Invasion of the Body Snatchers

This 1956 Sci-fi horror is now rightly regarded as a classic of the genre. Despite this original being rather different than the 1978 ‘remake’ you will not find a dull moment!

Alighting from a train after a long sojourn, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is returning to his friendly little Californian hometown of Santa Mira where he is greeted by his surgery nurse Sally Withers (Jean Willes), cheerfully informing him that his old flame Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) is back in town having returned after her recent divorce. Inevitably they will hook up and re-ignite that flame. Driving into town they nearly run over a little boy who is shouting something about his mother not being his mother. Strange? This is just the beginning of the film and within no time we are going to see a lot more of this. Wilma (Virginia Christine), a cousin of Becky's, claims her uncle Ira isn't her uncle either. Miles questions Wilma about this and although the ‘imposter uncle’ knows everything her real uncle would know she insists that he is cold, meaning he doesn't display any emotions. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kauffman (Larry Gates) brushes off the incidents as an outbreak of mass hysteria which apparently spreads like wild fire.

Miles and Becky are invited over to the house of Jack Belicec (King Donovan) and his wife Theodora (Carolyn Jones), called ‘Teddy’. Jack has been a friend of Miles’ for a long time and wishes to show him something strange to say the least. Jack has a barroom with pool table and on the pool table is something that looks like a full-grown human being not quite properly formed and yet, it appears to be maturing before their very eyes! As Jack is getting them all a drink, Teddy notices the 'thing' seems to have a strong resemblance to her husband. Shocked, Jack cuts his hand. Miles and Becky leave to consult other parties. A little later Teddy notices the 'thing' resembling Jack has a cut on its hand in the same place as the real Jack who by now has fallen asleep on his bar counter.
Oddly enough, Wilma later tells Miles she was mistaken about her uncle not being her real uncle, however, at his surgery the little boy who he nearly ran down earlier is still screaming that his mother isn't his real mother. Soon after comes the cruncher: in Jack and Teddy's greenhouse a number of giant pods burst open to reveal ‘alien copies’ of themselves, some of them still forming. How can they alert the town? How many people have turned into ‘pod people’ – alien duplicates which retain all human memories but have no longer any emotions? Miles then finds a pod of Becky forming in the basement of her father’s house – her father has also been acting strangely.

Miles, Becky, Jack and Teddy finally establish that most of the townspeople have been replaced by their duplicates while they sleep… that is when the pods begin to absorb and create exact physical copies derived of any human feelings. There is no way of preventing oneself from becoming an alien unless the humans stop sleeping…which is of course impossible! The horror deepens when Miles and Becky observe from an office window how truckload after truckload carrying huge pods arrive and stop in the town centre where police chief Nick Grivett (Ralph Dumke) pulls the strings and sees to it that ever more alien pods are planted in neighbouring towns too – Miles therefore assumes that Grivett and others are by now alien duplicates. Barely have Miles and Becky time to recover from these horrific findings when Kauffman and Jack Belicec (by now also pod people) arrive in the office and try to reassure the couple that the pods are the result of an invading extra-terrestrial life form and that it is much better to lose all human emotions in exchange for a more stress free world. Miles and Becky reckon it’s high time to do a runner but where to, and can they escape their fate…? ‘They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next!’

Top director Don Siegel had been in the industry since the early 1940's starting out as a montage director and the direction here is relentless as regards pace. We even get a little cameo starring director Sam Peckinpah as a gas meter reader! For some reason producer Walter Wanger decided to top and tail this picture and give it a prelude and epilogue. It appears many saw 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' as a political allegory what with the threat of a Communist invasion of the ‘land of the free' (not that America’s indigenous people would agree).
This extraordinary film is based on a novel by Jack Finney; an author who deserves to be better known and is really indirectly responsible for Rod Serling's 'The Twilight Zone'. Finney’s book has a totally different and rather anti-climactic ending. It is also unlikely that screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring’s much improved ending was hinting at this political nightmare' scenario either.
Walter Wanger was unable to get the budget he really wanted for this film, hence the casting. However, Kevin McCarthy (who would appear in a cameo scene in the 1978 ‘remake’) and German-born British actress Dana Wynter certainly deliver the goods in their prospective lead roles! You may make of the story what you will. One way or another you should be on the edge of your seat.

Bonus material on this newly restored Blu-ray release includes:
Audio commentary / 50th Anniversary commentary with stars Dana Wynter and Kevin McCarthy, and Gremlins director Joe Dante (2006) / Don Siegel (1973, 75 mins, audio only): Don Siegel looks over his career with Barry Norman / Body Snatchers Revisited (2006, 27 mins): a look at Body Snatchers’ production history / The Body Snatchers Phenomenon (2006, 8 mins) / What's In a Name? (2006, 2 min short) / Return to Santa Mira (2006, 13 mins) / A selection of complementary archive films. Original theatrical trailer / FIRST PRESSING ONLY: An illustrated 40-page booklet.