THEM!

With the invention of the atomic bomb, we as the human race were brought into a new age that ultimately affected all walks of life on the planet. Hollywood didn't wait to exploit this new form of energy; it used the concept of radiation to bleed new life into a failed genre. The monster movies were given a new lease and they came back bigger and meaner than before. This is one of many films that were made with the idea that radiation could mutate a living species, and given time that species could destroy the world.
Giant ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert after they go on a murderous rampage, but once the new queen ants escape from the hive the US army is brought in to track them down before they annihilate the human race. For 1954 the effects that are used are not that bad, of course by today's standards they're very crude but they still work within the framework of the film. There is actually some real science about ants injected into the film to help give it that feeling that it was actually happening. All the acting is well done, but the stand out piece is that of the little girl in the beginning of the film, for most of her role she moves through the scenes in a catatonic state. When the doctors finally bring her out of it she has a one-word line to say and says it with so much power that you believe that her life is in danger.
In my opinion this is one of the better giant monster movies that came out of Hollywood in the 50s. Trying to show the dangers of this new technology that we had discovered, they were able to give fanciful ideas for people to have nightmares about and not worry about what it could do to them. That way the public could be told about the danger of radiation, but just not the whole truth. This is definitely one of those films that you can sit back on a rainy Saturday afternoon with a bowl of popcorn, and think about the way things used to be in your youth.