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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

February 22, 2023

This article is about the 1956 film. For the 1978 adaptation, see Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 film). For the ZX Spectrum computer game, see Invasion of the Body Snatchas!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film noir style. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney's 1954 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers.[2] The film was released by Allied Artists Pictures as a double feature with the British science fiction film The Atomic Man (and in some markets with Indestructible Man).[3]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDon Siegel
Screenplay byDaniel Mainwaring
Based onThe Body Snatchers
1954 stories in Collier's
by Jack Finney
Produced byWalter Wanger
Starring
CinematographyEllsworth Fredericks
Edited byRobert S. Eisen
Music byCarmen Dragon
Production
company
Distributed byAllied Artists Pictures
Release date
  • February 5, 1956 (1956-02-05) (United States)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$416,911[1]
Box office$3 million

The film's storyline concerns an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira. Alien plant spores have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods, each one capable of producing a visually identical copy of a human. As each pod reaches full development, it assimilates the physical traits, memories, and personalities of each sleeping person placed near it until only the replacement is left; these duplicates, however, are devoid of all human emotion. Little by little, a local doctor uncovers this "quiet" invasion and attempts to stop it.

The slang expression "pod people" that arose in late 20th-century U.S. culture refers to the emotionless duplicates seen in the film.[2] Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[4][5]

Plot

A psychiatrist, Dr. Hill, is called to the emergency room of a Los Angeles hospital, where a highly agitated man is being held in custody. The man identifies himself as a doctor, and recounts, in flashback, the events leading up to his arrest and arrival at the hospital.

In the nearby town of Santa Mira, Dr. Miles Bennell sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras delusion, the belief that their relatives have been replaced with identical-looking impostors. Returning from a trip, he meets his former girlfriend, Becky Driscoll, who has recently come back to town after a divorce. Becky's cousin Wilma expresses the same fear about her Uncle Ira, with whom she lives.

That evening, Miles and Becky are urgently called to the home of Bennell's friend, Jack Belicec, who has found what appears to be a dead body in his home. Inexplicably, it has no discernible facial features or fingerprints. To their horror, within a short period of time it begins to take on the exact physical features of Belicec. Later, another body is found in Becky's basement that is her exact duplicate. When Bennell calls psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kauffman to the scene, the bodies have mysteriously disappeared.

The following night, Bennell, Becky, Jack, and Jack's wife Teddy again find duplicates of themselves, emerging from giant seed pods in Bennell's greenhouse. They conclude that the townspeople are being replaced while asleep with exact physical copies. Bennell tries to make a long-distance call to federal authorities, but the phone operator claims that the lines are all busy and he cannot be put through, so Jack and Teddy drive off to seek help in the next town. Bennell and Becky soon realize that all of the town's inhabitants have been replaced and are devoid of any sort of humanity. They hide at Bennell's office for the night, vowing to stay awake so as not to be replaced by their duplicates.

The next morning, truckloads of the giant pods arrive in the town center. They listen as police chief Nick Grivett directs the others to take them to neighboring towns to be planted and used to replace their populations. Kauffman and Belicec, both of whom are now also "pod people", arrive at Bennell's office with new pods for Becky and Bennell. They reveal that an extraterrestrial life form is responsible for the invasion. After their takeover, humanity will lose all emotions and sense of individuality, creating a simplistic, bleak world.

After scuffling with and knocking out the aliens (Kauffman, Belicec, and Grivett), Bennell and Becky escape from the office. Outside, they pretend to be emotionless pod people. After seeing a dog dart out into traffic, Becky screams and her reaction exposes their humanity. A town alarm is sounded and the couple flee on foot, pursued by the pod people.

Exhausted, they manage to escape and hide in an abandoned mine outside town, struggling to stay awake. Later, they hear music, and Bennell leaves Becky briefly to investigate. Over a hill, he sees a large greenhouse farm with hundreds of giant seed pods being loaded onto trucks. Bennell returns to tell Becky. Upon kissing her, Bennell realizes, to his horror, that she fell asleep before he returned and is now one of them. Becky sounds the alarm as Bennell runs away. He is again chased, and eventually finds himself on a crowded highway. After seeing a transport truck bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles filled with the pods, he frantically screams at the passing motorists, "They're here already! You're next! You're next!"

Back at the hospital, Bennell finishes his story. Dr. Hill and the on-duty doctor step outside the room, the latter expressing his certainty that Bennell is psychotic. Just then, a truck driver is wheeled into the hall on a gurney after having been badly injured in an accident. It turns out that the man had to be dug out from under a load of giant pods coming from Santa Mira. Finally believing Bennell's story, Dr. Hill alerts the police to block the roads in and out of Santa Mira; the film ends with Bennell relieved as Hill calls the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Cast

 
In this colorized still from the film; the principal cast (clockwise from top center), Carolyn Jones as Teddy, Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Miles Bennell, King Donovan as Jack Belicec, and Dana Wynter as Becky Driscoll, discover the pods growing.
Starring
Featuring
With

Production

Novel and screenplay

Jack Finney's novel ends with the extraterrestrials, who have a life span of no more than five years, leaving Earth after they realize that humans are offering strong resistance, despite having little reasonable chance against the alien invasion.[2]

Budgeting and casting

Invasion of the Body Snatchers was originally scheduled for a 24-day shoot and a budget of US$454,864. The studio later asked Wanger to cut the budget significantly. The producer proposed a shooting schedule of 20 days and a budget of $350,000.[6]

Initially, Wanger considered Gig Young, Dick Powell, Joseph Cotten, and several others for the role of Miles. For Becky, he considered casting Anne Bancroft, Donna Reed, Kim Hunter, Vera Miles, and others. With the lower budget, however, he abandoned these choices and cast Richard Kiley, who had just starred in The Phenix City Story for Allied Artists.[6] Kiley turned the role down and Wanger cast Kevin McCarthy, an Academy Award nominee five years earlier for Death of a Salesman, and relative newcomer Dana Wynter, who had done several major dramatic roles on television.[7]

Future director Sam Peckinpah had a small part as Charlie, a meter reader. Peckinpah was a dialogue coach on five Siegel films in the mid-1950s, including this one.[8]

