In the groundbreaking movie, Weldon played researcher Dr. Pat Medford, working alongside her scientist father, Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn), to help the U.S. government get a handle on a deadly outbreak of enormous ants following their irradiated mutation from atomic testing at the Alamogordo, New Mexico nuclear facility. Regarded as one of the first “big bug” films in the nuclear-obsessed era of postwar speculative science fiction, Them! is still regarded by fans and movie buffs as a pioneer of the genre. Its black-and-white special effects may appear dated compared with the modern CG spectacles that fans have come to take for granted. But