Director: Don Siegel
Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter
Snack Report: GH Cretor’s “The Mix,” aka “Crack”
Invasion of the Body Snatchers wasn’t the first Alien Invasion picture to come out of Hollywood, but it’s definitely one of the most talked about. In fact, it’s one of the most successful B-movies of all time.
For years, monsters and mad scientists were the favorite subjects of the horror/sci-fi genre, but moviegoers of the 50s just couldn’t get enough of invaders from outer space. It was indeed the Golden Age of Space Alien movies. Even my hero, Ed Wood, jumped on that bandwagon with Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).
Some aliens were benevolent and wanted to help the people of Earth, like Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). But more often than not, they most certainly didn’t have our best interests at heart.
Why were people so interested in this particular subgenre at that time?
In the 1950s, the postwar political climate in America was tense, and paranoia was rampant. The new fear was not so much of physical conquest, but invasion of a different kind – the undermining of our institutions, the fear of dehumanization and loss of identity. Communists were hiding under every bed, and UFO sightings were epidemic.
What exactly is the real message of Body Snatchers? That’s a good question, and it’s been a subject for debate for the 60+ years since it was released. Is it a cautionary tale about America being assimilated by godless robot-like Commie pod people and their hive mind? (The hero is played by a guy named (Kevin) McCarthy! Coincidence?) Or is it about the danger of “groupthink?” Maybe it’s about the destruction of the human race by an infectious organism.
Essentially, people interpreted the film whatever way suited them. For what it’s worth, director Don Siegel later claimed he had no political agenda in mind.
For a movie that inspires such paranoia (I’ll bet a lot of people went straight home from the theater and checked their basements!), Invasion of the Body Snatchers is surprisingly low-key. There’s no gore, no violence, and no monsters (unless you count the pods), yet there’s plenty of tension and suspense and some good old-fashioned body horror.
Kevin McCarthy is perfectly cast as Dr. Miles Bennell, the quintessential small-town doctor who heroically battles the alien threat. The story opens as he’s being examined by a shrink in a hospital emergency room. He’s trying to tell them about the pods, but of course no one will listen. Before they drag him off to the rubber room, however, they allow him to tell his story in flashbacks.
Dr. Bennell returns home from a medical convention after an urgent call from his receptionist. The people of Santa Mira are behaving very strangely… showing up at the office in a panic, making appointments and then canceling them. And some of the townspeople are making crazy statements, claiming that their relatives are not themselves.
He consults with the town’s only psychiatrist, who blames their strange behavior on “mass epidemic hysteria.” What could cause this? He thinks it’s a reaction to “what’s going on in the world today.”
Indeed, on following up, his patients who were so agitated about their relatives are all fine now. So maybe it’s nothing…
Until Miles gets a call from his friend Jack to check out something that just appeared on his pool table. It’s a man (at least it looks humanoid) but is strangely… unfinished. Its half-formed features are smooth and generic like a mannequin’s, and it has no fingerprints. But it’s structurally almost identical to Jack, even down to a cut on its palm.
Later, in a particularly unsettling scene, they witness two giant seed pods bursting open, spewing out a milky liquid to revealing two more duplicates, covered in a sticky, bubbly goo… and one of them looks like Miles.
Miles and Becky realize that aliens have seeded the Earth with these pods, which then assimilate the life force of a victim while they sleep and then take on their physical form. The resulting pod person looks and sounds just like the real thing but devoid of emotion and autonomy. And when the duplication is complete, the real person is destroyed, and the pod person takes their place.
Because the transformation takes place during sleep, your only hope is to stay awake – if you doze off even just for a moment, you’re done for.
As more and more of the townspeople are replaced, the town is a busy hive of activity, with trucks full of fresh pods arriving to be distributed to other towns to spread the invasion.
Miles and Becky are found out, but they manage to escape. Will they be able to sound the alarm and stop the alien takeover? In the original ending of the film… let’s just say it’s not looking good. The studio was afraid the original ending was too bleak, so they made Siegel add a prologue and epilogue that offered some hope for humanity.
Back in their 1950s heyday, the motto of Alien Invasion movies was “Watch the skies!” – a warning that the saucer men were coming. But tonight’s film suggests something even scarier: The aliens are already here, they look like us, and they walk among us.
Some interesting Body Snatchers trivia:
- Although it’s considered one of the best sci-fi/horror films of all time, Invasion of the Body Snatchers didn’t win any awards.
- Sam Peckinpah, revered director of Western films, appeared in a cameo as a meter reader. He also served as a dialogue coach and contributed to the screenplay
- Walter Wanger, the film’s producer, spent some time behind bars in the early 50s for attempted murder of his wife’s lover.
- Kevin McCarthy had a long and distinguished career, but I will always remember him as evil TV station owner RJ Fletcher in Weird Al Yankovic’s UHF (1989).
