User Reviews

Allied Artists stunning INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is arguably the finest Sci-Fi movie ever made. Produced in 1956 by Walter Wanger it was perfectly written for the screen by Daniel Mainwaring (who also wrote "Out Of The Past") which derived originally from the Colliers magazine story and then a novel by Jack Finney. Beautifully photographed in black & white and in the short lived widescreen process Superscope by Ellsworth Fredericks the picture is a triumph on all fronts with bracing cinematic nous and expertise from all departments thanks to the committed and adroit direction by Don Siegel. This movie came from early in the great director's career. He had started off at Warner Bros. doing special effects on such things as "Casablanca"(1942) and "Edge of Darkness" (1943) before he started directing. His first feature to direct was the Sidney Greenstreet classic "The Verdict" in 1946 and then garnered great praise in 1954 when he directed Walter Wanger's tough and gritty prison drama "Riot In Cell Block 11". Latterly Siegel is better known for his association with Clint Eastwood for whom he directed some of the actor's most memorable films. In 1976 he directed John Wayne in his final film "The Shootist" and Siegel's own final film was the best forgotten Bette Midler vehicle "Jinxed" in 1983. Don Siegel died in 1991 but of all his films he will probably be best remembered for Wanger's two classics "Riot In Cell Block 11" and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

On his return home after attending a medical conference in the city a young small town doctor (Kevin McCarthy) finds some of his patients acting somewhat strangely. It is not too long before he discovers much to his horror that their very bodies have been taken over by an alien life form. Further investigation establishes the strange life form germinated in giant seed pods that were placed near their victims as they slept. Without any noticeable difference in their physical appearance the aliens perfectly replicated the human form with one exception the "new" beings have no human feelings or emotions. Soon everyone in the town is affected including the police and all of the doctor's friends. Now, together with his girlfriend (Dana Wynter), he must endeavour to escape from the town - get to the capital and warn the authorities. But in order to survive and make the journey they not only have to evade the now alien townspeople who are pursuing them en masse but ensure at all costs that they don't fall asleep.

Although the cast is made up mostly of minor players the performances throughout are uniformly excellent. Kevin McCarthy - he of the chiseled-jaw - a fine character actor in anything he did is good here as the main protagonist imbuing his role with just about the right degree of fear and trepidation. The lovely Dana Wynter - she of the cute little upturned nose - is as attractive as ever in what must be her most memorable role. Also interesting are well measured portrayals from such minor actors as King Donovan, Carolyn Jones (in one of her early films), Virginia Christine, Larry Gates and Ralph Dumke as the police chief. And watch out for the unknown Sam Peckinpah in a tiny part as a meter reading gas-man and later towards the end - when an exhausted McCarthy finally reaches the busy freeway - Pechinpah leading the pursuers shouts "Let him go......they'll never believe him".

There are also some lovely moments of pure film noir! Ellsworth Frederick's monochrome camera makes ingenious use of light and shadow, up and down narrow office corridors, McCarthy and Wynter hiding from the police in an office closet and particularly brilliant is the clip when the pair are silhouetted against the dimly lit wet streets and alleyways at night as they race hand in hand to escape their incredible nightmare. And holding the whole thing together is the splendid score - if perhaps a tad over emphatic - from composer conductor Carmen Dragon.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is not only a superb Sci-Fi adventure but more significantly it is an imaginative, intense and suspenseful thriller of a motion picture. The brilliance with which it steadfastly maintains to this day.

Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returns from a convention to the small Santa Mira and is welcomed by his nurse and friend Sally Withers (Jean Willes) at the train station. She reports that several patients had come to see him while he was traveling. While driving to his office with Sally, Miles stops the car when a boy runs to the road. Soon he learns that the boy insists that his mother is not her actually. Then he meets in his office his former girlfriend Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) that has just divorced and returned from England. Becky tells that her cousin Wilma Lentz (Virginia Christine) insists that her Uncle Ira is not him. Miles invites Becky to have dinner with him and he meets his friend, the psychiatrist Dr. Dan 'Danny' Kauffman (Larry Gates) that tells that the population of Santa Mira is paranoid with mass hysteria imagining doubles of their relatives. Miles and Becky go to a restaurant and Miles receives a phone call from his friend Jack Belicec (King Donovan) asking him to go to his house. Miles and Becky visit Jack and his wife Theodora 'Teddy' Belicec (Carolyn Jones) and they show a partially developed body with Jack's characteristics on the pool table and they go to Miles' house. Then Miles goes to Becky's house and finds a body identical to her in the basement. Miles brings Becky to his house and in the morning, the group finds seeds of pods with doubles of them. Soon they discover that the population is being replaced by emotionless doubles while asleep. They unsuccessfully try to contact the authorities in other cities but they discover that they are under siege by the pod people. Will they have the chance to flee from Santa Mira?

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is one of the best sci-fi classics from the 50's of the cinema history. The story is tense and very well written and the the screenplay is excellent. The plot is an anti-communism message in period of the McCarthyism, with people with no feelings, with similar behavior, that does not love. The prologue and the epilogue had been imposed by the studio that found the original conclusion with Miles screaming on the highway too pessimist. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Vampiros de Almas" ("Vampires of Souls")

Note: On 06 Nov 2018 I saw this film again.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is set in the small Californian town of Santa Mira where local doc Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returns home after a medical convention. Once back he begins to hear strange stories of people not being themselves & being replaced by cold emotionless imposter's. At first the doc laughs it off as some sort of mass delusion but evidence soon begins to mount that there may be more to the stories than he first thought & after seeing strange large seed pod type 'things' turning into people he know before his very eyes the doc is convinced that these alien seed pods intend to take over the entire Earth as they seek to clone very living person turning them into emotionless shells...

Originally having the working title They Came from Another World this Don Siegel directed classic slice of modest low budget black and white 50's Sci-Fi alien invasion flick is a terrific film & is far removed from most stereotypical cheap 50's potboilers with a real tense atmosphere & a pretty creepy & intelligent story. Clocking in at under 80 minutes with the studio tacked on start & ending with the original version running a mere 75 minutes this moves along like a rocket, the story is tight, taught, makes sense, people & character's behave in a fairly believable way & the central plot is both gripping, intriguing & certainly draws you in. The plot relies on generating paranoia just like another classic 50's Sci-Fi film The Thing from Another World (1951) & it's no coincidence that the two are two of the finest genre films of the 50's. There's good tension & it is sustained & increased as the alien plot unfolds, the basic concept of who one can trust is a very primeval instinct & that's maybe why these films are so effective. It's not perfect though, it's never explained what happens to a persons body after they are cloned & the alien version comes to life & the climax at the cave doesn't quite work either with Becky going to sleep but then seemingly reawaken taken over. Why was she not cloned? Why was her mind taken over & not anybody else's? If she was cloned how did the alien version get inside the cave? Watch it, think about it & the story & it just doesn't quite work which is a shame since otherwise it's a terrific film that still manages to be very effective even today in the ultra cynical world of 2008.

While most 50's Sci-Fi at the time featured actor's in badly fitting rubber alien suits & car hubcaps hung on string to portray a flying saucer Invasion of the Body Snatchers relies on atmosphere & tension, in fact apart from the large alien seed pods there's no special effects at all. Proved iconic enough to spawn three direct remakes starting with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) which is my own personal favourite version & moves the action to San Francisco, Body Snatchers (1993) which shifts the action to a US military base & the more recent The Invasion (2007) with Nicole Kidman & Daniel Craig while the highly entertaining teen horror flick The Faculty (1998) has basically the same plot.

According to the IMDb this had a budget of about $417,000 which really is no money even back then, crisply shot in black and white (although a computer colourised version has been released) the film has a modest but nice look to it. The acting is pretty good but this is one of those films where the story really carries it.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a classic piece of 50's Sci-Fi that stands head & shoulders above it's peers from the time, a great film that still remains very effective even when viewed today. Often cited as a classic I find it hard to argue against that.