Principal photography

Originally, producer Wanger and Siegel wanted to film Invasion of the Body Snatchers on location in Mill Valley, California, the town just north of San Francisco, that Jack Finney described in his novel.[6] In the first week of January 1955, Siegel, Wanger, and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring visited Finney to talk about the film version and to look at Mill Valley. The location proved too expensive, and Siegel with Allied Artist executives, found locations resembling Mill Valley in the Los Angeles area, including Sierra Madre, Chatsworth, Glendale, Los Feliz, Bronson, and Beachwood Canyons, all of which went on to make up the fictional town of "Santa Mira" for the film.[6] In addition to these outdoor locations, much of the film was shot in the Allied Artists studio on the east side of Hollywood.[2]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers was shot by cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks in 23 days between March 23 and April 27, 1955. The cast and crew worked a six-day week with Sundays off.[6] The production went over schedule by three days because of the night-for-night shooting that Siegel wanted. Additional photography took place in September 1955, filming a frame story on which the studio had insisted (see Original intended ending). The final budget was $382,190.[2]

Post-production

The project was originally named The Body Snatchers after the Finney serial.[9] However, Wanger wanted to avoid confusion with the 1945 Val Lewton film The Body Snatcher. The producer was unable to come up with a title and accepted the studio's choice, They Come from Another World and that was assigned in summer 1955. Siegel objected to this title and suggested two alternatives, Better Off Dead and Sleep No More, while Wanger offered Evil in the Night and World in Danger. None of these were chosen, and the studio settled on Invasion of the Body Snatchers in late 1955.[9] The film was released at the time in France under the mistranslated title "L'invasion des profanateurs de sépultures" (literally: Invasion of the defilers of tombs), which remains unchanged today.[10]

Wanger wanted to add a variety of speeches and prefaces.[11] He suggested a voice-over introduction for Miles.[12] While the film was being shot, Wanger tried to get permission in England to use a Winston Churchill quotation as a preface to the film. The producer sought out Orson Welles to voice the preface and a trailer for the film. He wrote speeches for Welles' opening on June 15, 1955, and worked to persuade Welles to do it, but was unsuccessful. Wanger considered science fiction author Ray Bradbury instead, but this did not happen, either.[12] Mainwaring eventually wrote the voice-over narration himself.[9]

The studio scheduled three film previews on the last days of June and the first day of July 1955.[12] According to Wanger's memos at the time, the previews were successful. Later reports by Mainwaring and Siegel, however, contradict this, claiming that audiences could not follow the film and laughed in the wrong places. In response the studio removed much of the film's humor, "humanity" and "quality," according to Wanger.[12] He scheduled another preview in mid-August that also did not go well. In later interviews Siegel pointed out that it was studio policy not to mix humor with horror.[12]

Wanger saw the final cut in December 1955 and protested the use of the Superscope aspect ratio.[9] Its use had been included in early plans for the film, but the first print was not made until December. Wanger felt that the film lost sharpness and detail. Siegel originally shot Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Superscope was a post-production laboratory process designed to create an anamorphic print from non-anamorphic source material that would be projected at an aspect ratio of 2.00:1.[9][13]

Original intended ending

Both Siegel and Mainwaring were satisfied with the film as shot. The original ending did not include the flashback framing, and ended with Miles screaming as truckloads of pods pass him on the road.[11] The studio, wary of a pessimistic conclusion, insisted on adding a prologue and epilogue suggesting a more optimistic outcome to the story, leading to the flashback framing. In this version, the film begins with Bennell in custody in a hospital emergency ward, telling a consulting psychiatrist (Whit Bissell) his story. In the closing scenes, pods are discovered at a highway accident, confirming Bennell's warning, and the authorities are alerted, likely stopping the pod distribution and resolving the extraterrestrial threat.[2]

Mainwaring scripted this framing story and Siegel shot it on September 16, 1955, at the Allied Artists studio.[9] In a later interview Siegel complained, "The film was nearly ruined by those in charge at Allied Artists who added a preface and ending that I don't like".[14] In his autobiography Siegel added that "Wanger was very much against this, as was I. However, he begged me to shoot it to protect the film, and I reluctantly consented [...]".[15]

While the Internet Movie Database states that the film had been revised to its original ending for a re-release in 1979,[16] Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique magazine notes that the film was still being shown with the complete footage, including a 2005 screening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoring director Don Siegel.[17]

Although most reviewers disliked it, George Turner (in American Cinematographer)[18] and Danny Peary (in Cult Movies)[19] endorsed the subsequently added frame story. Nonetheless, Peary emphasized that the added scenes changed significantly what he saw as the film's original intention.[citation needed]

Theatrical release

When the film was released domestically in February 1956, many theaters displayed several pods made of papier-mâché in theater lobbies and entrances, along with large lifelike black and white cutouts of McCarthy and Wynter running away from a crowd. The film earned more than $1 million in the first month, and in 1956 alone earned more than $2.5 million in the U.S.[2] When the film was released in the U.K. (with cuts imposed by the British censors[20]) in late 1956, the film earned more than a half million dollars in ticket sales.[9]

Themes

Some reviewers saw in the story a commentary on the dangers facing the United States for turning a blind eye to McCarthyism. Leonard Maltin wrote of a McCarthy-era subtext,[21] or of bland conformity in postwar Eisenhower-era America. Others viewed it as an allegory for the loss of personal autonomy and individualism in the Soviet Union or communist systems in general.[22]

For the BBC, David Wood summarized the circulating popular interpretations of the film as follows: "The sense of post-war, anti-communist paranoia is acute, as is the temptation to view the film as a metaphor for the tyranny of the McCarthy era."[23] Danny Peary in Cult Movies pointed out that the studio-mandated addition of the framing story had changed the film's stance from anti-McCarthyite to anti-communist.[19] Michael Dodd of The Missing Slate has called the movie "one of the most multifaceted horror films ever made", arguing that by "simultaneously exploiting the contemporary fear of infiltration by undesirable elements as well as a burgeoning concern over homeland totalitarianism in the wake of Senator Joseph McCarthy's notorious communist witch hunt, it may be the clearest window into the American psyche that horror cinema has ever provided".[24]

In An Illustrated History of the Horror Film, Carlos Clarens saw a trend manifesting itself in science fiction films, dealing with dehumanization and fear of the loss of individual identity, being historically connected to the end of "the Korean War and the well publicized reports of brainwashing techniques".[25] Comparing Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, Brian Neve found a sense of disillusionment rather than straightforward messages, with all three films being "less radical in any positive sense than reflective of the decline of [the screenwriters'] great liberal hopes".[26]

Despite a general agreement among film critics regarding these political connotations of the film, actor Kevin McCarthy said in an interview included on the 1998 DVD release that he felt no political allegory was intended. The interviewer stated that he had spoken with the author of the novel, Jack Finney, who professed no specific political allegory in the work.[27]

