Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

According to Hollywood lore, the cast and crew of this film decided to play a practical joke on actress Carolyn Jones during the filming: while she was out of her bungalow, they slipped in and left one of the large seedpods made for the film on her bed. They received a more memorable response than they expected, for when Jones returned to her bungalow for a nap and found the pod she ran screaming out into the street.

And such is the power of this film. There are no major special effects, and for the most part everything looks the way it should in small town America of the 1950s. But the idea it presents and the paranoia it creates is a remarkable, tangible thing.

Loosely based on the novella by Jack Finney and directed by Don Siegel, THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was just a little black and white horror film--but it exploded within America's 1950s subconscious with all the force of an atomic bomb, tapping into fears of everything from Cold War-era communism to a decreasing sense of community to the notorious House Unamerican Activities Committee. And in the process it became one of the most influential horror films ever made, a motion picture that would exert a strong pull on every one from novelist Stephen King to filmmakers like Wolf Rilla.

The story has been told in no fewer than three film versions, but while the Donald Sutherland and the Meg Tilley versions are each quite fine in their own ways, the original remains the most powerful. Dr. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returns to the small California town of Santa Mira from a medical convention--only to discover that several members of the community have developed a strange form of hysteria: they have become convinced that certain friends and relatives are being impersonated by exact duplicates. Bennell brushes this aside as an oddity, but he soon realizes there is more to this than mere hysteria. The people of his small community are indeed being replaced by duplicates--duplicates being spawned by a strange plant-like alien lifeform.

Everything about this film is remarkably fine. The direction is first rate, the script is sharp and intriguing, and the film has a remarkable "everyday" look to it that is gradually subverted by increasing darkness and unexpected camera angles. And the cast is extremely, extremely good. Kevin McCarthy, the beautiful Dana Wynter, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones all give truly amazing performances in the leads, and the overall ensemble is every bit their equal.

The DVD offers the choice of widescreen and standard ratio; apparently it was filmed in standard ratio but later converted to widescreen when that format became the norm. I must say that it works well in either version. The bonuses are slight, including only a brief interview with McCarthy, but it is quite interesting. And the transfer to DVD is extremely good. Even if you already a VHS version of this film, you may find it worth the cost to replace it with this DVD. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is a remarkable movie in many ways. With a relatively small budget a very interesting Sci-Fi / horror film is made. No big visual effects, no Big Stars in the cast, black n' white photography and still a griping story. There are two remakes of this story, they can't stand against the original one, even if they were produced with a bigger budget and known actors.

This is the plot: Dr. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returns to his small home town ready to attend patients. Different consultants tell him of a paranoid syndrome: their relatives seem somehow changed. A couple of days after that, they return to his office and tell him "Everything is OK".

Dr. Bennell and her old times girl friend Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) soon realize the town is being subject to an alien invasion plot. Huge seed are "planted" in basements or garages and evolved in a duplicate of a person (a clone will be called today). As soon as the victim fells asleep is "transformed". The tension grows up as time pass and the characters need to sleep.

Some comments issued around the film pointed out that it may be taken as a parable of the Cold War raging at the time it was released (1956). I think that there are more films of that period, alluding the frightful issue of "They are like us but they are NOT us and they are dangerous", as in "The Thing from another World" (1951) or "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" (1958).

The actress Carolyn Jones (later best known by her impersonation of Morticia at the "Addams Family" TV serial) play a short, but very well enacted, role

A very enjoyable film to be seen.

Duration: 80 minutes.

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Buy Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Now

Don Siegel's film of Jack Finney's classic novel "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" remains a seminal, powerful science fiction classic. Seen as something of a political allergory by many critics in retrospect, director Don Siegel and producer Walter Wagner created a classic film that has continued to influence the genre even six decades later.

Small town doctor Miles (Kevin McCarthy who is marvelous)returns to his hometown after a medical meeting to find that a little boy claims his mother isn't his mother. This isn't an isolated case as his former girlfriend Becky (the stunning Dana Wynter)returns to town to visit her father and tells Miles that her cousin is claiming the same thing about her father. It's almost like a mass delusion is gripping the town (although not identified there is a condition called folie à plusieurs i.e.,"madness of many" a shared delusion that takes root and is passed on). Miles goes along with that explanation until his writer friend (King Donovan)and his wife (Carolyn Jones) FIND a body without finger prints and, while not dead, he isn't alive either. Miles begins to suspect something darker is going on when he begins to notice the change in behavior of his friends.

