Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 7.9
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates. Director:Don Siegel |
|
| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 7.9
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates. Director:Don Siegel |
|
| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Kevin McCarthy | ... | ||
| Dana Wynter | ... | ||
|
|
Larry Gates | ... | |
|
|
King Donovan | ... | |
| Carolyn Jones | ... |
Theodora 'Teddy' Belicec
|
|
|
|
Jean Willes | ... |
Nurse Sally Withers
|
|
|
Ralph Dumke | ... |
Police Chief Nick Grivett
|
|
|
Virginia Christine | ... | |
|
|
Tom Fadden | ... |
Uncle Ira Lentz
|
|
|
Kenneth Patterson | ... | |
|
|
Guy Way | ... |
Officer Sam Janzek
|
|
|
Eileen Stevens | ... |
Anne Grimaldi
|
|
|
Beatrice Maude | ... |
Grandma Grimaldi
|
|
|
Jean Andren | ... |
Eleda Lentz
|
|
|
Bobby Clark | ... |
Jimmy Grimaldi
|
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>
This is one of the great movie allegories. Yes, it is an allegory on the McCarthy era. Yes, it is an allegory on conformist America. But it is also an allegory on the evils of communism and fascism. Yes, it is a plea for sanity and individualism, for creativity and artistic freedom. And again yes it is a great directorial achievement for Don Siegel. All that aside it is also an entertaining film that does what any great movie should do, it moves. The dialog is not stilted or full of clichés. It is original and insightful without becoming preachy. Was Kevin McCarthy chosen because his name was McCarthy and the film runs counter to McCarthism? I think he was chosen because he was one of the gifted actors of the 1950's whose talents were not fully realized by the film industry. His fellow actors and actresses in the movie shared the same fate. The movie is also a top notch thriller, as good as any Hitchcock. When you're talking about the films of the 1950's that help define the period only a few come to mind: "The Wild One," "Rebel Without A Cause," and "Bad Day at Black Rock" are often cited. But "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is the one to study. It epitomizes the American outlook and cold war hysteria of the era as no other film from the decade does.