In his autobiography, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History, Walter Mirisch writes: "People began to read meanings into pictures that were never intended. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an example of that. I remember reading a magazine article arguing that the picture was intended as an allegory about the communist infiltration of America. From personal knowledge, neither Walter Wanger nor Don Siegel, who directed it, nor Dan Mainwaring, who wrote the script nor original author Jack Finney, nor myself saw it as anything other than a thriller, pure and simple".[28]

Don Siegel spoke more openly of an existing allegorical subtext, but denied a strictly political point of view: "[...] I felt that this was a very important story. I think that the world is populated by pods and I wanted to show them. I think so many people have no feeling about cultural things, no feeling of pain, of sorrow. [...] The political reference to Senator McCarthy and totalitarianism was inescapable but I tried not to emphasize it because I feel that motion pictures are primarily to entertain and I did not want to preach".[29] Film scholar J.P. Telotte wrote that Siegel intended for pods to be seductive; their spokesperson, a psychiatrist, was chosen to provide an authoritative voice that would appeal to the desire to "abdicate from human responsibility in an increasingly complex and confusing modern world."[30]

Reception

Critical reception

Though Invasion of the Body Snatchers was largely ignored by critics on its initial run,[18] Filmsite.org ranked it as one of the best films of 1956.[31] The film holds a 98% approval rating and 9/10 rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site's consensus reads: "One of the best political allegories of the 1950s, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an efficient, chilling blend of sci-fi and horror".[32]

In recent years critics such as Dan Druker of the Chicago Reader have called the film a "genuine Sci-Fi classic".[33] Leonard Maltin described Invasion of the Body Snatchers as "influential, and still very scary".[21] Time Out called the film one of the "most resonant" and "one of the simplest" of the genre.[34] Mark Steyn described it as “a big film”, despite its limited budget.[35]

Legacy

Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[36] In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres — after polling more than 1,500 people from the creative community. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the science fiction genre.[37] The film was also placed on AFI's AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding films.[38]

The film was included on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[39] Similarly, the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 29th scariest film ever made.[40] IGN ranked it as the 15th best sci-fi picture.[41] Time magazine included Invasion of the Body Snatchers on their list of 100 all-time best films,[42] the top 10 1950s Sci-Fi Movies,[43] and Top 25 Horror Films.[44] In 1999, Entertainment Weekly listed it as the 53rd best movie of all-time.[45] Similarly, the book Four Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time placed the movie at #60.[46]

Home media

The film was released on DVD in 1998 by U.S.-label Republic (an identical re-release by Artisan followed in 2002); it includes the Superscope version plus a 1.375:1 Academy ratio version. The latter is not the original full frame edition, but a pan and scan reworking of the Superscope edition that loses visual detail.[citation needed]

DVD editions exist on the British market (including a computer colorized version), German market (as Die Dämonischen) and Spanish market (as La Invasión de los Ladrones de Cuerpos).[citation needed]

Several Blu-ray Disc versions have been released including two bare-bones Blu-ray Disc editions by Olive Films in 2012 and German company Al!ve (under the title Die Dämonischen) in 2018.[47] Sinister Films released a Blu-ray in Italy on March 18, 2014. This version, under the title L'Invasione degli Ultracorpi, contained many special features including an interview with lead actor Kevin McCarthy and the 1957 Studio One episode entitled "The Night America Trembled", an unreleased filmed reconstruction of the famous Orson Welles radio transmission "War of the Worlds", starring Ed Asner, James Coburn, and Warren Beatty. Olive Films subsequently released a special edition Blu-ray in 2018, containing extensive bonus features including several featurettes, two Audio Commentaries, one with film historian Richard Harland Smith and a second with actors Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, and filmmaker Joe Dante, and a 1985 archival interview with actor Kevin McCarthy.

Subsequent adaptations

There have been three subsequent adaptations of The Body Snatchers: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1993), and The Invasion (2007).

An untitled fourth adaptation from Warner Bros. is in development. David Leslie Johnson was signed to be the screenwriter.[48]

It briefly inspired Assimilate (2019) which is also inspired by The Body Snatchers of the same name.

The film was the basis for the 2013 science fiction comedy The World's End and it has inspired two TV series, ABC's Invasion (2005 TV series), Apple TV+'s Invasion (2021 TV series), and a subplot in Netflix's Another Life (2019 TV series).

Related works

Robert A. Heinlein had previously developed this subject in his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters, written in 1950. The Puppet Masters was later plagiarized as the 1958 film The Brain Eaters, and adapted under contract in the 1994 film The Puppet Masters.

There are several thematically related works that followed Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, including Val Guest's Quatermass 2 and Gene Fowler's I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

A Looney Tunes parody of the film was released, entitled Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (1992). The adaptation was directed by Greg Ford and places Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Porky Pig in the various roles of the story.

In 2018 theater company Team Starkid created the musical parody The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, the story of a Midwestern town that is overtaken by a singing alien hivemind. The musical parodies numerous horror and musical tropes, while the main character also wears within the show a suit reminiscent of Bennell's wardrobe.

The May 1981 issue of National Lampoon featured a parody titled "Invasion of the Money Snatchers"; the gentile population of Whiteville is taken over by pastrami sandwiches from outer space and turned into Jews.[49]

The film was also parodied in the 2012 SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Planet of the Jellyfish" (referencing Planet of the Vampires and Planet of the Apes) featuring characters from Bikini Bottom being replaced by alien clones in their sleep.[50]

