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STARS...
Kevin McCarthy,
Dana Wynter, Carolyn Jones, King Donovan, Larry Gates, and Sam Peckinpah.
PLOT SUMMARY...
A town doctor stumbles upon a plot to replace humans with look-alike
pods.
QUICK SCAN...
This film could be compared to "Strange Invaders". Kevin
McCarthy is believable as the town's doctor. A scene where McCarthy
realizes that his girlfriend, Dana Wynter, is now a pod person is a
film highlight. Although critics have long believed the film has a political
bent, Director Don Siegel always claimed otherwise. You'll decide for
yourself!
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DIRECTOR: Don Siegel
YEAR & RATING: 1956 (NR)
BEST BETS:
Strange Invaders
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)
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SYNOPSIS...
A small boy tells the town doctor that his parents aren't really his parents
any more. Later he retracts his story. The doc hears the same kind of
odd stories from some of the adults in town.
The doc discovers a strange, huge seed pod in a friend's greenhouse. When
one of the pods starts to turn into his friend, it is destroyed. More
and more people in town become pod people.
The doc's girlfriend is replaced by a pod person. The doc runs out on
the highway, warning motorists of the alien menace. |
Review:
Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, based on the Jack Finney
novel, is an effective, oddly disturbing Sci-Fi yarn.
Kevin McCarthy ("Inner Space") is believable as a small town's
doctor who discovers the town's people are being replaced by alien pod
creatures. The revulsion on his face, when he kisses his girlfriend
and realizes she has been replaced by a pod creature, seems real, thanks
to Siegel's incisive direction.
Dana Wynter ("Sink the Bismark") is classy and bright as McCarthy's
up scale girlfriend. The viewer comes to care for her, so we're as disturbed
as McCarthy when she turns out to be a pod person!
King Donovan is effective as Jack, a writer friend of McCarthy's. Carolyn
Jones, later to become world famous as Morticia on "The Adams Family"
television show, is sharp and sophisticated as Donovan's wife.
Film writers have, over the years, claimed that the film's story, about
ordinary people being taken over by emotionless pods, was a comment
on the rabid anti-communist fervor that swept America in the 50's, led
by Senator Joe McCarthy. Some have labeled the film pro-McCarthy, others
anti-McCarthy. In interviews, Director Siegel claimed the film was apolitical,
and that he wasn't commenting on McCarthyism one way or another.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS should be rather watchable for most Sci-Fi
viewers. Alien invasion fans should dig this movie.
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