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INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
by Eric Lindbom
Sleep and die! That’s the terrifying danger faced by the inhabitants of sleepy fictional town Santa Maria, California, in director Don Siegel’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. While countless horror movies have spurred insomnia in young viewers, this iconic masterpiece demands that its characters stay awake. Even by partaking in a catnap, they’ll be replaced by pods from outer space that will supplant them with replicants with their memories intact, but none of their emotions.
Kevin McCarthy makes an intense, believable hero as Miles J. Benell, a small-town doctor who suddenly confronts a rash of patients suffering their twist on impostor syndrome, claiming their loved ones are someone else. While Miles would rather spend time with old flame Becky (an excellent Dana Wynter), his pal Jack Belicec (King Donovan) urges him to visit his home. There, they find a body with no facial expressions that starts to slowly resemble Belicec.
By the time the three discover the puffy pods and piece together the threat, the townspeople are being rapidly replaced. Miles and Becky go on the run and hide out until she, too, transforms in an eerie scene after being unable to keep the sandman at bay. Miles, now driven half mad, is on his own.
INVASION was born as a serialized story in Collier’s magazine by Jack Finney, and the adaptation by screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring has a mature intelligence rare in ‘50s sci-fi. Taut and intense, it’s arguably the high point of director Siegel’s career, which says plenty since he later helmed tough, enduring action films including the legendary DIRTY HARRY for Clint Eastwood. Filmed in black and white by cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks, there’s a documentary quality, and its lack of dated special effects makes INVASION remarkably fresh for contemporary viewers.
An independent film, Siegel was allowed plenty of creative leverage by producer Walter Wanger. To the chagrin of both, distributor Allied Artists found the original ending, with Miles seemingly crying wolf to disbelieving drivers on a highway, too downbeat. They forced Siegel to add a prologue and epilogue with McCarthy telling his story to a pair of psychiatrists played by normally comic actor Richard Deacon and ever stoic Whit Bissell (a ‘50s regular who played the mad doctor who created the title monsters in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN). Since they come to believe him, some think these adds water down the film. In 1979, new prints appeared with those book ends excised to maintain Siegel and Finney’s original vision. Still, most prints have the prologue and epilogue, and few seem perturbed.
While pod people have entered the vernacular, paranoia emerges in any word association with INVASION. The McCarthy many contemporary observers link to the film isn’t Kevin (despite his defining performance) but Joseph, the Wisconsin Republican Senator who ushered in the Red Scare of the late ‘40s into the ‘50s. Finney and Siegel denied this overtly political interpretation, with the director claiming INVASION is about the fear of not fitting in. Still, since its pod people are cold conformists, it’s hard not to view INVASION’s intent, even subconsciously, as a rebel yell against the button-down Eisenhower era.
Taken purely at face value, INVASION’s stature has grown over the decades. It invariably ranks among the ‘50s greatest sci-fi films on various lists (including one by the American Film Institute that polled 1,500 industry creatives). Along with THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, it’s also one of the few from the era that cuts it as pure horror.
In 1978, director Philip Kaufman made a potent remake featuring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy with a New Age, self-help twist. Few can forget the shocking final shot in which a replicated Sutherland turns on Veronica Cartwright with a shrill scream. Less remembered is the ‘90s remake, BODY SNATCHERS, which director Abel Ferrara set at an army base. The setting, at least, provided an intriguing twist on the dilemma of identifying pod people in an environment defined by following orders. Siegel’s INVASION stands tall against both.
Eric Lindbom is a hardcore horror buff with a strong stomach, weaned on the Universal classics from the ’30s and ’40s. He’s written film and/or music reviews for City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, LA WEEKLY, Request magazine and Netflix. He co-edits triggerwarningshortfiction.com, a site specializing in horror, fantasy and crime short stories with illustrations by co-editor John Skewes. He lives in Los Angeles.