Further reading

  • Grant, Barry Keith. 2010. Invasion of the body snatchers. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Bernstein 2000, p. 446.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Warren 1982[page needed]
  3. ^ McGee, Mark Thomas; Robertson, R.J. (2013). "You Won't Believe Your Eyes". Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-273-2. Page 254
  4. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  5. ^ "25 Films Added to National Registry". The New York Times. 1994-11-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  6. ^ a b c d e LaValley 1989, p. 25.
  7. ^ LaValley 1989, pp. 25-26.
  8. ^ Weddle 1994, pp. 116–119.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g LaValley 1989, p. 26.
  10. ^ Badmington, Neil (November 2010). "Pod almighty!; or, humanism, posthumanism, and the strange case of Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Textual Practice. 15 (1): 5–22. doi:10.1080/09502360010013848. S2CID 170827979.
  11. ^ a b LaValley 1989, p. 125.
  12. ^ a b c d e LaValley 1989, p. 126.
  13. ^ Hart, Martin. "Superscope." 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine The American WideScreen Museum, 2004. Retrieved: January 13, 2015.
  14. ^ Lovell, Alan (1975). Don Siegel: American Cinema. British Film Institute. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-85170-047-2.
  15. ^ Siegel 1993[page needed]
  16. ^ "Alternate versions: 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'." 2010-09-17 at the Wayback Machine IMDb. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  17. ^ Biodrowski, Steve. "Review: Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Archived 2017-08-22 at Wikiwix Cinefantastiqueonline.com. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  18. ^ a b Turner, George. "A Case of Insomnia". American Cinematographer (American Society of Cinematographers), Hollywood, March 1997.
  19. ^ a b Peary 1981[page needed]
  20. ^ "'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'." 2012-08-29 at the Wayback Machine BBFC Web site. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  21. ^ a b Maltin's 2009, p. 685.
  22. ^ Carroll, Noel. "[...] it is the quintessential Fifties image of socialism", Soho News, December 21, 1978.
  23. ^ Wood, David. "'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'." 2009-01-29 at the Wayback Machine BBC, May 1, 2001. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  24. ^ Dodd,Michael. "Safe Scares: How 9/11 caused the American Horror Remake Trend (Part One)." 2014-10-11 at the Wayback Machine TheMissingSlate.com, August 31, 2014. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  25. ^ Clarens 1968[page needed]
  26. ^ Neve 1992[page needed]
  27. ^ McMullen, E. C. Jr. "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers movie review". Feo Amante's Horror Thriller. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  28. ^ Mirisch 2008, pp. 39–40.
  29. ^ Interview with Don Siegel in Alan Lovell: Don Siegel. American Cinema, London 1975.
  30. ^ Telotte, J. P. (1983). "Human Artifice and the Science Fiction Film". Film Quarterly. University of California Press. 36 (3): 44–51. doi:10.2307/3697349. ISSN 0015-1386. JSTOR 3697349.
  31. ^ "The Greatest Films of 1956." 2010-11-13 at the Wayback Machine AMC Filmsite.org. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  32. ^ "Movie Reviews, Pictures: 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'." 2010-09-16 at the Wayback Machine Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved: February 9, 2016.
  33. ^ Druker, Dan. "'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'." 2013-05-20 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Reader. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  34. ^ "'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'." 2009-02-02 at the Wayback Machine Time Out (magazine). Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  35. ^ "'Review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers'."
  36. ^ "Award Wins and Nominations: 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'," 2011-05-15 at the Wayback Machine IMDb. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  37. ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10." 2012-03-12 at the Wayback Machine AFI.com. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  38. ^ "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills." 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine AFI. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  39. ^ Bravo.com. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  40. ^ "Chicago Critics' Scariest Films." 2015-06-04 at the Wayback Machine AltFilmGuide.com. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  41. ^ Fowler, Matt (January 22, 2020). "The 25 Best Sci Fi Movies". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  42. ^ Schickel, Richard. "All-Time 100 Movies." 2011-08-16 at the Wayback Machine Time, February 12, 2005. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  43. ^ Corliss, Richard. "1950s Sci-Fi Movies." 2009-03-30 at the Wayback Machine Time, December 12, 2008; retrieved January 11, 2015.
  44. ^ "Top 25 Horror Films" 2009-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, Time, October 29, 2007; retrieved January 11, 2015.
  45. ^ "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time by Entertainment Weekly". www.filmsite.org. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  46. ^ Kinn, Gail (2003). Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time. ISBN 1579123155.
  47. ^ "DVD Savant Blu-ray Review: Invasion of the Body Snatchers". www.dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2018-08-16.
  48. ^ McNary, Dave (19 July 2017). "'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' Remake in the Works at Warner Bros". variety.com. from the original on 6 November 2017.
  49. ^ National Lampoon (May 1981) 2017-10-13 at the Wayback Machine at the Grand Comics Database
  50. ^ Are You Happy Now?/Planet of the Jellyfish (Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy), Tom Kenny, Rodger Bumpass, Dee Bradley Baker, Bill Fagerbakke, United Plankton Pictures, 2012-03-31, retrieved 2021-02-08{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Bibliography

  • Bernstein, Matthew. Walter Wanger: Hollywood Independent. St. Paul, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-52008-127-7.
  • Clarens, Carlos. An Illustrated History of the Horror Film. Oakville, Ontario, Canada: Capricorn Books, 1968. ISBN 978-0-39950-111-1.
  • LaValley, Al. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-81351-461-1.
  • Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2009. New York: New American Library, 2009 (originally published as TV Movies, then Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide), First edition 1969, published annually since 1988. ISBN 978-0-451-22468-2.
  • Mirisch, Walter. I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. ISBN 0-299-22640-9.
  • Neve, Brian. Film and Politics in America: A Social Tradition. Oxon, UK: Routledge, 1992. ISBN 978-0-41502-620-8.
  • Peary, Danny. Cult Movies: The Classics, the Sleepers, the Weird, and the Wonderful. New York: Dell Publishing, 1981. ISBN 978-0-385-28185-0.
  • Siegel, Don. A Siegel Film. An Autobiography. London: Faber & Faber, 1993. ISBN 978-0-57117-831-5.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
  • Weddle, David. If They Move ... Kill 'Em! New York: Grove Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8021-3776-8.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) at IMDb
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the TCM Movie Database
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) at AllMovie
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the American Film Institute Catalog
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers essay by Robert Sklar at National Film Registry [1]
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 512-513 [2]
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is available for free download at the Internet Archive
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) at Rotten Tomatoes
  • "Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for Our Times," by John W. Whitehead, Gadfly Online, November 26, 2001; discusses the political themes of the original film
  • McCarthyism and the Movies
  • Comparison of novel to the first three film adaptations
  • Ann Hornaday, "The 34 best political movies ever made" The Washington Post Jan. 23, 2020, ranked #17