Don't sleep. Never go to sleep, because when you close your eyes, they come. They come and snatch your mind away. And, you never wake up. Your memories come to life in another body that looks like you, and acts like you, but it's not you. It's a pod-person from outer space who has reproduced himself as you. This is the terror of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, one of the most dystopian, and original, science fiction stories ever written.

The DVD includes a 1985 interview with Kevin McCarthy, who says he never thought the film had any symbolism or allegorical message. "That came later," he says. He quotes author Jack Finney as saying he [Finney] never wrote it that way. I saw this movie in 1956, it is likely the first movie I ever saw in a theater, and never felt then or now that it has any symbolic meaning. It's a scary story that flat out rocks, and I recommend you approach it as such.

But, this does beg the question of all those comments about the aliens who don't need love or any emotion, who believe humanity is better off without them. Why are they in the script, and what do they mean? I want to suggest they are what makes the pod-people scary. The notion of assimilation is inherently scary, of course, and one could argue that no embellishment is necessary, but I think the story as a story is weakened without it.

There is a continuity error in this story that has bothered me for more than forty years. Spoiler alert, just in case. In the final sequence, Becky falls asleep, just for a moment, and wakes up a pod person, but that's not how the assimilation takes place. They come at night during sleep and snatch human memories that are migrated into a copy of the original body. Miles speculates that the original body simply disintegrates, and the soul perishes. Becky should have died, and another Becky with her memories should have appeared, but that body should never have regained consciousness as a pod person or human. A minor nit, really, that bothers me less now that I understand it is a nit.

The original movie does not contain the opening scene at the hospital, or the epilogue, also at the hospital. They were added because the studio felt the original ending was too depressing. Some feel these additions do not work, but I am not one of them. They add considerably, in fact, to the power of this story. Miles' face in the closing scene is a vivid memory I've carried for almost half a century. His reaction is a catharsis for him personally and his audience. It's a powerful vicarious emotional experience, and the movie would be not nearly as good without it.

Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter are outstanding here. Wynter is one of the most beautiful women ever to appear onscreen and her first entrance is stunning. Jean Willes and King Donovan are good in supporting roles. This is one of the best pictures of its year, of its decade, and dare I say it, of all time. 9 out of 10.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS - Don Siegel

[FULL REVIEW - SPOILERS AHEAD]

I haven't read 'The Body Snatchers', the book by Jack Finney that was the basis of this film, but feel very inclined to do so on account of what I've seen.

The plot deals with a small town in the US, where the protagonist, a physician coming home after an outstation trip, begins to notice some strange behavior among the townsfolk - people making appointments with him and then mysteriously canceling them, people temporarily claiming that their relatives aren't actually their relatives. As it turns out there's an alien race propagating via pods, which take the face and form of human beings, even absorbing their memories, though not feelings. Their intention is to completely take over the human race by substitution with the 'pod people'.

A lot has been said about the political metaphors that one can draw from this book and film - even without those metaphors I'd say it works fine as a 50's sci-fi paranoia piece. The plot is absolutely first-rate and the mainstay of the film's power. It builds up in a generally credible manner (although there is some unintentional humor in scenes like when a couple that discovers a growing body in their home does little more than inviting the local physician and his fiancée over for a drink to discuss this matter over). The pod people are depicted in a convincing way as beings that have the form and memories of people but not human emotions, which they consider unnecessary baggage.

Siegel directs the proceedings in a crisp fashion. There are some very nice visuals, for instance the scene where they discover a host of pods in the greenhouse, all tilted angles and tight close-ups effectively conveying the tension of the scene. Another is when the leads hide in a mine while trying to escape from a mob of the pod people, great use of shadows and perspective shots.

The film ends on a somewhat upbeat note with the hero managing to convince the authorities of the dastardly invasion.

