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President Eisenhower Appeared in This Movie

posted 13 years ago by oldblackandwhite
4 replies | jump to latest

Just Kidding!

But the remarkable resemblance of veteran character actor Willis Bouchey, who played the president in Them!, to Eisenhower, who was president at the time the movie was released, added to its gripping, documentary-style sense of reality. To those of us who saw Them! when it was first released, the effect was even stronger.

I was only ten years old then. It scared the pants off me then, and surprisingly, it still gives me a few chills. One of my favortite all-time movies.

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

[–] davidemartin 13 years ago

I agree, I noticed the similarity as well.

[–] G_Runciter 8 years ago

Well, he didn't actually play the president, but yeah, his casting was probably intentional because of the resemblance

[–] oldblackandwhite 8 years ago

In fact, G Runciter, he did play the president. Though he may have never actually been addressed as "Mr. President", it was obvious by the way military deferred to him and the command decisions he was making that the viewer was intended to know he was the president by implication. Not to mention that he looked so much like Ike, which was not likely unintentional.

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He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

[–] liscarkat (16530) 2 months ago

It's not obvious at all. You might be right, but there's no indication in the film that he's supposed to be the president.