February 22, 2023
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This article is about the 1956 film For the 1978 adaptation see Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 film For the ZX Spectrum computer game see Invasion of the Body Snatchas Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter The black and white film was shot in Superscope and in the film noir style Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney s 1954 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers 2 The film was released by Allied Artists Pictures as a double feature with the British science fiction film The Atomic Man and in some markets with Indestructible Man 3 Invasion of the Body SnatchersTheatrical release posterDirected byDon SiegelScreenplay byDaniel MainwaringBased onThe Body Snatchers1954 stories in Collier sby Jack FinneyProduced byWalter WangerStarringKevin McCarthy Dana Wynter Larry Gates King Donovan Carolyn JonesCinematographyEllsworth FredericksEdited byRobert S EisenMusic byCarmen DragonProductioncompanyWalter Wanger ProductionsDistributed byAllied Artists PicturesRelease dateFebruary 5 1956 1956 02 05 United States Running time80 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 416 911 1 Box office 3 millionThe film s storyline concerns an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira Alien plant spores have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods each one capable of producing a visually identical copy of a human As each pod reaches full development it assimilates the physical traits memories and personalities of each sleeping person placed near it until only the replacement is left these duplicates however are devoid of all human emotion Little by little a local doctor uncovers this quiet invasion and attempts to stop it The slang expression pod people that arose in late 20th century U S culture refers to the emotionless duplicates seen in the film 2 Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally historically or aesthetically significant 4 5 Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Novel and screenplay 3 2 Budgeting and casting 3 3 Principal photography 3 4 Post production 3 5 Original intended ending 3 6 Theatrical release 4 Themes 5 Reception 5 1 Critical reception 5 2 Legacy 6 Home media 7 Subsequent adaptations 8 Related works 9 Further reading 10 See also 11 References 11 1 Notes 11 2 Bibliography 12 External linksPlot EditA psychiatrist Dr Hill is called to the emergency room of a Los Angeles hospital where a highly agitated man is being held in custody The man identifies himself as a doctor and recounts in flashback the events leading up to his arrest and arrival at the hospital In the nearby town of Santa Mira Dr Miles Bennell sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras delusion the belief that their relatives have been replaced with identical looking impostors Returning from a trip he meets his former girlfriend Becky Driscoll who has recently come back to town after a divorce Becky s cousin Wilma expresses the same fear about her Uncle Ira with whom she lives That evening Miles and Becky are urgently called to the home of Bennell s friend Jack Belicec who has found what appears to be a dead body in his home Inexplicably it has no discernible facial features or fingerprints To their horror within a short period of time it begins to take on the exact physical features of Belicec Later another body is found in Becky s basement that is her exact duplicate When Bennell calls psychiatrist Dr Dan Kauffman to the scene the bodies have mysteriously disappeared The following night Bennell Becky Jack and Jack s wife Teddy again find duplicates of themselves emerging from giant seed pods in Bennell s greenhouse They conclude that the townspeople are being replaced while asleep with exact physical copies Bennell tries to make a long distance call to federal authorities but the phone operator claims that the lines are all busy and he cannot be put through so Jack and Teddy drive off to seek help in the next town Bennell and Becky soon realize that all of the town s inhabitants have been replaced and are devoid of any sort of humanity They hide at Bennell s office for the night vowing to stay awake so as not to be replaced by their duplicates The next morning truckloads of the giant pods arrive in the town center They listen as police chief Nick Grivett directs the others to take them to neighboring towns to be planted and used to replace their populations Kauffman and Belicec both of whom are now also pod people arrive at Bennell s office with new pods for Becky and Bennell They reveal that an extraterrestrial life form is responsible for the invasion After their takeover humanity will lose all emotions and sense of individuality creating a simplistic bleak world After scuffling with and knocking out the aliens Kauffman Belicec and Grivett Bennell and Becky escape from the office Outside they pretend to be emotionless pod people After seeing a dog dart out into traffic Becky screams and her reaction exposes their humanity A town alarm is sounded and the couple flee on foot pursued by the pod people Exhausted they manage to escape and hide in an abandoned mine outside town struggling to stay awake Later they hear music and Bennell leaves Becky briefly to investigate Over a hill he sees a large greenhouse farm with hundreds of giant seed pods being loaded onto trucks Bennell returns to tell Becky Upon kissing her Bennell realizes to his horror that she fell asleep before he returned and is now one of them Becky sounds the alarm as Bennell runs away He is again chased and eventually finds himself on a crowded highway After seeing a transport truck bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles filled with the pods he frantically screams at the passing motorists They re here already You re next You re next Back at the hospital Bennell finishes his story Dr Hill and the on duty doctor step outside the room the latter expressing his certainty that Bennell is psychotic Just then a truck driver is wheeled into the hall on a gurney after having been badly injured in an accident It turns out that the man had to be dug out from under a load of giant pods coming from Santa Mira Finally believing Bennell s story Dr Hill alerts the police to block the roads in and out of Santa Mira the film ends with Bennell relieved as Hill calls the Federal Bureau of Investigation Cast Edit In this colorized still from the film the principal cast clockwise from top center Carolyn Jones as Teddy Kevin McCarthy as Dr Miles Bennell King Donovan as Jack Belicec and Dana Wynter as Becky Driscoll discover the pods growing StarringKevin McCarthy as Dr Miles Bennell Dana Wynter as Becky Driscoll King Donovan as Jack Belicec Carolyn Jones as Theodora Teddy BelicecFeaturingLarry Gates as Dr Dan Kauffman Virginia Christine as Wilma Lentz Ralph Dumke as Police Chief Nick Grivett Kenneth Patterson as Stanley Driscoll Guy Way as Officer Sam Janzek Jean Willes as Nurse Sally Withers Eileen Stevens as Anne Grimaldi Beatrice Maude as Grandma Grimaldi Whit Bissell uncredited as Dr Hill Richard Deacon uncredited as Dr BassettWithBobby Clark as Jimmy Grimaldi Tom Fadden as Uncle Ira Lentz Everett Glass as Dr Ed Pursey Dabbs Greer as Mac Lomax Pat O Malley as Baggage Man Sam Peckinpah as Charlie the Gas Meter ReaderProduction EditNovel and screenplay Edit Jack Finney s novel ends with the extraterrestrials who have a life span of no more than five years leaving Earth after they realize that humans are offering strong resistance despite having little reasonable chance against the alien invasion 2 Budgeting and casting Edit Invasion of the Body Snatchers was originally scheduled for a 24 day shoot and a budget of US 454 864 The studio later asked Wanger to cut the budget significantly The producer proposed a shooting schedule of 20 days and a budget of 350 000 6 Initially Wanger considered Gig