Let Us Praise The Unpraised Sandy Descher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                  

No, dears, Sandy Descher is not related to Fran Drescher.  I am not sure Fran was born, when Sandy was doing her best work.

She was a working Fifties child actress.  She never became an A-lister like Margaret O'Brien, whom she superficially resembles, or Patty McCormack, but she does have one claim to fame.

She played one of the most memorably frightening, but briefest scenes in film history.

She was the Little Ellinson Girl, in "THEM!"

The Ellinsons--mother, father, daughter, and brother--were on a Summer vacation in New Mexico, near Alamogordo.  Why anyone would go there, and in the Fifties, I cannot fathom! I mean, there could not have been any designer shops nearby, could there?  Not from the way this kid is dressed!

This child sets the film in motion.  She is found wandering the desert in a state of complete shock.  Her parents' trailer has been destroyed by something so horrible, and she witnessed her family's death, with the trailer being destroyed, sending her into a state of trauma, leaving her no choice, but to wander the desert.

Her father had been an FBI agent, and was on vacation, in their trailer, with his wife, the girl, and brother.  None have been found.

When the girl is transported to an ambulance, to be taken to the hospital, she hears a piercing sound, which disturbs her so, she sits up abruptly.  When it stops, she settles back down.

Now, comes her big scene.  Edmund Gwenn, the kindly doctor, wants to help the child, and revive her from the trauma.  He does this by holding some formic acid fumes under her nose.  She slowly revives, and when she does, fully, her face almost takes the shape of a monster, as she becomes fully aware, genuinely hysterical, and repeating only one word--"Them!  Them!  THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                                            If Oscars were given out for memorable film moments, Sandy would surely have netted one.  I will try to show the thirty one second sequence on here, to give you an idea of how powerful Sandy's brief performance was.

                                     Clearly, "THEM!" does not like children.  "THEM!" eventually move on to underground Los Angeles, where a mother reports her two boys have been abducted.  Eventually, they, like the little Ellinson girl, are saved!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      This "THEM" was written, long before Joyce Carol Oates' was.  Bet she was jealous, once she saw the results, here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       Here is Sandy's big scene!  She is long overdue for praise!!!!!!!!!!!!!