Obviously since it is the prequel, it sets things up nicely so that the base looks exactly as it does when the scientists from the 1982 movie visit the base.-Unlike the first two movies, this movie did not do well and was pretty much a commercial failure.A COMPARISON OF THE THING IN EACH VERSION:- Novella from 1938 - The Thing can take the form and thoughts of any creature it comes into contact with just as it does in the 1982 movie and 2011 prequel. It is unclear if in fact the creature's actual form is ever shown but the novella does give a description twice in the novella of what it's original form may be. I have included the description in this review, above.- 1982 movie and 2011 prequel - We never really see what the original creature looks like. It may well be that the alien ship crashes because the Thing has killed the aliens and taken over their bodies. The Thing in these movies can take the form and thoughts of any creature it comes into contact with just as in the novella from 1938.- 1951 movie - The Thing in this movie is essentially a vegetable creature or as they call it a 'Super Carrot'. It needs the blood of living creatures for nourishment.COMMENTS/PRODUCTION: 'The Thing' was produced by Winchester Pictures in 1951 and it was distributed by RKO Pictures.- This movie was directed by Christian Nyby...officially. There is much controversy about this. Nyby never showed this type of directing ability again. He had been Howard Hawks' editor up till this movie and Hawks gave him a chance to direct. Many experts and people involved say that it was really Hawks doing the directing and it was Nyby just basically following his orders. There are some people that come out on Nyby's side, thus the controversy.- The title was originally going to be called 'The Thing'. The "From Another World" was added to avoid confusion with a hit song from the time period that had the title, 'The Thing'. I always thought that part looked sort of tacked on and it turns out it was.-This movie had a very high budget for a science fiction film during the 50's. It cost over $1.5 million.-The sets were built in an ice storage plant. Some scenes were shot in Glacier National Park in Montana.-This was the third time I had watched this movie. The first time as a kid, I hated it. There wasn't enough action. All I remembered was sitting around waiting for a monster to show up. When it does....well...you know the ending. So obviously as a young Godzilla fan this movie wasn't going to cut it. The second time I watched it was about 5 years ago and it was then that I understood why it was considered a sci-fi classic. The third time...I'll be honest...I was a bit bored. There isn't a whole lot in this movie that makes me want to see it again. Even though I'm not an action junkie, the only thing I looked forward to were the scenes with the 'Super Carrot'. Obviously it's air time is minimal to say the least.-I don't know what to think of the fast talking. For those of you who don't know and for those of you who noticed like me, the characters start speaking immediately after the previous one stops speaking. Basically they speak too quickly for it to be real. If this were real life then people would be constantly interrupting each other or finishing each others sentences! This is also called overlapping dialogue even if it doesn't actually overlap. From what I've read, Howard Hawks, encouraged this in some of his movies. On the one hand I like it. On the other hand I don't like it. There are pros and cons to this ways of film making. I like the fact that it keeps the movie moving. This is especially important in a film in which there is a lot of talking such as 'The Thing'. It also allows for more depth of story since the director can pack more information into the time allotted. The downside is, that if you are slow like me or easily distracted by things on the screen then you have to constantly back track for stuff that didn't register because it came at you too fast. You can do that if you are alone but if you are watching with people then it becomes a distraction. These days I always watch with subtitles when provided.-I like movies that take place in remote locations, especially horror and science fiction movies. This movie obviously fills the bill on that front.-I thought the scene with Hendry's hand's tied was 'risque' for the time period and I'm surprised it go past the censors.-Dr. Carrington was originally supposed to be killed in his scene with the Thing, apparently with his head being cut off.-Bill Warren uses the final line of dialogue in this movie as the title for his definitive book on Science Fiction movies from the 1950's (up to 1962), 'Keep Watching the Skies!'SOME THOUGHTS AND NOTES ON THE ARMY ALWAYS WANTING TO DESTROY ALIENS-I have to say I agree with Dr. Carrington on this.-Just what is up with army always wanting to destroy aliens from another planet? Don't they understand the significance? Obviously the command did but Captain Hendry and crew certainly didn't. Don't they understand the magnitude of the discovery?-Yes, I get it....it was a danger to all mankind...but they didn't know that in the beginning and started shooting at it before they completely understood the creature.-Even having destroyed it, any reasonable person would want the remains of an alien being. If for nothing else, to study it.-Let's be clear here....I'm talking about the army from science fiction movies. I'm not criticizing the 'real' one.-I'd like to make another important point about the constant disagreement between scientist's and servicemen during the time period. These Sci-Fi movies of the 50's were made soon after World War II and apparently the country was high on the military and down on scientists for having been responsible for starting the Cold War.SOME COMPLAINTS: Just because I have to complain about something....love fests are boring.-I still can't get over the absolutely stupendously dumb idea of using thermite to blow up the spaceship. I can't imagine any scenario in real life where this would be duplicated. Today it would probably take years before they were even ready to start digging the spaceship out of the ice and then take years to dig out. Even for the 1950's this was incredibly stupid. Even for 1938 when the novella was written this would have been idiotic. OK...'nuff said on that!-A minor complaint.... What was up with that line from Captain Hendry about it being too cold to see!?!...Yeah, I know what he meant but still....-Why exactly was Corporal Barnes shooting like mad at the Thing before he even knew what it was up to? He didn't even give it a chance. He just started shooting the moment it melted.-You'd think that they would put multiple guards on duty to protect the 'find of the century (or millennium for that matter)'.-Uh Captain Hendry...you might want to save part of the remains of the Thing so you can study it. If it is part of an alien force headed to Earth to take over then you might want to study it for weaknesses. How hard would it be to seal it in a secured cage or room?RECOMMENDATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: Everyone knows this movie is a science fiction classic. For me it is a good movie and I totally get why it is considered one of the best ever science fiction movies not only from the 50's but of all time. That still doesn't mean I have to agree it should be in anybody's top 10. For 1951 it was a great movie and in a way it still holds up today. The problem is that in my eyes it is not a very exciting movie. This is more of a thoughtful movie. Therein lies another problem. I didn't like the army's "kill first, ask questions later" attitude. That takes away some of the 'thoughtfulness'. Dr. Carrington is basically shoved aside and treated like an idiot despite being a Nobel laureate. That said, everyone should watch this movie at least once.On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this movie an 8 for the time period or 4 stars for the plot. The extra's are minimal so no added value there. The picture is let's call it a 7/10 or 3 1/2 stars. Cost/value - 3 stars.Overall I'm giving this release 3 to 3 1/2 stars but I'm bumping it to 4 stars because it is the best available print of a science fiction classic.As I say for just about all of the Warner Archive movies, I'd like to see some better value with the release in the form of some extra's and/or commentary track.Highly Recommended for all science fiction fans.