Young Dick Powell Joseph Cotten and several others for the role of Miles For Becky he considered casting Anne Bancroft Donna Reed Kim Hunter Vera Miles and others With the lower budget however he abandoned these choices and cast Richard Kiley who had just starred in The Phenix City Story for Allied Artists 6 Kiley turned the role down and Wanger cast Kevin McCarthy an Academy Award nominee five years earlier for Death of a Salesman and relative newcomer Dana Wynter who had done several major dramatic roles on television 7 Future director Sam Peckinpah had a small part as Charlie a meter reader Peckinpah was a dialogue coach on five Siegel films in the mid 1950s including this one 8 Principal photography Edit Originally producer Wanger and Siegel wanted to film Invasion of the Body Snatchers on location in Mill Valley California the town just north of San Francisco that Jack Finney described in his novel 6 In the first week of January 1955 Siegel Wanger and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring visited Finney to talk about the film version and to look at Mill Valley The location proved too expensive and Siegel with Allied Artist executives found locations resembling Mill Valley in the Los Angeles area including Sierra Madre Chatsworth Glendale Los Feliz Bronson and Beachwood Canyons all of which went on to make up the fictional town of Santa Mira for the film 6 In addition to these outdoor locations much of the film was shot in the Allied Artists studio on the east side of Hollywood 2 Invasion of the Body Snatchers was shot by cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks in 23 days between March 23 and April 27 1955 The cast and crew worked a six day week with Sundays off 6 The production went over schedule by three days because of the night for night shooting that Siegel wanted Additional photography took place in September 1955 filming a frame story on which the studio had insisted see Original intended ending The final budget was 382 190 2 Post production Edit The project was originally named The Body Snatchers after the Finney serial 9 However Wanger wanted to avoid confusion with the 1945 Val Lewton film The Body Snatcher The producer was unable to come up with a title and accepted the studio s choice They Come from Another World and that was assigned in summer 1955 Siegel objected to this title and suggested two alternatives Better Off Dead and Sleep No More while Wanger offered Evil in the Night and World in Danger None of these were chosen and the studio settled on Invasion of the Body Snatchers in late 1955 9 The film was released at the time in France under the mistranslated title L invasion des profanateurs de sepultures literally Invasion of the defilers of tombs which remains unchanged today 10 Wanger wanted to add a variety of speeches and prefaces 11 He suggested a voice over introduction for Miles 12 While the film was being shot Wanger tried to get permission in England to use a Winston Churchill quotation as a preface to the film The producer sought out Orson Welles to voice the preface and a trailer for the film He wrote speeches for Welles opening on June 15 1955 and worked to persuade Welles to do it but was unsuccessful Wanger considered science fiction author Ray Bradbury instead but this did not happen either 12 Mainwaring eventually wrote the voice over narration himself 9 The studio scheduled three film previews on the last days of June and the first day of July 1955 12 According to Wanger s memos at the time the previews were successful Later reports by Mainwaring and Siegel however contradict this claiming that audiences could not follow the film and laughed in the wrong places In response the studio removed much of the film s humor humanity and quality according to Wanger 12 He scheduled another preview in mid August that also did not go well In later interviews Siegel pointed out that it was studio policy not to mix humor with horror 12 Wanger saw the final cut in December 1955 and protested the use of the Superscope aspect ratio 9 Its use had been included in early plans for the film but the first print was not made until December Wanger felt that the film lost sharpness and detail Siegel originally shot Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the 1 85 1 aspect ratio Superscope was a post production laboratory process designed to create an anamorphic print from non anamorphic source material that would be projected at an aspect ratio of 2 00 1 9 13 Original intended ending Edit Both Siegel and Mainwaring were satisfied with the film as shot The original ending did not include the flashback framing and ended with Miles screaming as truckloads of pods pass him on the road 11 The studio wary of a pessimistic conclusion insisted on adding a prologue and epilogue suggesting a more optimistic outcome to the story leading to the flashback framing In this version the film begins with Bennell in custody in a hospital emergency ward telling a consulting psychiatrist Whit Bissell his story In the closing scenes pods are discovered at a highway accident confirming Bennell s warning and the authorities are alerted likely stopping the pod distribution and resolving the extraterrestrial threat 2 Mainwaring scripted this framing story and Siegel shot it on September 16 1955 at the Allied Artists studio 9 In a later interview Siegel complained The film was nearly ruined by those in charge at Allied Artists who added a preface and ending that I don t like 14 In his autobiography Siegel added that Wanger was very much against this as was I However he begged me to shoot it to protect the film and I reluctantly consented 15 While the Internet Movie Database states that the film had been revised to its original ending for a re release in 1979 16 Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique magazine notes that the film was still being shown with the complete footage including a 2005 screening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoring director Don Siegel 17 Although most reviewers disliked it George Turner in American Cinematographer 18 and Danny Peary in Cult Movies 19 endorsed the subsequently added frame story Nonetheless Peary emphasized that the added scenes changed significantly what he saw as the film s original intention citation needed Theatrical release Edit When the film was released domestically in February 1956 many theaters displayed several pods made of papier mache in theater lobbies and entrances along with large lifelike black and white cutouts of McCarthy and Wynter running away from a crowd The film earned more than 1 million in the first month and in 1956 alone earned more than 2 5 million in the U S 2 When the film was released in the U K with cuts imposed by the British censors 20 in late 1956 the film earned more than a half million dollars in ticket sales 9 Themes EditSome reviewers saw in the story a commentary on the dangers facing the United States for turning a blind eye to McCarthyism Leonard Maltin wrote of a McCarthy era subtext 21 or of bland conformity in postwar Eisenhower era America Others viewed it as an allegory for the loss of personal autonomy and individualism in the Soviet Union or communist systems in general 22 For the BBC David Wood summarized the circulating popular interpretations of the film as follows The sense of post war anti communist paranoia is acute as is the temptation to view the film as a metaphor for the tyranny of the McCarthy era 23 Danny Peary in Cult Movies pointed out that the studio mandated addition of the framing story had changed the film s stance from anti McCarthyite to anti communist 19 Michael Dodd of The Missing Slate has called the movie one of the most multifaceted horror films ever made arguing that by simultaneously exploiting the contemporary fear of infiltration by undesirable elements as well as a burgeoning concern over homeland totalitarianism in the wake of Senator Joseph McCarthy s