Invasion From Within

Released in '56, 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' is an intelligent and insightful sci-fi/horror film dealing with the topic of an alien invasion from another planet perpetrated in a most unexpected and highly original way.

Kevin McCarthy stars as Dr. Miles Bennel, resident physican in the small California town of Santa Mira. Something strange begins to take place to the residents of this tight-knit community. People begin to change seemingly overnight. They look the same and retain all the knowledge and memories as before, yet they are somehow different. They appear less friendly, more secretive and completely lacking in human emotion.

They are being taken over one by one by an alien presence in the form of some kind of otherworldly vegetation that fell to Earth and into Santa Mira. This vegetation grows into large human sized pods that replicate the physical form of any human sleeping nearby. Once asleep the alien presence takes over the body and the human as we knew them now ceases to exist. It is an invasion without guns or armies, it's an invasion from within.

Will Dr. Bennel and his girlfriend Becky (Dana Wynter) be able to stay awake long enough to escape from Santa Mira and warn the surrounding towns and cities of the approaching threat?

This film is a classic! Storyline, Acting (Kevin McCarthy is amazing), Emotional Impact, First-Rate All The Way!

CHILLING FILM ABOUT AN UNSEEN ENEMY

IN A NUTSHELL: WHAT IF KEVIN McCARTHY's NIGHTMARE WAS REAL?

Well, there is the plot, in a nutshell. Something has happened in the small town of Santa Mera - BUT WHAT?

Hysteria that builds and is told in flashback form by Dr. Bennel [Kevin McCarthy] seems to be too out-of-this-world to be true, but it is! That's the terrifying truth of the movie, "they're here all already", shouted Bennel, adding, "you're next -- you're next [fade-out to flashback framing device].

But what does it all mean? Many people have speculated, now it is your turn -- YOU'RE NEXT?

WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT: WARNING - MANY MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

When people insist that "My father is NOT my father", or "my mother is NOT my mother", is the person making this statement insane or is something real happening? But what could be happening? Could alien invaders be replacing our families without us knowing it with cosmic imposters? To what end? Could Becky really have become one of them, right in front of Dr. Bennel's eyes?

In the end, why should anyone believe Dr. Hill [Whit Bissell], in the studio's attempt to give the audience hope. Is help really coming?

--* THE PLAYERS --*

Kevin McCarthy - Dr. Miles Bennel
Dana Wynter - Becky Driscoll
Larry Gates - Dr. Dan Kauffmann
King Donovan - Jack
Carolyn Jones - Theodore
Whit Bissell - Dr. Hill
Jean Willes - Sally
Ralph Dumke - Nick
Virginia Christine - Wilma Lentz
Tom Fadden - Uncle Ira Lentz
Kenneth Patterson - Driscoll
Guy Way - Sam Janzek
Eileen Stevens - Mrs. Grimaldi
Beatrice Maude - Grandma
Jean Andren - Aunt Eleda Lentz
Everett Glass - Pursey
Dabbs Greer - Mac
Pat O'Malley - Man Carrying Baggage
Guy Rennie - Proprietor
Bobby Clark - Jimmy Grimaldi
Richard Deacon - Dr. Harvey Bassett
Sam Peckinpah - Charlie (meter reader)
Harry Vejar - With Man Carrying Baggage

--* THE PRODUCTION CREDITS --*

Don Siegel - Director
Walter Wanger - Producer
Jack Finney - Book Author
Daniel Mainwaring - Screenwriter
Ellsworth Fredericks - Cinematographer
Carmen Dragon - Composer (Music Score)
Robert S. Eisen - Editor

ABOUT THE DVD: LETTERBOXED OR FULLSCREEN INCLUDED ON REMASTERED DVD

Sounds great - looks great, but the only features are the old trailer and an 8-minute interview with kevin Mc Carthy as a guest on a 1980s television talk show.

BOTTOM LINE: BELIEVABLY ACTED AND ECONOMICALLY WRITTEN - THIS IS A 5 STAR THRILLER

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is believably acted and economically written, which helps make it a 5 star thriller. However, it is Kevin Mc Carthy as the apparent maniac doctor and Dana Wynter as his love interest turned pod that really keep this story on track and the audience connected to it. This is a film that never seems to get old and the remakes are just not able to capture the performances of the leads. By all means, see this film, this 1956 edition on DVD is best.

Essential science-fiction cinema

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is an eminently watchable flick in its own right and one of the essential science-fiction movies of the 1950s -- along with THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, FORBIDDEN PLANET, and THEM! There are others we love (I myself have a great and abiding fondness for I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE, and some folks swear by WAR OF THE WORLDS), but these five, though they did not exhaust the genre (as Hollywood understood the genre), certainly defined it during their decade and well into the 1960s, until 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.