I don’t like ants. It’s not a phobia as that is an irrational fear. It is perfectly rational for me to be at odds with our little formicidae friends.
As a youngster, I saw the 1954 sci-fi flick “Them!”. The story begins as a murder mystery but soon it becomes clear the killers are far from human. The film sits in amongst a number of others from the period drawing on and reflecting concerns about atomic energy and it’s possible effects. Godzilla, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Day the Earth Caught Fire all use the same plot device, unexpected consequences from unleashing such power. Now I didn’t become frightened of atomic energy or giant ants, even as a kid 1950’s special effects didn’t convince me that much. It is the short film served up by the ant expert in the movie, played by Edmund Gwenn (who played Kris Kringle in one of my favourite Christmas films, “Miracle on 34th Street” 1947. ) This dollop of plot exposition for the benefit of a room full of non-ant experts in the movie showed how powerful and well organised ordinary size ants could be. Watching “Them!” now is interesting for the lead performance of James Whitmore who played Brooks Hatlen in “The Shawshank Redemption” and also for a fleeting couple of lines from a very young Leonard Nimoy. The science and special effects may seem shaky but it is a film of it’s time and not the worst of it’s genre.
As I remember it, within a week or so of seeing “Them!” on TV I also saw “The Naked Jungle” starring Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker.
A brooding romantic drama set in the steaming heat of South America at the turn of the 19th century. All the colonial trappings are there, Heston as the plantation owner has brought order to the jungle and the people, the local ‘savages’ as they are called. This passed me by then as it was the relentless march of 40 sq miles of soldier ants that brought the dramatic denouement. The little blighters even made boats to cross irrigation ditches and could kill a man and pick his bones clean, like small 6 legged land-based piranha. As a film, it is not the greatest although Eleanor Parker’s strong willed widow seeking a new life moves beyond the standard damsel in distress. William Conrad, famous as the heavy weight TV detective Cannon, features as the regional government chief helping to battle the advancing menace. It is the ants, however, that steal the jungle and the show. A rare example of actors chewing the scenery and it not being a bad thing.
These 2 films together made me very nervous of ants especially en masse. Many years later, biting into a Cadbury’s creme egg, which had been infiltrated by ants burrowing through the silver paper and the outer chocolate did nothing to change the situation. A mouthful of live and somewhat startled ants when you are expecting the delicious gooeyness of a creme egg is a disconcerting experience and one not easily forgotten. I have had other run-ins with swarms of ants over the years. Whether I have had more than average I do not know but those 2 films from 1954 seem to have set me upon a life punctuated with ant related incidents and I don’t think the ants have finished with me yet.
45 years in the dark 