notorious communist witch hunt it may be the clearest window into the American psyche that horror cinema has ever provided 24 In An Illustrated History of the Horror Film Carlos Clarens saw a trend manifesting itself in science fiction films dealing with dehumanization and fear of the loss of individual identity being historically connected to the end of the Korean War and the well publicized reports of brainwashing techniques 25 Comparing Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Robert Aldrich s Kiss Me Deadly and Orson Welles Touch of Evil Brian Neve found a sense of disillusionment rather than straightforward messages with all three films being less radical in any positive sense than reflective of the decline of the screenwriters great liberal hopes 26 Despite a general agreement among film critics regarding these political connotations of the film actor Kevin McCarthy said in an interview included on the 1998 DVD release that he felt no political allegory was intended The interviewer stated that he had spoken with the author of the novel Jack Finney who professed no specific political allegory in the work 27 In his autobiography I Thought We Were Making Movies Not History Walter Mirisch writes People began to read meanings into pictures that were never intended The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an example of that I remember reading a magazine article arguing that the picture was intended as an allegory about the communist infiltration of America From personal knowledge neither Walter Wanger nor Don Siegel who directed it nor Dan Mainwaring who wrote the script nor original author Jack Finney nor myself saw it as anything other than a thriller pure and simple 28 Don Siegel spoke more openly of an existing allegorical subtext but denied a strictly political point of view I felt that this was a very important story I think that the world is populated by pods and I wanted to show them I think so many people have no feeling about cultural things no feeling of pain of sorrow The political reference to Senator McCarthy and totalitarianism was inescapable but I tried not to emphasize it because I feel that motion pictures are primarily to entertain and I did not want to preach 29 Film scholar J P Telotte wrote that Siegel intended for pods to be seductive their spokesperson a psychiatrist was chosen to provide an authoritative voice that would appeal to the desire to abdicate from human responsibility in an increasingly complex and confusing modern world 30 Reception EditCritical reception Edit This section needs expansion You can help by adding to it November 2016 Though Invasion of the Body Snatchers was largely ignored by critics on its initial run 18 Filmsite org ranked it as one of the best films of 1956 31 The film holds a 98 approval rating and 9 10 rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes The site s consensus reads One of the best political allegories of the 1950s Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an efficient chilling blend of sci fi and horror 32 In recent years critics such as Dan Druker of the Chicago Reader have called the film a genuine Sci Fi classic 33 Leonard Maltin described Invasion of the Body Snatchers as influential and still very scary 21 Time Out called the film one of the most resonant and one of the simplest of the genre 34 Mark Steyn described it as a big film despite its limited budget 35 Legacy Edit Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally historically or aesthetically significant 36 In June 2008 the American Film Institute revealed its Ten top Ten the best ten films in ten classic American film genres after polling more than 1 500 people from the creative community Invasion of the Body Snatchers was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the science fiction genre 37 The film was also placed on AFI s AFI s 100 Years 100 Thrills a list of America s most heart pounding films 38 The film was included on Bravo s 100 Scariest Movie Moments 39 Similarly the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 29th scariest film ever made 40 IGN ranked it as the 15th best sci fi picture 41 Time magazine included Invasion of the Body Snatchers on their list of 100 all time best films 42 the top 10 1950s Sci Fi Movies 43 and Top 25 Horror Films 44 In 1999 Entertainment Weekly listed it as the 53rd best movie of all time 45 Similarly the book Four Star Movies The 101 Greatest Films of All Time placed the movie at 60 46 Home media EditThe film was released on DVD in 1998 by U S label Republic an identical re release by Artisan followed in 2002 it includes the Superscope version plus a 1 375 1 Academy ratio version The latter is not the original full frame edition but a pan and scan reworking of the Superscope edition that loses visual detail citation needed DVD editions exist on the British market including a computer colorized version German market as Die Damonischen and Spanish market as La Invasion de los Ladrones de Cuerpos citation needed Several Blu ray Disc versions have been released including two bare bones Blu ray Disc editions by Olive Films in 2012 and German company Al ve under the title Die Damonischen in 2018 47 Sinister Films released a Blu ray in Italy on March 18 2014 This version under the title L Invasione degli Ultracorpi contained many special features including an interview with lead actor Kevin McCarthy and the 1957 Studio One episode entitled The Night America Trembled an unreleased filmed reconstruction of the famous Orson Welles radio transmission War of the Worlds starring Ed Asner James Coburn and Warren Beatty Olive Films subsequently released a special edition Blu ray in 2018 containing extensive bonus features including several featurettes two Audio Commentaries one with film historian Richard Harland Smith and a second with actors Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter and filmmaker Joe Dante and a 1985 archival interview with actor Kevin McCarthy Subsequent adaptations EditThere have been three subsequent adaptations of The Body Snatchers Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 Body Snatchers 1993 and The Invasion 2007 An untitled fourth adaptation from Warner Bros is in development David Leslie Johnson was signed to be the screenwriter 48 It briefly inspired Assimilate 2019 which is also inspired by The Body Snatchers of the same name The film was the basis for the 2013 science fiction comedy The World s End and it has inspired two TV series ABC s Invasion 2005 TV series Apple TV s Invasion 2021 TV series and a subplot in Netflix s Another Life 2019 TV series Related works EditRobert A Heinlein had previously developed this subject in his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters written in 1950 The Puppet Masters was later plagiarized as the 1958 film The Brain Eaters and adapted under contract in the 1994 film The Puppet Masters There are several thematically related works that followed Finney s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers including Val Guest s Quatermass 2 and Gene Fowler s I Married a Monster from Outer Space A Looney Tunes parody of the film was released entitled Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers 1992 The adaptation was directed by Greg Ford and places Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Elmer Fudd Yosemite Sam and Porky Pig in the various roles of the story In 2018 theater company Team Starkid created the musical parody The Guy Who Didn t Like Musicals the story of a Midwestern town that is overtaken by a singing alien hivemind The musical parodies numerous horror and musical tropes while the main character also wears within the show a suit reminiscent of Bennell s wardrobe The May 1981 issue of National Lampoon featured a parody titled Invasion of the Money Snatchers the gentile population of Whiteville is taken over by pastrami sandwiches from outer space and turned into Jews 49 The film