Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

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

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

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

Stars:

Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 Grimaldi
Jean Andren	...	Eleda Lentz
Bobby Clark	...	Jimmy Grimaldi

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

small town | delusion | doctor | psychiatrist | cold war | 

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Taglines:

Walter Wanger Creates the Ultimate in Science-Fiction!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 February 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

They Came from Another World

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$417,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Allied Artists Pictures, Walter Wanger Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ranked #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Sci-Fi" in June 2008.

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Goofs

Upon discovering two pods in the trunk of his car after visiting the gas station, the hero pulls them from the trunk and sets them on fire with a highway flare whereupon they burst into flame. Nowhere else in the film is there any suggestion that these pods are flammable nor would they be if germinating into a human replica.

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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.

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Crazy Credits

THE END comes up on the final shot of the film of Miles looking relieved that Dr Hill has believed his story, and is calling the FBI about the alien invasion of Santa Mira.

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Connections

Spoofed in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)

User Reviews

Sci-fi thriller taps into 1950's paranoia

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Aspect ratio: 2.00:1 (Superscope)

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white)

A small Californian town is overrun by alien pods which begin to replicate the inhabitants, prior to spreading their influence across the country - and the world.

Alien invaders masquerading as human beings? Or Communist infiltrators masquerading as aliens masquerading as humans? Don Siegel's clever film not only taps into the paranoia of its era, it also exploits the timeless fear of 'invasion from without' which has sustained dozens of similar horror/sci-fi movies over the years. It's also genuinely frightening in places: The 'unfinished' humanoid pod discovered on a pool table in co-star King Donovan's home, which begins to resemble Donovan and eventually... opens its eyes; the bone-chilling close-up of a major character who has succumbed to the alien's influence during the course of a single kiss; and the famous scene in which hero Kevin McCarthy struggles to convince motorists on a busy highway of the impending catastrophe ("You're next! You're next!"). Simple but never simplistic, and photographed in noirish black and white by ace cameraman Ellsworth Fredericks (SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, PICTURE MOMMY DEAD), the movie earns its place as one of the most memorable genre pieces of the 1950's. Future director Sam Peckinpah has a brief cameo (as Charlie, the meter reader); remade by Philip Kaufman in 1978, and by Abel Ferrara (as BODY SNATCHERS) in 1993, with THE INVASION following in 2007.