To start with, I LOVE this movie. It is one of my favorite old monster movies. I just found it amusing how a local policeman (Whitmore) starts as a local policeman in the desert and ends up going to LA, suiting up like the army and goes along with them as though he is a member of the army.
If I don't suit chu, you kin cut mah thoat!
I'm sure both the Fed & Cop were both veterans of either WW2 or Korea--as the actors were in real life.
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?
And don't forget Whitmore and Arness were both in Battlegound (1949). Whitmore played the tobacco chewing sergeant Kinnie and Arness played private Garbie. In Battlegound Arness' character is the one killed. Also notice how well Whitmore fires his Thompson machine gun then see him do it in Battleground.
shareI don't know if Arness got to fire his weapon at all but he was wounded by a mortar shell at Anzio.
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?
Presumably Ben was in the reserves; quite a few WW II and Korea vets stayed available for call-up years after the fighting had stopped.
shareNick, I think you should proof read your posts. Logically, James Arness could not be wounded by a "mortal" shell, unless you mean that the shell died, rather than Arness. I deduce it likely that you meant "mortar" shell.
I've made bigger goofs, but I have trained myself to forget them.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
Well now, how'd that get past me?! 😀
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?
Arness was hit in the lower right leg by machinegun fire while on patrol after the Anzio landing. (I just read his autobiography).
shareFirst, he's a uniformed New Mexico cop.
Then, he's wearing a suit and tagging along with the FBI
THEN, he's wearing an Army/National Guard uniform.
The dude definitely got around!!
I love this movie, too.
What you pointed out is something I used to think was really silly. The (quasi-reasonable) explanation is that the authorities (general & scientist) agreed to limit the knowledge of the giant ants as much as possible. So they continued to use only the people that knew about them: Whitmore being one of the original people who learned about the ants when he took the FBI and scientist out to the scene of the crime(s) he investigated.
Why would Whitmore's cop be around at the ending battle? It would make sense to send him as he was more knowledgeable about the ants having some direct experience with them and the previous colony.
Of course, it doesn't make perfect sense but reasonable for a sci-fi movie about giant ants ;-)
Sig, you want a sig, here's a SIG-sauer!
I can fill in the backstories. Ben Peterson grew up on a hardscrabble ranch in New Mexico, around 1935 at the age of 22 he took the state police exam on a lark but scored highest in his group. He was exempt from the draft due to his position, but a wily USMC recruiter got him to sign up after Pearl Harbor by promising him he would be Shore Patrol in San Diego or Hawaii. The USMC made him an infantryman and sent him first to Guadalcanal, then Saipan and eventually Iwo Jima where he was a sergeant in charge of a flamethrower squad. After the war he reclaimed his position on the State Police but remained in the Marine Reserve as a gunnery sergeant.
Robert Graham was a standout high school athlete in Iowa where he was in the high school class of 1942. He was in line for scholarships in both football and basketball, but enlisted after Pearl Harbor and his diploma was mailed to him. He volunteered for the 82nd Airborne, made jumps in Sicily, Salerno, and Holland. He made it up to platoon sergeant and received a battlefield commission at Anzio. He finished the war a captain with a Purple Heart, Silver Star and Distinguished Service Cross. He enrolled at the University of Iowa on the GI Bill and attended law school, graduating in 1950. He was accepted as a Special Agent of the FBI and also held a reserve commission in the JAG Corps as a Major.
Quite an account ... you should write the script for the remake.
shareBen was there from the beginning. My take on it would be that the government probably figured it was easier to keep him in the loop rather than risk him being a loose cannon.
shareMy thought when I saw this, exactly. "He's a small town cop who happened to stumble across the giant ants' victims, so let's put him in charge!"
shareMy thought when I saw this, exactly. "He's a small town cop who happened to stumble across the giant ants' victims, so let's put him in charge!"
It just seemed to me that the FBI guy, the state cop, and the young entomologist were going deep into the ant nests, so they suited up in the most practical gear and helmets that were on hand, which happened to be U.S. Army kit that they borrowed at the site of action. The surprising thing to me was that the Army outfit there in the field happened to have something on hand that fit young Dr. Patricia Weldon so stylishly.
share