Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Approved  |   |  Horror, Sci-Fi  |  5 February 1956 (USA)
7.8
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.8/10 from 32,830 users  
Reviews: 204 user | 139 critic

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

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay), (Collier's magazine serial), 1 more credit »
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

On Disc

at Amazon

1 win. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

In San Francisco, a group of people discover the human race is being replaced one by one, with clones devoid of emotion.

Director: Philip Kaufman
Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum
Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

Director: Robert Wise
Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe
Action | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

The film adaptation of the H.G.Wells story told on radio of the invasion of Earth by Martians.

Director: Byron Haskin
Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.

Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks
Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness
The Blob (1958)
Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

An alien lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.

Directors: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., Russell S. Doughten Jr.
Stars: Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe
Them! (1954)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

Director: Gordon Douglas
Stars: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
The Fly (1958)
Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A scientist has a horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device.

Director: Kurt Neumann
Stars: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price
Certificate: Passed Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

When Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.

Director: Jack Arnold
Stars: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent
Frankenstein (1931)
Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses.

Director: James Whale
Stars: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff
Comedy | Drama | Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein (goaded by an even madder scientist) builds his monster a mate.

Director: James Whale
Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive
Adventure | Fantasy | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

A man's vision for an utopian society is disillusioned when travelling forward into time reveals a dark and dangerous society.

Director: George Pal
Stars: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux
Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse.

Director: George A. Romero
Stars: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
Larry Gates ...
King Donovan ...
...
Jean Willes ...
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
Edit

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. Written by Mark Thompson <mrt@oasis.icl.co.uk>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

"Something is happening! Send your men of science quick!" The panic stricken cry went over the phone to Washington D. C. until the lines went dead!...... See more »

Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

5 February 1956 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

The Body Snatchers  »

Box Office

Budget:

$417,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

Production Designer Ted Haworth was probably the most livid about the studio's tampering. He wrote a letter to Allied Artists' head Steve Broidy, telling him Allied Artists was destroying the picture. Haworth had been Alfred Hitchcock's art director on Strangers on a Train (1951) and I Confess (1953), and he told Broidy that Hitchcock would have given his eyeteeth to have made a picture that frightening. See more »

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. See more »

Quotes

Wilma Lentz: There's no emotion. None. Just the pretense of it. The words, the gesture, the tone of voice, everything else is the same, but not the feeling.
See more »

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. See more »

Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: The Book Job (2011) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Classic chiller
27 March 2007 | by (Boston, MA) – See all my reviews

A doctor comes to a hospital on a late night call to hear a man whom everybody else deems insane. The doctor persuades the man to be patient and tell his story. The man then tells the doctor about how a small California town has been invaded by some sort of alien seeds that grow into human clones...

Coming straight from the McCarthy era and general Cold War paranoia this is one scary movie. There is not a gun fired, not a drop of gore shed but the final effect of the film will stay with you for a good while. More contemporary film viewers might recognize the concept from John Carpenter's "The Thing" which itself was an update of the 1951 film. However, the themes of paranoia and tension are just as nail-biting and intense here.

There is a lack of visual punch that so many people are used to today, but just think of the historical context and the implications, basically use your mind! Then you'll see why the film scared studio executives so much that they forced Don Siegel to add an intro and outro to help soften the overall effect. It wasn't the best play in the book, but the film remains a great classic chiller. --- 9/10

Not Rated. It would most likely receive a PG from the MPAA, there are several tense moments, though no violence.


13 of 15 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
The missing pod ohara825
Just watched for the first time matthew_548
dick cheney RodneyVervegard
Original Ending sylvienj
Black or white or color??? enfieldboy
novel? Arvn4u
Discuss Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?