"Mike Hough" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> Unlike many sci-fi movies of that time, the movie Them! stands up pretty
> well today in terms of acting and cinemaphotography. That is, until the
> "professor" starts explaining where they came from. Radiation from nuclear
> testing? Of course! *headslap*

Well, it should be noted that 1954, at the time of the film's making, long-time
effects of radioactivity from nuclear weapon use were still poorly understood
in public. People were only starting to grasp that there *were* such effects.
And after all, when it was found out that radioactive fallout causes "genetic
mutation", this term was probably still more associated with Darvin's "survival
of the fittest" ideas than genetic defects. This misconception seems to have
been common those days, see those infamous Godzilla & Co. movies, which were
obviously bred on the same lack of insight.

We today have this insight, so it's a head-slapper for us. Wasn't for people
back then, I guess.

"The day the earth caught fire" was another example of misconceptions about
effects of nuclear testing, though unrelated to radioactivity issues; didn't
stop it from being a good movie.

(Getting off-topic though, I guess...)

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