Dr Miles Bennell returns his small town practice to find several of his patients suffering the paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are impostors. He is initially skeptical, especially when the alleged dopplegängers are able to answer detailed questions about their victim's lives, but he is eventually persuaded that something odd has happened and determines to find out what is causing this phenomenon. This film can be seen as a paranoid 1950s warning against those Damn Commies or, conversely, as a metaphor for the tyranny of McCarthyism (or the totalitarian system of Your Choice) and has a pro- and epilogue that was forced upon Siegel by the studio to lighten the tone.
Written by Mark Thompson <mrt@oasis.icl.co.uk>
Becky and Miles paraphrase Shakespeare twice. "I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows" is from A Midsummer Night's Dream. "That way madness lies" is from King Lear.
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Goofs
Continuity:
Water stains on the planks in the mine.
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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. See more »