<Tr> <Th> Language </Th> <Td> English </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $1.95 million (US rentals) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Thing from Another World, sometimes referred to as The Thing, is a 1951 American black - and - white science fiction - horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporation, and released by RKO Pictures . The film stars Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer . James Arness plays The Thing, but he is difficult to recognize in costume and makeup due to both low lighting and other effects used to obscure his features . The film is based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell (writing under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart). </P> <P> The storyline concerns a U.S. Air Force crew and scientists who find a crashed flying saucer and a body frozen nearby in the Arctic ice . Returning to their remote research outpost with the humanoid body in a block of ice, they are forced to defend themselves against this malevolent, plant - based alien when it is accidentally revived . </P>

When was the original movie the thing made