Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Daniel Mainwaring (screenplay)
Jack Finney (Collier's magazine serial)
(more)

Release Date:

5 February 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

... there was nothing to hold onto - except each other.

Plot:

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Delusion | Psychiatrist | Seedpod | Horror Movie Remade

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Kevin McCarthy	...	Dr. Miles J. Bennell
Dana Wynter	...	Becky Driscoll
Larry Gates	...	Dr. Dan 'Danny' Kauffman
King Donovan	...	Jack Belicec
Carolyn Jones	...	Theodora 'Teddy' Belicec
Jean Willes	...	Nurse Sally Withers
Ralph Dumke	...	Police Chief Nick Grivett
Virginia Christine	...	Wilma Lentz
Tom Fadden	...	Uncle Ira Lentz
Kenneth Patterson	...	Stanley Driscoll
Guy Way	...	Officer Sam Janzek
Eileen Stevens	...	Anne Grimaldi
Beatrice Maude	...	Grandma Driscoll
Jean Andren	...	Eleda Lentz
Bobby Clark	...	Jimmy Grimaldi
Everett Glass	...	Dr. Ed Pursey
Dabbs Greer	...	Mac Lomax
Pat O'Malley	...	Baggage man
Guy Rennie	...	Restaurant owner
Marie Selland	...	Martha Lomax
Sam Peckinpah	...	Charlie (meter reader)
Harry J. Vejar	...	Pod carrier in Miles' office
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Whit Bissell	...	Dr. Hill (uncredited)
Richard Deacon	...	Dr. Harvey Bassett (uncredited)
Frank Hagney	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Robert Osterloh	...	Ambulance driver (uncredited)

Directed by
Don Siegel

Writing credits
Daniel Mainwaring		(screenplay)
Jack Finney		(Collier's magazine serial)
Richard Collins		uncredited

Original Music by
Carmen Dragon

Cinematography by
Ellsworth Fredericks		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Robert S. Eisen

Production Design by
Ted Haworth		(as Edward Haworth)

Set Decoration by
Joseph Kish

Makeup Department
Emile LaVigne	....	makeup artist
Mary Westmoreland	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Allen K. Wood	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William Beaudine Jr.	....	assistant director (as Bill Beaudine Jr.)
Richard Maybery	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Ralph Butler	....	sound
Del Harris	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Milt Rice	....	special effects
Don Post	....	special makeup effects: pods and other props (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
James V. King	....	additional camera operator: final sequence (uncredited)

Music Department
Carmen Dragon	....	conductor
Jerry Irvin	....	music editor

Other crew
Irva Mae Ross	....	script supervisor (as Irva Ross)

Production Companies

• Walter Wanger Productions

Distributors

• Allied Artists Pictures (1956) (USA) (theatrical)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1957) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Artisan Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (West Germany) (VHS)
• Media Home Entertainment (198?) (USA) (VHS) (as Nostalgia Merchant)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Sleep No More
They Came from Another World (USA) (working title)
Walter Wanger's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | West Germany:16 | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #17567)

Filming Locations:

1200 N. Virgil Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Walter Wanger Productions

Trivia:

Only $15,000 of the budget was spent on special effects.

Goofs:

Continuity: Water stains on the planks in the mine.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dr. Harvey Bassett: Oh, Doctor Hill.
Dr. Hill: Dr. Basset. Well, where's the patient?
Dr. Harvey Bassett: I hated to drag you out of bed at this time of night. You'll soon see why I did.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bob Came from Outer Space (2000) (V)

Siegel's classic paranoia flick still gives me the creeps.

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is most famous as a thinly veiled Communist allegory, with its emotionless pod people, 'a malignant disease, slowly taking over the country', as leading man Kevin McCarthy (whose surname just can't be coincidental) puts it. And, thanks to Siegel's craft, it is an effective thriller. One can't help but be effected by McCarthy's desperate attempts to alert his fellow Americans to the threat, before it's too late.

The film is presented to us as a flashback, with McCarthy explaining the take-over of his town to the extremely sceptical authorities. This is a brilliant device as, unlike with most flashback narratives (especially those in film noir), we don't know how the film will resolve itself. Whereas noir flashbacks begin at the end of the story in order to create a sense of foreboding, Bodysnatchers reverses this, creating an uncertainty that contributes to the central theme of paranoia.

The film is beautifully photographed in crisp, 1950s monochrome. There is an interesting contrast between this photorealism, and the more artificial aspects of the cinematography – dark shadows cast across faces etc – which is suggestive of the duality of the inhabitants of the small Californian town. My favourite scene is McCarthy's striking address to camera in the final act, which must be one of the earliest examples of breaking the fourth wall in film (in Hollywood at least, if not cinema in general), and is one of the most memorable images in screen history.

While the running time doesn't allow for much character development, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is a thrilling film, turning human beings into cold, unfeeling monsters. Whether you agree with its politics or not won't have any effect on your enjoyment of this science fiction classic.