was also parodied in the 2012 SpongeBob SquarePants episode Planet of the Jellyfish referencing Planet of the Vampires and Planet of the Apes featuring characters from Bikini Bottom being replaced by alien clones in their sleep 50 Further reading EditGrant Barry Keith 2010 Invasion of the body snatchers New York Palgrave Macmillan See also EditList of American films of 1956References EditNotes Edit Bernstein 2000 p 446 a b c d e f g Warren 1982 page needed McGee Mark Thomas Robertson R J 2013 You Won t Believe Your Eyes Bear Manor Media ISBN 978 1 59393 273 2 Page 254 Complete National Film Registry Listing Library of Congress Retrieved 2020 05 01 25 Films Added to National Registry The New York Times 1994 11 15 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 2020 06 30 a b c d e LaValley 1989 p 25 LaValley 1989 pp 25 26 Weddle 1994 pp 116 119 a b c d e f g LaValley 1989 p 26 Badmington Neil November 2010 Pod almighty or humanism posthumanism and the strange case of Invasion of the Body Snatchers Textual Practice 15 1 5 22 doi 10 1080 09502360010013848 S2CID 170827979 a b LaValley 1989 p 125 a b c d e LaValley 1989 p 126 Hart Martin Superscope Archived 2011 06 29 at the Wayback Machine The American WideScreen Museum 2004 Retrieved January 13 2015 Lovell Alan 1975 Don Siegel American Cinema British Film Institute p 54 ISBN 978 0 85170 047 2 Siegel 1993 page needed Alternate versions Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2010 09 17 at the Wayback Machine IMDb Retrieved January 11 2015 Biodrowski Steve Review Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2017 08 22 at Wikiwix Cinefantastiqueonline com Retrieved January 11 2015 a b Turner George A Case of Insomnia American Cinematographer American Society of Cinematographers Hollywood March 1997 a b Peary 1981 page needed Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2012 08 29 at the Wayback Machine BBFC Web site Retrieved January 11 2015 a b Maltin s 2009 p 685 Carroll Noel it is the quintessential Fifties image of socialism Soho News December 21 1978 Wood David Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2009 01 29 at the Wayback Machine BBC May 1 2001 Retrieved January 11 2015 Dodd Michael Safe Scares How 9 11 caused the American Horror Remake Trend Part One Archived 2014 10 11 at the Wayback Machine TheMissingSlate com August 31 2014 Retrieved January 11 2015 Clarens 1968 page needed Neve 1992 page needed McMullen E C Jr Invasion Of The Body Snatchers movie review Feo Amante s Horror Thriller Retrieved 2022 08 28 Mirisch 2008 pp 39 40 Interview with Don Siegel in Alan Lovell Don Siegel American Cinema London 1975 Telotte J P 1983 Human Artifice and the Science Fiction Film Film Quarterly University of California Press 36 3 44 51 doi 10 2307 3697349 ISSN 0015 1386 JSTOR 3697349 The Greatest Films of 1956 Archived 2010 11 13 at the Wayback Machine AMC Filmsite org Retrieved January 11 2015 Movie Reviews Pictures Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2010 09 16 at the Wayback Machine Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved February 9 2016 Druker Dan Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2013 05 20 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Reader Retrieved January 11 2015 Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2009 02 02 at the Wayback Machine Time Out magazine Retrieved January 11 2015 Review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers Award Wins and Nominations Invasion of the Body Snatchers Archived 2011 05 15 at the Wayback Machine IMDb Retrieved January 11 2015 AFI s 10 Top 10 Archived 2012 03 12 at the Wayback Machine AFI com Retrieved January 11 2015 AFI s 100 Years 100 Thrills Archived 2011 07 16 at the Wayback Machine AFI Retrieved January 11 2015 Bravo s The 100 Scariest Movie Moments Bravo com Retrieved January 11 2015 Chicago Critics Scariest Films Archived 2015 06 04 at the Wayback Machine AltFilmGuide com Retrieved January 11 2015 Fowler Matt January 22 2020 The 25 Best Sci Fi Movies IGN Retrieved January 22 2020 Schickel Richard All Time 100 Movies Archived 2011 08 16 at the Wayback Machine Time February 12 2005 Retrieved January 11 2015 Corliss Richard 1950s Sci Fi Movies Archived 2009 03 30 at the Wayback Machine Time December 12 2008 retrieved January 11 2015 Top 25 Horror Films Archived 2009 04 14 at the Wayback Machine Time October 29 2007 retrieved January 11 2015 The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time by Entertainment Weekly www filmsite org Retrieved 2020 12 04 Kinn Gail 2003 Four Star Movies The 101 Greatest Films of All Time ISBN 1579123155 DVD Savant Blu ray Review Invasion of the Body Snatchers www dvdtalk com Retrieved 2018 08 16 McNary Dave 19 July 2017 Invasion of the Body Snatchers Remake in the Works at Warner Bros variety com Archived from the original on 6 November 2017 National Lampoon May 1981 Archived 2017 10 13 at the Wayback Machine at the Grand Comics Database Are You Happy Now Planet of the Jellyfish Animation Comedy Family Fantasy Tom Kenny Rodger Bumpass Dee Bradley Baker Bill Fagerbakke United Plankton Pictures 2012 03 31 retrieved 2021 02 08 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint others link Bibliography Edit Bernstein Matthew Walter Wanger Hollywood Independent St Paul Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 2000 ISBN 978 0 52008 127 7 Clarens Carlos An Illustrated History of the Horror Film Oakville Ontario Canada Capricorn Books 1968 ISBN 978 0 39950 111 1 LaValley Al Invasion of the Body Snatchers New Brunswick New Jersey Rutgers University Press 1989 ISBN 978 0 81351 461 1 Maltin Leonard Leonard Maltin s Movie Guide 2009 New York New American Library 2009 originally published as TV Movies then Leonard Maltin s Movie amp Video Guide First edition 1969 published annually since 1988 ISBN 978 0 451 22468 2 Mirisch Walter I Thought We Were Making Movies Not History Madison Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Press 2008 ISBN 0 299 22640 9 Neve Brian Film and Politics in America A Social Tradition Oxon UK Routledge 1992 ISBN 978 0 41502 620 8 Peary Danny Cult Movies The Classics the Sleepers the Weird and the Wonderful New York Dell Publishing 1981 ISBN 978 0 385 28185 0 Siegel Don A Siegel Film An Autobiography London Faber amp Faber 1993 ISBN 978 0 57117 831 5 Warren Bill Keep Watching the Skies American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties 21st Century Edition Jefferson North Carolina McFarland amp Company 2009 ISBN 0 89950 032 3 Weddle David If They Move Kill Em New York Grove Press 1994 ISBN 0 8021 3776 8 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Invasion of the Body Snatchers Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 at IMDb Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the TCM Movie Database Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 at AllMovie Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the American Film Institute Catalog Invasion of the Body Snatchers essay by Robert Sklar at National Film Registry 1 Invasion of the Body Snatchers essay by Daniel Eagan in America s Film Legacy The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry A amp C Black 2010 ISBN 0826429777 pages 512 513 2 Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 is available for free download at the Internet Archive Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 at Rotten Tomatoes Invasion of the Body Snatchers A Tale for Our Times by John W Whitehead Gadfly Online November 26 2001 discusses the political themes of the original film McCarthyism and the Movies Comparison of novel to the first three film adaptations Ann Hornaday The 34 best political movies ever made The Washington Post Jan 23 2020 ranked 17 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Invasion of the Body Snatchers amp oldid 1135875667, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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