ALLIED ARTISTS PICTURES CORPORATION - 1956
80 minutes - Black and White - Superscope
 
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Producer: Walter Wanger
Director: Don Siegel
Writer: Daniel Mainwaring
(from the "Collier's serial" by
Jack Finney, "The Body Snatchers")
Cinematographer: Ellsworth Fredericks
Art Director: Edward "Ted" Haworth
Editor: Robert S. Eisen
Music: Carmen Dragon
Music Editor: Jerry Irvin
Sound Mixer: Ralph Butler
Sound Editor: Del Harris
Special Effects: Milt Rice
Makeup: Emile Lavigne
and Lou LaCava
 
 
CAST OF CHARACTERS
 
Kevin McCarthy ..... Dr. Miles Bennell
Dana Wynter ..... Becky Driscoll
King Donovan ..... Jack Belicec
Caroline Jones ..... Teddy Belicec
Larry Gates ..... Dr. Danny Kaufman, psychiatrist
Everett Glass ..... Dr. Ed Pursey
Jean Willes ..... Sally, Miles' nurse and secretary
Kenneth Patterson ..... Mr. Driscoll, Becky's father
Virginia Christine ..... Wilma Lentz, Becky's cousin
Ralph Dumke ..... Nick Grivett, the police officer
Whit Bissell ..... Dr. Hill from the State Mental Hospital
Richard Deacon ..... Dr. Harvey Bassett
Tom Fadden ..... Uncle Ira Lentz
Sam Peckinpah ..... Charlie Buckholtz, the gaz meter
Dabbs Greer ..... Mac, the gas station attendant
 
PLOTLINE
 
After a medical convention, Dr. Miles Bennell returns to his hometown Santa Mira by train, and, discovers small changes in people behaviors. He later witnesses a monstrous conspiracy against Mankind conceived by alienpods from outer space which substitute people forms during their sleeps and absorb their minds. Scared stiff Dr. Miles Bennell must now warn his fellowmen of the menace at his own risk.
 
QUOTES
 
Dr. Danny Kaufman:
"... Less than a month ago, Santa Mira was like any other town. People with nothing but problems. Then out of the sky came a solution. Seeds, drifting through space for years, took root in a farmer's field. From the seeds came pods which have the power to reproduce themselves in the exact likeness of any form of life."
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"So that's how it began. Out of the sky."
***
 
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"I love Becky. Tomorrow will I feel the same?"
Dr. Danny Kaufman:
"There's no need for love."
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"No emotion? Then you have no feelings, only the instinct to survive... You can't love or be loved, am I right?"
Dr. Danny Kaufman:
"You say it as if it were terrible. Believe me, it isn't. You've been in love before... It didn't last. It never does... Love. Desire. Ambition. Faith. Without them life's so simple, believe me."
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"I don't want any part of it."
Dr. Danny Kaufman:
"You're forgetting something, Miles."
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"What's that?"
Dr. Danny Kaufman:
"You have no choice."
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"I guess we haven't any choice."
Dr. Danny Kaufman:
"Good."
 
***
 
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"Hey, stop! Pull up, will ya?... Pull over to the side of the road... I need your help. Something terrible has happened."
Driver:
"Go on, you're drunk!"
Driver:
"Get out of the street! Get out of here!!"
Driver:
"Go on!"
Voice:
"Are you crazy, you big idiot!"
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"Look! You fools You're in danger! Can't you see? They're after you! They're after all of us! our wives! ... our children... everyone..."
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"They're here already! You're next!"
Dr. Miles Bennell:
"You're next! You're next! You're next! You're next!"
 
COMMENTS
 
The main quality of this science-fiction film lies in its Film Noir look (thanks to cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks) and his horror-oriented approach. Too bad, the Studio adds irrelevant opening and end hospital scenes in order to soften its pessimistic leaning and overtones (Don Siegel's first film title was "Sleep No More"). At first glance, the film looks like a pamphlet on communism. But the director's intentions were to criticize America's mass conformism and conservatism. Director Sam Peckinpah (see "The Wild Bunch") plays a small part: Charlie, the gas meter. On TV, episodes from the fantastic anthology "The Outer Limits" (1963) recycled elements (subversion, paranoia) of the plot in "Corpus Earthling" and "The Invisibles". Both Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter play once in the science-fiction series: "The Invaders" (1967) which is a direct reference to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", especially in the episodes: "Genesis", "The Enemy", "The Spores". Kevin McCarthy starred in the season two episode: "The Watchers" and Dana Wynter in "The Captive". Actors Whit Bissell and Dabbs Greer play in both shows.
 
REMAKES
 
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Director: Philip Kaufman
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum,
Leonard Nimoy, Kevin McCarthy and Don Siegel

***

Body Snatchers (1993)
Director: Abel Ferrara
Cast: Terry Kinney and Meg Tilly
 
LINKS
 
Kevin McCarthy's Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Internet Movie Database
 
BOOK
 
 
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Don Siegel, director
 
edited by Al LaValley
Rutgers Films in Print series volume 14
© 1989 - Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick and London
(232 pages)
ISBN 0-8135-1460-6 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8135-1461-4 (pbk.)
 
To read the contents of the Book: click here

To get the Book, go to:

Amazon.com UK

Robert Foyle Books