OK, maybe I'm being a bit hard on this movie as it is from the 1950's, but still. The main character, a doctor, could have been played by a block of wood, with the same level of emotions and depth. This movie is about pods that replicate humans without emotion in order to take over. This movie was remade as The Invasion recently. Anyways, back to the 50's. The premise sounds good, but it actually isn't, seems these pods can just take the form of people and when you sleep, they just suck your mind out. Wait, What!!! ridiculous, and then you are possessed and they burn the replica, convenient. The doctor and his friends and girlfriend attempt to solve the mystery of why people are acting funny in town, and overacted performances are everywhere. Women screaming, and a voice over that makes it seem like some sort of film noir. A love interest between the doc and his girl is a secondary plot line, giving the director an excuse to throw millions of horribly cheesy lines at us again and again. These lines are grimace inducing, you could make nachos out of them, lots of nachos. And according to the trivia on this website, they had to add on the alternate ending. I for one think that is a good thing because otherwise, you would have some open ended thing like some terrible modern movie like children of men.

Upon returning from a convention, Dr Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) discovers that some people in the town are claiming that their relatives look the same, but notice slight differences in their personalities. Bennell is initially sceptical and dismisses these claims as 'mass hysteria'. However, when he digs a little deeper Bennell starts to believe that this might be more than hysteria and tries to convince a cynical psychologist Danny Kauffman (Larry Gates)that some other worldly beings may be responsible for these strange occurrences.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is a nice little film that gets going pretty much straight away - a no nonsense film that is devoid of pointless filler. It's played out as a mystery and it's a relatively suspenseful film whereby you're constantly wondering what's making the townspeople mad? What do they want? Etc. The story itself was quite ground-breaking for its time and it's also a very interesting film.

Although this film was ground-breaking and interesting, I did find that it was a little vague in some areas; we learn that these 'beings' take control of people's minds and bodies when they're asleep, but the writers never bother explaining how this is done - is it some kind of mind transfer? It also doesn't explain how they jam the telephone network? On a personal note, I would have also liked it if we'd have seen more social commentary on how this mind control affected the townspeople. We see little snippets of it but I think it might have made the film slightly more interesting and slightly stronger as a whole if this aspect would have been expanded upon and given a little more focus.

Despite this though, there are enough selling points here to make this worth watching; the performances across the board were excellent and all the main players show a certain intensity that makes it very easy to get swept up in their plight. McCarthy overacts occasionally, but I suppose it's better that he puts too much effort in rather than too little.

IOTBS is a very good film that is definitely worth watching. However, for me the story could have done with being fleshed out a little more and for this reason I see it as a very good film that falls just short of brilliance.

---contains "spoilers"----

Wow, for classic horror films from the 50's, it doesn't get much better than this.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is downright scary. You start following the characters actions , and start noticing that your town has a problem. Something is happening here. Something strange. Little by little the main character notices that the people have a strange fear, an unknown fear that creeps up on you. Then he discovers that there are giant frothing six foot long seed pods growing in his backyard greenhouse. ( a great scene) He pokes at them and sees that there is a human growing inside each one. His girlfriend is scared to death and screams. It turns out that the alien seed pods grow into humans that take over the city as mindless drones and the real people die off. Slowly the entire city is transformed, except him and his girlfriend. The change happens when you go to sleep, so if you don't go to sleep you are OK, you stay human.

The film is frightening, dramatic, suspenseful and mysterious. Man, this is one of my favorite movies. A real classic.

Don't go to sleep! A great Science Fiction story that has to be seen to be believed (or not). This one beats the two remakes hands down! The acting in this isn't anything great, but neither is it very good in either remake, so that's a tie. The execution overall if this film is far better than the remakes. There are large seed pods that take your body shape and then, while you sleep (even for a second), it takes your mind and then you aren't you anymore! It's a great yarn and the film flows very well. The story builds slowly and very believably, with a great ending. The only "name" actor in the film is Dana Wynter, who specialized in this genre. You will no doubt recognize a few others in the film, but overall, the cast was composed of character actors. You'll love it!