Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Overview

Director Don Siegel's thinly-veiled examination of McCarthy-era hysteria stars Kevin McCarthy (no relation) as Miles Bennell, a California doctor who arrives at a San Francisco hospital in near-hysterical condition, raving about an alien invasion. His story, told in flashback, focuses on Bennell's home in tiny Santa Mira, where he discovers an alien plot to take over earth by methodically replacing humankind with zombie-like pod people.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/17/2012
UPC:	0887090034302
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:20:00
Sales rank:	14,969

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kevin McCarthy	Mile Binnell
Dana Wynter	Becky Driscoll
Larry Gates	Dr. Kauffman
Carolyn Jones	Theodora
King Donovan	Jack
Jean Willes	Sally
Ralph Dumke	Nick
Virginia Christine	Wilma Lentz
Tom Fadden	Uncle Ira
Kenneth Patterson	Stanley Driscoll
Guy Way	Sam Janzek
Eileen Stevens	Mrs. Grimaldi
Beatrice Maude	Grandma
Jean Andren	Aunt Eleda Lentz
Bobby Clark	Jimmy,Jimmy Grimaldi
Everett Glass	Pursey
Dabbs Greer	Mac
Pat O'Malley	Man Carrying Baggage
Guy Rennie	Proprietor
Marie Selland	Martha
Whit Bissell	Dr. Hall
Sam Peckinpah	Charlie Buckholtz
Richard Deacon	Dr. Harvey Bassett
Harry Vejar	With Man Carrying Baggage
Don Siegel	Actor
Carmen Dragon	Composer

Technical Credits

Daniel Mainwaring

Don Siegel	Director
Milt Rice	Special Effects
Walter Wanger	Producer
Daniel Mainwaring	Screenwriter
Ralph Butler	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Though it was an inexpensive production for B-movie studio Allied Artists, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is a class-A 1950s science fiction allegory about the fragility of inner passion. With Siegel's matter-of-fact approach and "ordinary" small town setting and characters, the story about human possession by unexplained alien pods becomes all the more frightening; though the pods are from elsewhere, the "monsters" assume human faces. While the pods have often been seen as a Cold War sci-fi metaphor for Communist infiltration of American society, they are an equally compelling symbol of soul-deadening 1950s suburban conformity. Siegel himself liked to assert that the Hollywood studios were filled with pods; and when Allied Artists saw Siegel's bleak ending, they demanded a prologue and epilogue that added an element of hope. The "Siegel version" of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, however, was seen in Europe and "underground" American screenings, before the 1979 reissue officially deleted the studio-mandated additions. Though it has been remade twice, in 1978 by Philip Kaufman and 1994 by Abel Ferrara, Siegel's tightly constructed, black-and-white version remains the best adaptation of the Jack Finney story. The movie also features a cameo appearance by Siegel assistant Sam Peckinpah.