Invasion of the Body Snatchers
by Don Siegel
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carolyn Jones, Dana Wynter, Kevin McCarthy, King Donovan, Larry GatesDirector: Don Siegel
Brand: Lions Gate
Cinematographer: Ellsworth Fredericks
Editor: Robert S. Eisen
Producer: Walter Mirisch
Writer: Daniel Mainwaring
Writer: Jack Finney
Writer: Richard Collins
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Italian (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-07-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Republic Pictures
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Black & White; Closed-captioned; Dolby; DVD; Full Screen; Letterboxed; Widescreen; NTSC
Movie Reviews of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Movie Review: UNFORGETTABLE BABY-BOOMER SCI-FI/HORROR FLICK SIMPLY A CLASSIC!
Summary: 5 Stars
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS [1956], probably Don Siegel's best film, is simply what great movie-making is supposed to be all about. This is an enduring classic that has held strong against the onslaught of the 'in-your-face' gore & viscera cinema that has inundated our senses since George Romero popped up out of Pittsburgh in 1968. INVASION scared the living daylights out of me as a kid and continues to eerily unsettle me as an adult. This story is about seed pods that "come from the sky" . Once placed in proximity to a person they seem to imbibe that person's phenotype---minus their experiences and emotions---while the person sleeps. The result is that the pod basically 'gives birth' to an exact duplicate of the sleeping beauty minus the moxie, the mirth, the mojo. The real human is extirpated and the emotionally barren replacement---basically an alien---takes over. The new product has no need for love or procreation---not a nice thing. To all you new-generation folk who revel in the carnage of 'Chainsaw/Hills Have Eyes/Hostel'-type features: your in for a disappointment---but your also in for a lesson on the vanishing art of great movie-making. The latter made possible by great direction [those shots!], cinematography [those shadows!], writing [those lines!], and, most importantly, great acting by ALL involved. Devoid of heads flying around or plasma being spilled everywhere, this is an evocative, black-and-white, baby-boomer classic that many of us grew up with. The stark b & w aspect to this movie adds to the strange sense of detachment, alienation and isolation it evokes. The movie begins with Carmen Dragon's sudden-onset foreboding score and a look at some clouds that is downright eerie and other-worldly. Your're then taken to a small town that resembles Mayberry complete with town Doc and everybody knowing everybody---pretty earthbound. Then the fun begins. A 'misbehaving' little boy who doesn't feel mom is mom. A neice who feels her Uncle is not her Uncle. And everybody with a gripe comes to Doc, played wonderfly by Kevin McCarthy. That look on Virginia Christine's face when she describes how her Uncle Ira is NOT Uncle Ira is unsettling. These are the details that make this film so memorable over the years---the looks, the expressions, the innuendoes. How about Larry Gates as the 'alienated' town psychiatrist trying to provide a glib and cogent explanation for the "hysteria" going around. Gates, an excellent, scene-stealing character actor, unforgettable in the classic greenhouse scene in, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT [1967], was a great pick for this flick. His eyes and countenance alone bespeak of pomposity, deceit , aloofness---perfect for a superior alien. His voice makes you sit up straight in your seat, and has a sort of sinister quality. How about the scene in the bar when, after bar-owner & wife fall asleep, a featureless body that looks like the bar-owner shows up on a pool table---then disappears. And the creepy, unconcerned tubby cop who pokes his head through the cellar window to report that the unsubstantiated body was found burning in a haystack miles away. Doc, who has his hands full with questions and complaints, gradually begins to understand that something not of this earth is infesting the countryside. The scene where he suspects girlfriend Becky's [played by Dana Wynter] dad of not being her real dad [he's been working odd late hours in his cellar lately] and the MD decides to go down into the old man's cellar is plain scary---those shadows, those steps, that freezer and those storage bins down there... And how about that 'conceiving' pod ,out in the backyard, bursting out in foam and crud to expulse Doc's replacement. Geez, it's time to hit the caffeine and get out of town. As Doc & Becky flee we bump into Sam Peckinpah and truckloads of pods which are now being systematically distributed to neighboring towns and valleys. Gotta get to the big city now and warn the rest of the world that there seems to be a small problem. The chase scene is harrowing with interesting and atmospheric runs up a rural staircase and hiding under floorboards. Just the pace and cadence of the aliens running up those stairs and the sound of their footsteps as they hit the floorboards conveyed such a disturbing and nefarious sense of group urgency and desperation. The now classic scene where Doc leaves Becky for a moment only to return to awaken her---a great face-to-face closeup of Becky's stoic, alienized countenance and Doc's aghast look---still hits paydirt. Amazing what you can do with a low or modest budget, superb "on" acting and the right moviemakers. Nice how the film is narrated by Doc in retrospect to a group of ER docs who think he's loony only to have his veracity supported when a guy reporting an accident describes a victim found under "..some of the strangest things..looked like seed pods". The look of relief on McCarthy's face as the movie ends is memorable. Noteworthy how, back then, this film appeared to reflect America's tacit fear of change, fear of the atomic era, concern over whether aliens do exist [flying saucer craze], ambivalence regarding the slander and demagoguery of McCarthyism, maybe even worry over the inevitability of desegregation in some parts of the country. Call it the mid-late 50's "5-S" fears of suburbia/sirens/saucers/subversion/deSegregation. Interesting how Doc's emotionally sterile and lifeless aliens are possibly portended caricatures of modern industrialized big-city folk who have become desensitized [dehumanized?] by long work hours, long commutes, the rat race, technology and cyberlife. Indeed, man may be the alien soon. An astute sociologist did once say: man made the city, now the city is remaking man [citation to follow].
Summary of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/16/2005 Run time: 80 minutes Director: Don SiegelSomething's wrong in the town of Santa Mira, California. At first, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is unconcerned when the townsfolk accuse their loved ones of acting like emotionless imposters. But soon the evidence is overwhelming--Santa Mira has been invaded by alien "pods" that are capable of replicating humans and taking possession of their identities. It's up to McCarthy to spread the word of warning, battling the alien invasion at the risk of his own life. Considered one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s and '60s, this classic paranoid thriller was widely interpreted as a criticism of the McCarthy era (that's Senator Joseph, not actor Kevin), which was characterized by anticommunist witch-hunts and fear of the dreaded blacklist. Some hailed it as an attack on the oppressive power of government as Big Brother. However viewers interpret it, this original 1956 version of Invaders of the Body Snatchers (based on Jack Finney's serialized novel The Body Snatchers) remains a milestone movie in its genre, directed by Don Siegel with an inventive intensity that continues to pack an entertaining wallop. Look closely and you'll find future director Sam Peckinpah (an uncredited cowriter of this film) making a cameo appearance as a meter reader! --Jeff Shannon
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