Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

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

Release Date:

5 February 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

... there was nothing to hold onto - except each other.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Delusion | Psychiatrist | Seedpod | Horror Movie Remade

Awards:

1 win

Cast

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 Driscoll
Jean Andren	...	Eleda Lentz
Bobby Clark	...	Jimmy Grimaldi

Also Known As:

Sleep No More
They Came from Another World (USA) (working title)
Walter Wanger's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | West Germany:16 | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #17567)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Walter Wanger Productions

Trivia:

Throughout the years, Sam Peckinpah (who appears briefly in the film as the meter reader) claimed that he had done work on the script ranging from modifications to major overhauls. Those who worked on the film claimed that if Peckinpah had made any changes to the script, it was limited to a few lines of dialog. Peckinpah's claims became so inflated that the actual writer, Daniel Mainwaring, threatened to file an official complaint with the Writers Guild of America, so Peckinpah backed down. When Peckinpah died in 1984, many of his obituaries still carried the claim that he had rewritten the screenplay for this film.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Becky Driscoll parks the car in the used car lot, she hits the right side of the rear car bumper of the other car. You can hear the distinct sound of metal been crushed.

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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Monsterama Sci-Fi Late Night Creature Feature Show Vol. 1 (1996) (V)

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.