Olive Films which has adopted lesser known and older Paramount titles for release has done an exceptionally good tranfer for the film. Presented in black & white on a 25g disc in the original Superscope widescreen presentation (which the producer was against...something you might find out IF there was a commentary track by a film scholar or fan of the film), there is some inherent softness to some shots that can't be avoided (it's partially due to the post-production conversion process to the widescreen anamorphic process), but, on the whole, the film looks pretty darn good with nice sharpness and clarity. The encoding here is quite good.I didn't note any problems with flickering.

There is some minor print damage noticeable but the print used for the transfer looks very good aside from those few moments. Even with the minor print damage, "Invasion" has never looked quite so good. Blacks are very good throughout in this presentation and the Blu-ray improves on the previous DVD release.

Audio sounds quite nice with dialogue very clear. I didn't detect any overuse of noise reduction or at the least there's no noise reduction artifacts that I noted.

There aren't any subtitles which is a surprise in this day and age.

The one area that "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is very disappointing is the lack of special features. "Invasion" is a classic film and deserves a commentary track that focuses on the making of the film, the political meaning of the film (as interpreted by various groups over the years). The Republic Pictures DVD included an interview with the late actor Kevin McCarthy (it might have been nice if Olive Films had licensed the interview for this set) and the original theatrical trailer. We get nothing not even the theatrical trailer which is a missed opportunity.

I am happy that Olive Films has taken up many of these films that the major studios have neglected or forgotten about for Blu-ray but I would like to see a greater effort to include some special features either produced for their Blu-ray editions or licensed from other sources. Don't get me wrong without Olive Films I doubt it would have been likely that this film was releasesd on Blu-ray so soon (or at all)but it would be nice to see a bit of extra effort put into these releases.

Recommended for a very nice high def transfer and for the film itself but if you have the previous DVD (which this blows away in terms of image quality)you may want to hold on to it if you're attached to the extras for that edition.

Read Best Reviews of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Here

For those people out there who have not seen this film (or read the excellent book it was based on) a classic sci-fi treat lies in wait to take over your lives and endow you all with a driving need to conform and obey. Or maybe just replace you with a carbon copy replica.

That's right, long before the fear of cloning and internet derived identity theft, the fear of being replaced with a doppleganger consumed the masses, driving them to the brink of hysteria. And moviegoing, let's not forget the rampant moviegoing.

Before the advent (and allowance) of gore and excessive violence film makers were forced to rely on actual storytelling and directing skill to make movies. Case in point: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a film that succeeds because it takes its premise and runs with it, full bore at the audience, and provides one heckuva case of the screaming heebie jeebies.

While this movie is almost always categorized as a sci-fi film I personally view it as a Horror film that takes the "What If?" notion to a still very scary degree.

What if you found out that your friends, neighbors, and loved ones were all being methodically replaced for no apparent reason?

What if you found out that a vast and far reaching conspiracy existed and the conspirators knew that you knew of their existence?

What if you were being hunted?

And finally, the terrifying humdinger that pushes you over the brink: What if no one believed you?

All of these questions are addressed in this film with a flair that was probably more a reflection of the times (need proof, just watch the remake with Jeff Goldblum and Donald Sutherland) then the studio's desire to produce what can be rightfully called a genre masterpiece.

So for anybody who appreciates film and its history, or for anyone who likes to actually be scared by a movie seek out this film.

P.S. Expect a new, better edition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with more bells and whistles in the future, it's long overdue.

Want Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Discount?

This is the original, black-and-white version of the movie. Unlike later movies that focus on gore, this one focusses on actual horror--the fear that one day you will wake up and the people you know will not be who they were, and you may not even know they are changed. Based on the book The Body Snatchers, it focusses on a small town doctor who begins hearing people say that their loved ones are not really their loved ones. From there he is introduced to a dead body that is slowly coming alive before his eyes, and a town...well, you should see it for yourself. This is first-rate speculative fiction, and a must-have classic for your film library.

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