Excellent movie, I agree with the other commentators on that issue: 9/10 In stead of making yet another resumé of the story, let me get a little deeper into the points I do NOT agree with made by almost all commentators.
According to Kevin McCarthy, at the time this movie was made, there was no symbolism or allegorical message in it, underlining that Jack Finney never wrote the book with that intent. That sounds a very reasonable explanation to me, which most people seem to want to ignore. It's not the movie-lover who's speaking now, but the political scientist, asking to keep things into historical perspective. It's all too easy to discover the ghost of McCarthy in almost everything that's from the 1950's.
First at all, you don't have to be a Goebbels to understand that it would be against the basic rules of propaganda to try to get a political message across by means of a SF movie, using an allegory. Most people who love SF or horror movies surely won't have made a link between this movie and McCarthy at the time. When you are a little bit into political thrillers of that period, you'll know that this kind of "Red scare" messages were presented in a much more straightforward way than through allegories, to make sure the largest possible audience got the message. You want a good example ? Try "Whip Hand" (1951): in this movie, a remote village is taken over by Communists, testing and planning to use WMD against the USA. To make sure even the Simpletons understand how evil and mean the Commies are, they are using a Nazi scientist to conduct these experiments. That's plain, straightforward, just as "Red Menace" or "I married a communist" (Woman on Pier 13) were.
Secondly: thinking that Kevin McCarthy was chosen for the lead role because of his family name is quite ridiculous ! Let's not forget that McCarthy had already become a villain by 1954, whose megalomania had led to sneer attacks against some of the most decent people in the Armed Forces. McCarthy and Roy Cohen had become very unpopular by then, and lots of Americans agreed they had gone too far. Furthermore, Hollywood sure wasn't sad that his political career was all over. They had been a victim too of the violent attacks of the Wisconsin senator. And see... 1956 was the year in which Bette Davis played in "Storm Center", which can be viewed as Hollywood's way to close the McCarthy chapter. His downfall led to his heavy drinking, and by 1957, the Senator died, aged not even 50 !
It could be argued with as much basis as for the "Commie"-angle, that this movie is rather depicting the fears of small town people against overworked, overstressed and emotionless people from the big cities, buying into property in their neighborhood, acting cold and distant, not joining the local people in their little bars or cultural activities. So we get a nice juxta position here of rural/town, jovial, pleasant/robotlike, friendly and helpful/cold and distant. Using juxta positions is a commonly used formula in movies. To make a menace even more menacing, you first depict something good, friendly innocent, and then in comes the evil. There are two possibilities:
1) an external menace (aliens like in Bodysnatchers, communists like in Whip hand, psychopaths like in Key Largo or Petrified Forest)or something not clearly defined or paranormal, like in "The Mist".
2) innocence etc suddenly becoming a menace. "Village of the damned" and "Children of the damned" are in which nice and innocent children (in stead of cozy rural America) are taken over by an evil force, that make them extremely clever, emotionless, robotlike and dangerous.
So, is there no message at all in this excellent movie ? Maybe it makes more sense to see the movie as just an entertaining thriller. The rest is all speculation.
By the way, this psychological state of mind of no longer recognizing family members and friends really exists: it's called a Capgras delusion.
(Spoiler alert) Finally: there are indeed some holes in the story (the sudden change of Becky Driscoll after she fell asleep). The biggest hasn't been mentioned in the 3-4 last pages of comment: why would a highly advanced alien invader choose of all places a small village in California ? And why in just one village, and not in hundreds at the same time.
But hey, this is a movie, and a very entertaining one: if you can't accept such things, stick to documentaries It's the magic, stupid ! 9/10
According to Kevin McCarthy, at the time this movie was made, there was no symbolism or allegorical message in it, underlining that Jack Finney never wrote the book with that intent. That sounds a very reasonable explanation to me, which most people seem to want to ignore. It's not the movie-lover who's speaking now, but the political scientist, asking to keep things into historical perspective. It's all too easy to discover the ghost of McCarthy in almost everything that's from the 1950's.
First at all, you don't have to be a Goebbels to understand that it would be against the basic rules of propaganda to try to get a political message across by means of a SF movie, using an allegory. Most people who love SF or horror movies surely won't have made a link between this movie and McCarthy at the time. When you are a little bit into political thrillers of that period, you'll know that this kind of "Red scare" messages were presented in a much more straightforward way than through allegories, to make sure the largest possible audience got the message. You want a good example ? Try "Whip Hand" (1951): in this movie, a remote village is taken over by Communists, testing and planning to use WMD against the USA. To make sure even the Simpletons understand how evil and mean the Commies are, they are using a Nazi scientist to conduct these experiments. That's plain, straightforward, just as "Red Menace" or "I married a communist" (Woman on Pier 13) were.
Secondly: thinking that Kevin McCarthy was chosen for the lead role because of his family name is quite ridiculous ! Let's not forget that McCarthy had already become a villain by 1954, whose megalomania had led to sneer attacks against some of the most decent people in the Armed Forces. McCarthy and Roy Cohen had become very unpopular by then, and lots of Americans agreed they had gone too far. Furthermore, Hollywood sure wasn't sad that his political career was all over. They had been a victim too of the violent attacks of the Wisconsin senator. And see... 1956 was the year in which Bette Davis played in "Storm Center", which can be viewed as Hollywood's way to close the McCarthy chapter. His downfall led to his heavy drinking, and by 1957, the Senator died, aged not even 50 !
It could be argued with as much basis as for the "Commie"-angle, that this movie is rather depicting the fears of small town people against overworked, overstressed and emotionless people from the big cities, buying into property in their neighborhood, acting cold and distant, not joining the local people in their little bars or cultural activities. So we get a nice juxta position here of rural/town, jovial, pleasant/robotlike, friendly and helpful/cold and distant. Using juxta positions is a commonly used formula in movies. To make a menace even more menacing, you first depict something good, friendly innocent, and then in comes the evil. There are two possibilities:
1) an external menace (aliens like in Bodysnatchers, communists like in Whip hand, psychopaths like in Key Largo or Petrified Forest)or something not clearly defined or paranormal, like in "The Mist".
2) innocence etc suddenly becoming a menace. "Village of the damned" and "Children of the damned" are in which nice and innocent children (in stead of cozy rural America) are taken over by an evil force, that make them extremely clever, emotionless, robotlike and dangerous.
So, is there no message at all in this excellent movie ? Maybe it makes more sense to see the movie as just an entertaining thriller. The rest is all speculation.
By the way, this psychological state of mind of no longer recognizing family members and friends really exists: it's called a Capgras delusion.
(Spoiler alert) Finally: there are indeed some holes in the story (the sudden change of Becky Driscoll after she fell asleep). The biggest hasn't been mentioned in the 3-4 last pages of comment: why would a highly advanced alien invader choose of all places a small village in California ? And why in just one village, and not in hundreds at the same time.
But hey, this is a movie, and a very entertaining one: if you can't accept such things, stick to documentaries It's the magic, stupid ! 9/10